Starring: Zero Mostel, Gene Wilder, Kenneth Mars, Estelle Winwood, Renee Taylor, Christopher Hewett, Lee Meredith, William Hickey, Dick Shawn, Andreas Voutsinas
Director: Mel Brooks
The film: One of the greatest of all cult comedies crossed into the mainstream two years back thanks to the rollicking Tony Award-winning Broadway revival starring Nathan Lane and Matthew Broderick.
Somewhat surprising then that MGM took so long to release a worthy DVD package of this 1968 Academy Award winner for best screenplay (Mel Brooks).
It was also Brooks' first time at the helm and went a long way to establishing his comic template with a tightly scripted, 90-minute slapstick romp that walks a dizzying tightrope between bad taste and biting satire.
The conceit is simple: down-on-his-luck Broadway producer Max Bialystock (Zero Mostel) is paid a visit by idealistic accountant Leo Bloom (Gene Wilder) and the pair devise a scheme to make their fortunes by staging a rolled-gold flop.