The film stars Zero Mostel as Max Bialystock, the producer and Gene Wilder as Leo Bloo, the accountant and features Dick Shawn as L.S.D., the actor who ends up playing the lead in the Musical within the Movie, Kenneth Mars as the former Nazi Soldier and Playwright, Franz Liebkind, Mickey Rooney as Porky Switzer, a wise-cracking choreographer, Buddy Hackett as Buckwheat McFarland, a dim-witted painter and Dick Van Dyke as Lennie Benjamin, a clumsy critic of The New York Times.