This film has not aged as well as The Producers.

Weirdly enough, I say that more for the attitudes it displays towards women - all of the racial comedy is clearly satirical in tone, but often it feels like women are the butt of jokes. In that respect, it’s very much a product of its own time.

That said, there were a lot of laugh-out-loud moments in this film, particularly whenever Mel Brooks was on screen (yes, including his brief moment in brownface, which I was laughing at before I put two and two together). It’s interesting to see Gene Wilder play the foil, here - in the past I’ve only seen him in wackier roles.

The last fifteen minutes or so were genius in the most ridiculous sense possible, and I honestly thought it was just going to unravel; when they pulled it all back together for the closing shots, I was pretty impressed.

Not perfect, but a pretty good shot for 1974.