Wilder Man

Before Nathan Lane and Matthew Broderick, there were Zero Mostel and Gene Wilder, who originated the roles of Max Bialystock and Leo Bloom in Mel Brooks's 1968 film The Producers. In the pre-cable and pre-streaming era, certain local TV stations (like Channel 9 in New York, for one) made the movie a Friday night ritual of sorts; it was shown with sufficient regularity to familiarize viewers with the edgy hysteria the method-trained Wilder would make his trademark over a career that began with a small role in Arthur Penn's Bonnie and Clyde. Watch the scene in which Wilder's Bloom endures the interrogation of Mostel's Bialystock in the course of a review of the business ledgers: the twitchy accountant who initially fears being flattened like Poppea under the heel of Nero grows increasingly intrigued by the possibility of financial payoff in mounting a Broadway flop. It's morally unconscionable, of course, but as a hypothetical accounting exercise it fascinates, and if done just the right way....

Who could pull the scene off in just the way he did? Maybe no one. Wilder, who died of complications from Alzheimer's on Monday, received an Oscar nomination for his role as Bloom, yet that might not have been his best performance.

Add a new comment