Where Hitler Lives Again

The long-legged, high-kicking beauties in Mel Brooks’s The Producers look like any other chorus line of dancers but for a single exception: they are suited out in the black uniforms of the SS. The dance they perform, backed by a second chorus line of Valkyries, is called “Springtime for Hitler” and is meant to be a musical burlesque of Nazi antics. The number mixes mock-politics with female flesh, high spirited farce with showy extravaganza. It finds a parallel in ...