Take the Money and Run

When Woody Allen's fans refer to his "earlier, funnier" pictures, they often cite his directorial debut as a shining example. Co-written by Allen and Mickey Rose, this side-splitting takeoff of crime documentaries stars Allen as Virgil Starkwell, a sweetly inept career criminal. The film's most ...more

Fans of Woody Allen's drier, more sophisticated later comedies may be surprised upon seeing his laugh-a-minute directorial debut, a goofy mock documentary about the career of a bumbling criminal (Allen). The humor is a precursor to such films as Airplane! in its determination to cram in as many jokes as possible, so that even if a few fall flat, the cumulative effect will have viewers laughing until they cry. Parts of the script are unnecessarily vaudevillian and rehash jokes that were already ...more