The Producers (musical) realizes that his job is terrible, quits, and returns to Max ("We Can Do It" (reprise)). The next day, they look for the worst play ever written. Max finds a sure-fire flop that would offend people of all races, creeds and religions: "Springtime for Hitler: A Gay Romp with Adolf and Eva at Berchtesgaden", written by Franz Liebkind, which Max describes as "a love letter to Hitler". They go to the playwright's home in Greenwich Village to get the rights to the play. Ex-Nazi Franz is on the roof of his tenement with his pigeons reminiscing about the grand old
The Producers (1967 film) to cheat theatrical investors by devising a designed-to-fail tasteless Broadway musical about Hitler only 23 years after the end of World War II. Among the most harsh critics were Stanley Kauffmann in "The New Republic," who wrote that "the film bloats into sogginess" and Pauline Kael who called it "amateurishly crude" in "The New Yorker." On the other hand, others considered the film to be a great success. "Time" magazine's reviewers wrote that the film was "hilariously funny" but pointed out that "the film is burdened with the kind of plot that demands resolution" but unfortunately "ends in a whimper