Max Bialystock (Zero Mostel) is a washed-up, aging Broadway producer whose career has veered from great success to the depths of near failure. He now ekes out a hand-to-mouth existence while romancing lascivious, wealthy elderly women in exchange for money for a "next play" that may never be produced. Bialystock spends time hiding inside his own office to hide from creditors and previous investors, whose money he failed to return. Bialystock has a closet full of framed photographs of old women that he is romancing, and he changes the frame on his office desk depending on which of the women is coming to meet him. Bialystock is long overdue on rent for his office, where he meets all the women and is being hounded by his landlord. Nebbish Leo Bloom (Gene Wilder) is a nervous young accountant prone to hysterics, who arrives at Bialystock's office to do his books. Bloom keeps his small blanket in his pocket, which is also his security cover and goes absolutely hysterical if that blanket is taken away from him. Bloom discovers there is a two-thousand-dollar overcharge in the accounts of Bialystock's last play. Bialystock raised $60,000 from investors and only spent $58,000 on producing the play. This was because he raised more money than he could repay by selling more than 100% of the shares in the potential profits. Bialystock persuades Bloom to hide the relatively minor fraud, by shuffling numbers and begs him not to send him to prison in his old age. Bloom realizes that since a flop is expected to lose money, the IRS will not investigate its finances, so a producer could earn more from a flop than from a hit by overselling interests and embezzling the funds. For the scheme to work the play has to be a guaranteed flop. If the show is a hit, then all the investors would expect a return, and there would never be enough money to pay everyone. This would lead to jail. Bialystock immediately puts this scheme into action. They will over-sell shares again, but on a much larger scale and produce a play that will close on opening night. No one audits the books of a play presumed to have lost money, thus avoiding a pay-out and leaving the duo free to flee to Rio De Janeiro with the profits. Leo is afraid such a criminal venture will fail, and they will go to prison. But Max eventually convinces him that his drab existence is no better than prison. After reading many bad plays, the partners find the obvious choice for their scheme: Springtime for Hitler: A Gay Romp with Adolf and Eva at Berchtesgaden. It is "a love letter to Hitler" written in total sincerity by deranged ex-Nazi Franz Liebkind (Kenneth Mars), whose name is German for "Frank Lovechild". Leo and Max bond with Franz over Schnapps and tell him they want to show the world a positive representation of Hitler. They persuade him to sign over the stage rights, telling him they want to show the world "the Hitler you loved, the Hitler you knew, the Hitler with a song in his heart." Auditions are held for 'Springtime for Hitler'.... with the ad "No experience needed". To guarantee that the show is a flop, they hire Roger De Bris (Christopher Hewett), a flamboyantly gay transvestite director, whose plays "close on the first day of rehearsal". The part of Hitler goes to a charismatic but only semi-coherent, flower power hippie named Lorenzo St. DuBois / L.S.D. (Dick Shawn), who can barely remember his own name and had mistakenly wandered into their theater during the casting call. After Bialystock sells 25,000% of the play to his regular investors (dozens of lustful little old ladies), they are sure they are on their way to Rio. They use some of the money to redecorate the office and hire a new receptionist, Ulla The result of all of this is a cheerfully upbeat and utterly tasteless musical play purporting to be about the happy home life of a brutal dictator. It opens with a lavish production of the title song, "Springtime For Hitler", which celebrates Nazi Germany crushing Europe. At the theater on opening night, Max tries to ensure a harshly negative review by attempting to bribe The New York Times theater critic. Springtime for Hitler has its premiere, which Max and Leo also figure it will be its closing performance. The play starts out as they hoped; There is an opening big musical production number which glorified Hitler and Nazi Germany. The dancers include young women who wear Nazi regalia. Other women wear very little clothing. The entire audience initially reacts with shock and disgust. People walk out. The only person who applauds is beaten. But when L.S.D. appears as a hippie Hitler, the crowd returns to their seats. After initial dumbfounded disbelief, the audience finds L.S.D.'s beatnik-like portrayal (and misunderstanding of the story) to be hilarious and misinterpret the production as a satire. During intermission, some members of the audience come to the bar at which Max and Leo are drinking and rave about the play, much to Max's and Leo's shared horror. The two decide to return to the theater after intermission to hear what the rest of the audience has to say, which echoes what the others already said. Meanwhile, L.S.D.'s portrayal of Hitler enrages and humiliates Franz, who after going behind the stage, untying the cable holding up the curtain, and rushing out on stage confronts the audience and rants about the treatment of his beloved play. However, someone behind the curtain manages to knock him out and remove him from the stage, and the audience assumes that Franz's rant was part of the act. Springtime For Hitler is declared a smash hit, which means, of course, that the investors will be expecting a larger financial return than can be paid out. As the stunned partners turn on each other, they are confronted by a gun-wielding Franz Liebkind, who is enraged and humiliated by L.S.D.'s portrayal of Hitler, accuses them of breaking the "Siegfried Oath". After a reconciliation, the three band together and blow up the theater to end the production. They are injured, arrested, and tried. In spite of Leo's impassioned statement praising Max (while also referring to him as "the most selfish man I have ever met in my life") the jury finds them "incredibly guilty", and they go to prison. In the end, Leo, Max, and Franz go back to producing plays with their fellow inmates ("Prisoners of Love"). Leo Bloom, however, continues the same old scam of overselling shares of the play to the other prisoners (20-30%) and even to the warden (50%). The song is performed while the credits are shown.
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