Take the Money and Run (1969) Reviews

• Remember: You can't wear a beige shirt to rob a bank!

  blanche-22006-04-05

  "Take the Money and Run" is an absolutely hilarious Woody Allen film, done in a quasi-documentary style, about a career criminal, Virgil Starkwell, who has a very unsuccessful career. His prison breaks don't go as planned, his robberies are a disaster and usually coincide with someone else's robbery of the same place, and his planning of a job would be fine if only he weren't talking to an associate in a restaurant while the police are in the booth behind him. One nice perk of failure: while attempting to rob a young woman's purse, he falls in love with her (Janet Margolin). Virgil does admit at one point thinking of foregoing robbery and taking up a career in singing. He doesn't mention the cello, which gave him his start in music - and crime. This is one of those laugh out loud even when you're alone movies of which there are all too few. But this is one. Over a tough, FBI-type narration, we watch Virgil's futile attempts at making money through crime, see his parents (disguised) interviewed, as well as his wife and the various police and investigators he meets along the way. It's amazing to look at this film and then look at "Match Point" done 35 years later and see the evolution of this brilliant man. Woody Allen is capable of rock-solid comedy as well as provocative movie-making. Although he's had a few blips along the way, one wonders what he'll think of next.

• Laugh-a-Minute spoof of Crime Documentaries a Must For Woody-ites...

  Don-1021999-06-02

  TAKE THE MONEY AND RUN is Mel Brooks-like in structure and gags, but definitely Woody Allen at his comical best. Its not his greatest picture by any means, but perhaps the best of his early slapstick flicks (SLEEPER, BANANAS). "Virgil Starkwell" has a hard time stealing right from the start. When a criminal gets a gumball machine "stuck to his hand", you know he's in the wrong gig. Woody Allen is right at home with this innocent, documentary-style drip on the unintentional hilarity of 60's crime documentaries. Woody, or "Virgil", seems to be playing Woody as usual, something we all know runs through his entire body of work. This movie is very much like his innovative ZELIG of 1983, a black and white docu-spoof about a fictional chameleon. Jackson Beck's narration is PERFECT in making the outrageous material seem "serious". It no doubt inspired the short spoofs "Saturday Night Live" would go on to produce for years, investigative reporting seemingly important, yet ridiculous in content. "Virgil's" parents are in disguise (Groucho Marx nose and glasses) whenever they are "interviewed". The chain gang escape is one of the funniest sequences I have ever seen. Woody also moves into romantic territory with the beautiful Janet Margolin, who had a nice, fat purse for "Virgil" to steal, but also has a quick reaction to his inept robbery attempt and, of course, they fall in love. She is there for "Virgil" to live for during his always brief prison stays and to pick out his clothes for a robbery. There are some familiar elements here, most obviously the beautiful young girl falling for a middle-aged homely Woody. TAKE THE MONEY AND RUN is all about raw comedic filmmaking and mockery. It is not a situational film at all, just a bunch of perfectly cohesive episodes of this perfectly moronic bank robber, who spells gun G-U-B. Wouldn't that throw us all off if we were the bank tellers taking a note during a stick up ?

• Off and running....

  rmax3048232003-02-12

  This is Woody's first "real" movie and it's pretty good. Surprisingly so, in fact, when you consider the he began as a stand-up comic dealing out yoks that were by necessity strictly verbal. Some of the yoks here work -- "He told me was a gynecologist but he didn't speak no foreign languages" -- and some don't -- "The prisoners were served one hot meal a day, a bowl of steam." But the visual gags and Allen's physical performance more than make up for the jokes that flop. In fact the first joke in the movie is visual, and imaginative: Allen plays a cello in a marching band. Still, it's a first feature, and it shows. The camera is shakey and the photography not always first rate. He was to improve with practice. Here he has a scene in which he is having a private argument with his wife in the bedroom, but he's shackled to half a dozen escaped prisoners, who laugh at his entreaties and make wisecracks during the conversation. A similar scene in "Love and Death," with a promiscuous Diane Keaton holding the hand of her husband on his deathbed. The husband says something like, "I know you're pure and you've been faithful to me." The attending priests and doctors begin puffing and humming while trying to stifle their laughter. It isn't that the later scene is necessarily funnier, it simply takes it for granted that the audience can get in on the joke without being prompted. There are several discernible sources for the story. The most obvious is "I Was a Fugitive From a Chain Gang." Some of the scenes -- the breaking of ankle shackles with a heavy sledge hammer -- are repeated and played for laughs. I can't be sure that "Cool Hand Luke," which was released the year before, is an influence but it certainly seems so. There may be something of "Bonnie and Clyde" in it too. Woody hasn't got the great all-star cast that he was to assemble for his post-"Annie Hall" efforts, but what he has is pretty neat. The snarling James Anderson stands out as the Chain Gang Warden, in the Strother Martin role. What a face! Howard Storm as the hold-up victim/arresting officer is a familiar face and a welcome voice. Marcel Hilaire may not actually BE Fritz Lang but he ought to be! But aside from Allen, the most important role is that of Janet Margolin as his wife, Louise. Her talent as an actress was modest, although she could sometimes outdo herself, as, for instance, the sympathetic closet Jew in "Morituri," a dramatic part. Here she's no more than adequate, but she is so attractive that it hardly matters, and the role hardly calls for thespian fireworks. She was 26 when this was released. She was always pleasant, a strange, wistful combination of vulnerability and sex appeal, and some suggestion emanated from her performances that suggested she was that way offscreen as well. Her career and her life ended with a bad death at a relatively early age. Marvin Hamlisch's score is apt and easy to listen to. It's an amusing debut for Woody. You'll laugh out loud at it, unless you're a real sourpuss.

• it would be a crime not to see this movie

  lee_eisenberg2005-06-20

  For those of you who think that all Woody Allen's movies are vapid stories of neurotic rich New Yorkers, you need to see his early movies. "Take the Money and Run" is a good example. Allen plays Virgil Starkwell, an inept criminal. No matter what sort of crime he tries to pull off, something always goes wrong. Probably the funniest scene is when he tries to escape from jail like John Dillinger did. Other scenes include the time when the authorities use him in an experiment, with a silly result. Anyway, Woody Allen's old movies were really funny. The thing was that he created a bunch of outlandish premises and infused his New York Jewish humor. This is what comedy is all about!

• a truly funny movie

  knifeintheeye2005-03-13

  In an age of tee hee funny blockbuster comedies, this is a FUNNY knee- slapping side-splitting tear-producing pause-the-DVD-so-as-to-not-miss-a-line-movie. Hollywood just does not make movies like this. It's a love story between a crook and a beautiful woman. No, it's the story of a little red headed kid who went on to pull off the worst bank heist ever. No, it's the story of a cons escape from prison. It's all of these. Only Woody could have had Virgil fall madly in love with Louise, want to spend the rest of his life with her, then only later on, decide he doesn't want to steal her purse. Classic. Only Woody would have his bank robber pull off a bank job with a mis-spelled note then have him escape from a chain gang on foot running beside men on bikes. Fantastic movie and fun for all. Prepare to laugh.