Take the Money and Run (1969)

This is my favorite Woody Allen film. Fill stop.Allen plays a terrible petty criminal. Not terrible as in a bad person, but terrible as in terrible at his... Uh, profession. Describing the plot any further would be a waste of your time and mine, but there are so many great scenes and I do want to mention a couple to intime would-be viewers to sit down and watch the damn thing. Take, for instance, when Allen's character fails to rob a bank because the bankteller couldn't read his handwriting on the note he passed her. What follows is a small gather of bank employees huddled together, trying to decrypt the note while Allen argues with them.In another scene, we find out hero imprisoned. He agrees to some jailhouse experiments in exchange for freedom. The doc injects him with a cure for whatever, then check on him sometime later. He was sitting there, with a huge beard, dressed in Rabbi's garments and explaining Passover to his fellow inmates. Finally, and chronologically firstly, we see Allen's character playing cello in a marching band. The band matches around as Allen run along to keep up with them, before playing the cello for a few seconds then repeating it all. As you can see, the humor in this movie draws on the absurd, and like great absurdist works, it's a pure joy from start to finish.

I'm more a fan of Woody Allen's movies such as Manhattan, Manhattan Murder Mystery, Crimes and Misdemeanors, but I still liked Take the Money and Run. I'd say that it has one of the funniest scenes in movie history! I really laughed out loud (before LOL was an internet invention) when Woody's character and his prison posse attempt an escape all shackled up. This is a masterpiece of acting, editing, and directing. This has to be screened to any acting masterclass. If drama is hard, then really comedy is harder. I wish they had more scenes like this in modern day movies.

A lot of movie-goers believe Christopher Guest's "This is Spinal Tap" directed by Rob Reiner was the first American "mockumentary". A "mockumentary" is a type of fictional film in the format of a non-fiction documentary format with fake interviews and sometimes a voice-over narrator. Most often they spoof some kind of overused subject. While "Spinal Tap" may have been the first "rockumentary", about 15 years previously, Woody Allen produced and released "Take the Money and Run". Much of what happens in Allen's offering is the model by which nearly all subsequent mockumentaries would follow, including many by Christopher Guest. And it still stands as possibly Allen's best pure comedic effort.In the 1950's and 1960's, a number of documentaries produced both for the small and large screens told the stories of criminals. (Guest would later make mockumentaries about music groups, hometown theatre, and dog shows.) "Take the Money and Run", written, directed and starring Woody Allen, spoofs documentaries about criminals for the first-ever mockumentary in the United States, complete with narrator and interviews. The first voice of the film is that of narrator Jackson Beck who made a career of doing voice-overs for such documentaries and television advertisements. The "story" involves hardened criminal Virgil Starkwell (Woody Allen), his life and exploits over the years as a mediocre thief. As one character put it: "You know, he never made the 'ten most wanted' list. It's very unfair voting; it's who you know." Similar to "Monty Python's Flying Circus", all the characters, especially the narrator, play their parts dead-pan. In other words, they pretend what they're doing is serious, even though, in the end, it's quite silly. For example, when narrator Beck announces they will hear interviews of Starkwell's parents, he says in all seriousness they will wear disguises. Then we see the parents wearing plastic Grouch Marx noses and glasses. This is the kind of humour which permeates the entire film. In another famous scene, Starkwell is spending time in a maximum security facility where he must endure extra punishment for breaking the rules: he must spend time in solitary confinement with an insurance salesman."Take the Money and Run" at its essence is a series of interconnected comedy sketches, very similar to the feel of Monty Python. Nearly every bit is roll-over-the-floor hilarious. Often the scene begins somewhat "seriously" until Allen applies a zinger towards the end. Much of the later work of Christopher Guest owes much to Allen's original mockumentary. And apparently, one of Starkwell's criminal associates, Frankie Wolf, is still wanted by authorities for dancing with a mailman.

Favorite Movie quote - "I couldn't believe that this idiot was a criminal!" Though far from being what I would call one of Woody Allen's best comedies, Take The Money And Run, in and of itself, certainly contained its fair share of really marvellous moments, both in its hilarious, rapid-fire one-liners, as well as its priceless, well-timed sight gags that more than just tickled this delighted viewer's funny-bone.Here in his first outing as writer, star and director, Woody Allen plays (as only Woody Allen could possibly play) Virgil Starkwell, a completely hopeless criminal-failure from New Jersey who, at 18, decides to become a pool hustler in order to prove his manhood.Through candid interviews from those who knew him well, we quickly learn the real story of Virgil's pitiful criminal past before he is finally captured by the FBI (after countless botched jail breaks) and sent up for an 800-year term in prison.In between all of Virgil's criminal incompetence you'll be glad to know, I'm sure, that, yes, he does take time out for romance as he finds himself wrapped up in the loving arms of luscious Louise.From blackmail, to murder plots, to life on a chain-gang, to committing just about every petty crime in the book, Take The Money and Run, which clearly showcases Woody Allen's signature atheist/pinko viewpoint, is a 1960's farce that is certainly well-worth a view.