Take The Money And Run (DVD)
Anchor Bay
APPROX. 85 MINS. - PROD. YEAR: 1969 - MPA RATING: PG
" The plot is just a thin excuse on which to hang Allen's nonstop visual and verbal antics. Enough of it works to make the film worthwhile.
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This is the Woody Allen that a lot of people later said "why can't he be more like." This is Woody Allen's very first feature film as writer, director, and star. "Take the Money and Run" isn't so much a movie with a plot as it is a movie with an endless stream of gags. The plot is just a thin excuse on which to hang Allen's nonstop visual and verbal antics. Enough of it works to make the film worthwhile.
The story is told in mock documentary style, an effective device that would later be put to use in satires like "This Is Spinal Tap." The off-screen narrator, Jackson Beck, speaks in a precise, clipped baritone voice, lending an air of grave authority to the proceedings as he leads us through a series of flashbacks and interviews related to the life of Virgil Starkwell, America's most dangerous and most-wanted criminal. As Starkwell, Woody Allen is, of course, playing Woody Allen. From his earliest days in standup comedy, Allen exploited his small stature and need for glasses to create the ultimate nerd, the social geek, the perpetually inept loser. He would later draw upon his Jewish heritage and his New York City background as further inspirations for humor, but here he is mainly the "poor soul."
Starkwell's life of crime begins early when as a child he joins a gumball ring and gets caught with his hand stuck in the machine. Later, in his teens, he is the only gang member whose switchblade falls apart when he tries to open it. His parents are so ashamed of him they won't be interviewed without disguises, bulbous rubber noses and mustaches. Nevertheless, crime wasn't always on Virgil's mind. He really wanted to be a cellist. Unfortunately, his school had only a marching band, and we see how difficult it is trying to keep up with a marching band while sitting in a chair and playing the cello!
The first bright spot in Virgil's life comes when he meets and falls in love with a beautiful young laundress, Louise (Janet Margolin). He tells her he plays cello in the Philharmonic, and she falls for it even though he has trouble recognizing the name Mozart. In probably the film's funniest scene, Virgil botches a bank robbery when he misspells the stickup note. "What's this word here?" asks the teller. "That's 'gun,'" Virgil replies. Oh, no, it can't be, the teller responds; it looks like "gub." The teller confers with a fellow employee, and they send Virgil to the bank manager for his OK on the note before they'll give him any money. The manager can't read the note, either, and calls over his secretary. Before long, cashiers, bank guards, and customers are all arguing with Virgil about guns and gubs. He winds up in prison, and his plans to marry Louise are put on hold. On visiting days she brings him hard-boiled eggs, layer cakes with guns in them, and chocolate chip cookies with bullets baked inside. She remains patient and devoted until he manages a daring escape and they can wed.
