The great Mel Brooks satire of a supposed to fail musical about Nazis, The Producers, debuts in Berlin. Audiences flock to the much touted musical comedy's opening night...opening night(see Curb Your Enthusiasm). But confusion ensues as German observers fail to recognize the usually hilarious jokes about Springtime for Hitler and Germany.
At a biergarten across the street from the Himmler Winter Garten, the intermission crowd voiced their profound confusion between shots of schnapps and steins of beer:
One German theatergoer was overheard telling his two Teutonic companions that he couldn't make hyde nor hare of the theatrical references to someone called Hitler and the strange militaristic and fascist references to a supposed time in Germanic history.
Another rather ancient gentleman appeared to become disturbed as the satirical musical comedy somehow, in his words, rung a bell for him...a bell that he had hoped would never be heard again... abell that tolls a warning for all the world, was what he called it...
