Influences
- Max Bialystock is named after the city of Białystok, Poland. A 'bialystoker' is a roll similar to a bagel.
- Leo Bloom is named for the protagonist of James Joyce's classic novel Ulysses, Leopold Bloom. Leo meets Max on June 16 (Bloomsday), the date on which Ulysses takes place. Bialystock at one point calls Leo "Prince Myshkin", the titular protagonist in Dostoevsky's novel The Idiot.
- In the search for "the worst play ever", Max reads aloud from one of the rejected manuscripts. It is the opening sentence of Kafka's The Metamorphosis, where Gregor Samsa finds himself transformed into a giant verminous bug, and Bialystock dismisses it as "too good". The book was also used as a joke in Mel Brooks' movie Spaceballs: "Prepare for Metamorphosis, are you ready Kafka?".
In a case of life imitating art, however, The Metamorphosis was produced on Broadway (1989), featuring Mikhail Baryshnikov as Gregor and René Auberjonois as Gregor's father. - Roger De Bris (pronounced "debris") is named for the Yiddish term for circumcision.
- Carmen Giya is named after the Volkswagen Karmann Ghia, a popular car in production in 1968.
- The "singing Hitlers" at their audition sing a number of pieces. Mentioned or performed are Lilac Time, "A Wand'ring Minstrel I", "Beautiful Dreamer", and "Largo al factotum" ("della ... città" being all that is heard).
- Siegfried from the Siegfried Oath is the main character in The Ring of the Nibelung by Richard Wagner.
Read more about this topic: The Producers (1968 film)
Famous quotes containing the word influences:
“Professors of literature, who for the most part are genteel but mediocre men, can make but a poor defense of their profession, and the professors of science, who are frequently men of great intelligence but of limited interests and education, feel a politely disguised contempt for it; and thus the study of one of the most pervasive and powerful influences on human life is traduced and neglected.”
—Yvor Winters (1900–1968)
“Nothing changes more constantly than the past; for the past that influences our lives does not consist of what actually happened, but of what men believe happened.”
—Gerald W. Johnson (1890–1980)
“Live in each season as it passes; breathe the air, drink the drink, taste the fruit, and resign yourself to the influences of each. Let them be your only diet drink and botanical medicines.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)