Take The Money And Run

This month marks the fiftieth anniversary of the release of Take The Money And Run, which was Woody Allen's directorial debut, depending on your definition (he was the director the earlier What's Up, Tiger Lily? but that film was the dubbing of a Japanese spy film, so Take The Money And Run was his first film with original footage). Looking at it again, it is still full of some great comic moments, but the direction is amateurish and the editing somewhat awful.

A mockumentary about a career criminal, Virgil Starkwell, the film satirizes the crime film and prison film genres. Starkwell grows up having his glasses stomped on frequently. He is never successful at crimes, ending up in prison. He meets a beautiful young woman (Janet Margolin) and marries her, but never gives up his life of crime.

Take The Money And Run is episodic in nature, and has some classic gags, such as trying to play cello in a marching band, or the bank robbery scene in which the teller can't read Allen's note. "I have a gub..." Some other bits that have resonated with me throughout the years is his line about meeting Margolin: "After fifteen minutes I wanted to marry her. After thirty minutes I completely gave up the idea of stealing her purse."

The humor is often the Mad Magazine style, with absurd words or phrases. A dangerous criminal was arrested for "dancing with a mailman." Allen is punished by being put into an isolation box with an insurance salesman. After the road gang chief gives a speech, he asks if there are any questions. Allen responds, "Is it okay for a girl to pet on the first date?"

But some gags just don't work because Allen did not have his timing down yet. A joke about Allen taking a vaccine and turning into a rabbi would have worked if it had been quick, but the joke drags on. An extended scene with Allen as part of a chain gang that escapes and has to move in unison also goes on way too long.

Take The Money And Run still has plenty of laughs, such as his parents wearing false nose and mustache masks to hide their identity. It introduces the nebbish persona for Allen, which he would use again in Bananas, Sleeper, and Love and Death, which constitute his "early funny films," that is, the films before Annie Hall, the movie that would put him on the map as a great filmmaker.