| Take the Money and Run | |
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original film poster |
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| Directed by | Woody Allen |
| Produced by | Charles Joffe |
| Written by | Woody Allen Mickey Rose |
| Narrated by | Jackson Beck |
| Starring | Woody Allen Janet Margolin Louise Lasser Marcel Hillaire Lonny Chapman James Anderson |
| Music by | Marvin Hamlisch |
| Editing by | Paul Jordan Ron Kalish |
| Studio | ABC Films |
| Distributed by | Cinerama Releasing Corporation |
| Release date(s) | August 18, 1969 (USA) |
| Running time | 85 min. |
| Language | English |
Take the Money and Run is a 1969 comedy film written by Woody Allen and Mickey Rose, and directed by and starring Woody Allen. It is an early mockumentary, chronicling the life of Virgil Starkwell, a bungling petty thief. His entry into a life of crime at a young age, his crime spree, his first prison term and eventual escape, the birth and growth of his family, as well as his eventual capture at the hands of the FBI are some of the notable events depicted. Allen initially filmed a downbeat ending in which he was shot to death, courtesy of special effects from A.D. Flowers. Allen's editor, Ralph Rosenblum (in his first collaboration with Allen), reputedly convinced him to go for a lighter ending.
This film was the second film to be directed solely by Allen. (He had wanted Jerry Lewis to direct originally; when that didn't work out, Allen got the notion to direct it himself). Woody Allen's decision to become his own director was partially spurred on by the chaotic and uncontrolled filming of Casino Royale, in which he had appeared two years previously. This film marked the first time Woody Allen would perform the triple duties of writing, directing and acting in a film. The hysterical and almost slapstick style is similar to that of Allen's next several films, including Sleeper and Bananas.
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Allen discussed the concept of filming a documentary in an interview with Richard Schickel: “Take the Money and Run was an early pseudo-documentary. The idea of doing a documentary, which I later finally perfected when I did Zelig was with me from the first day I started movies. I thought that was an ideal vehicle for doing comedy, because the documentary format was very serious, so you were immediately operating in an area where any little thing you did upset the seriousness and was thereby funny. And you could tell your story laugh by laugh by laugh... The object of the movie was for every inch of it to be a laugh.”[1]
The film was shot on location in San Francisco.[2] One scene is set in Ernie’s restaurant, whose striking red interior was immortalized in Hitchcock’s Vertigo (1958). It was also filmed at San Quentin State Prison.[3] One hundred San Quentin prisoners were paid a small fee to work on the film. The regular cast and crew were stamped each day with a special ink that glowed under ultra-violet light so the guards could tell who was allowed to leave the prison grounds at the end of the day. Micil Murphy was one of the actors in the film. Ironically he had become an actor after being paroled from San Quentin three years earlier, in 1966, where he served five and a half years for armed robbery.
The film received mostly positive reviews, with one notable exception. Vincent Canby of The New York Times described it as "a movie that is, in effect, a feature-length, two-reel comedy—something very special and eccentric and funny", even though toward the end "a certain monotony sets in" with Allen's comedy rhythm.[4] Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times found the film to have many funny moments, but "in the last analysis it isn't a very funny movie", with the fault lying with its visual humor and editing.[5] At Rotten Tomatoes, 12 of 13 reviewers gave a positive review, excepting only Ebert, earning the film a 92% "fresh" rating.
American Film Institute recognition
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