Customer Reviews

Take The Money And Run [1968] [DVD]

5 star:		(15)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

One of the first "Mockumentaries", Allen's 1969 classic, 'Take the Money and Run' follows the hapless New York criminal and no-hoper, Virgil Starkwell as he, his wife, and his heavily disguised parents discuss his growing notoriety amongst the New York underworld.

The film follows his lives, his loves, his stays in prison, and his poor spelling of the word 'Gun'.

The film has been described as Allen's 'Cool hand Luke' but the Jewish psychotic juxtaposed against Newman's cool White Anglo Saxon provides much of the film's comedy.

One of Allen's great assets was his ability to write classic one liners and this movie does not disappoint. Memorable lines such as, "The prisoners were fed one hot meal per day: a bowl of steam" run throughout the whole film. Another classic moment is when he says of his future wife on first meeting her, "after half an hour, I completely gave up the idea of snatching her purse."

If you want to see one of the wittiest films ever made by one of the wittiest filmmakers of our time, buy this film.

If, for any reason, you can't afford it, write a note to the video store counter staff warning them that you have a 'Gub' and that you aren't afraid to use it!!!

It is a trueism that no Woody Allen collection should be without this film, but sadly I had to send this DVD back to the store because of the absolutely terrible sound synching, which is way off in several scenes throughout the film, and seriously impaired my enjoyment of the film.

This is a terrible shame as I so much want to have this film on DVD. Not being an MGM release, the format is slightly different, and there are a few more extras like a trivia section/info about the movie and Woody Allen, which is alot more than you get on the MGM discs.

The film itself is brilliant. In the style of a documentary, it is basically a comic remake of 'Cool Hand Luke', and follows the social outcast Virgil Starkwell on his ill-fated journey from petty thief to big-time bank robber, only to get 10 years after a failed heist because he misspelled the note ('Act natural, I'm pointing a gub at you? What's a gub?') When Virgil's wife comes to visit him in jail, she says 'I can't believe it, you robbed a bank?' to which he replies 'No, I 'tried' to rob a bank... if I had robbed the bank everything would have been great...' Littered with funnies from beginning to end, this is one of his best comedies, but sadly, I'm having to make do with my VHS copy until Fremantle get their act together and sort out the synching problem, which ruins the enjoyment of the DVD unfortunately.

This is Allen's directorial debut, his last movie of the sixties, and one of the first mock documentaries to reach the cinema screen. It's about a loser called Virgil Starkwell, in a comic nod to `Cool Hand Luke', and follows the exploits and failures that condemn every turn in his life.

As ever with Allen's work, his acerbic look at the desires, fears and ambitions of ordinary people is both comic and tragic but, this being the sixties, he portrays it in a quick-fire, almost slapstick form that he had abandoned by the early 1970s. The comedy lacks subtlety and often runs into pure silliness, but Allen sticks to the plot, and the story rattles along rapidly from gag to gag, punctuated by a tide of superb one-liners. There are many highlights but the best is probably the failed bank robbery "gub" sequence. It is pure Allen, and fits neatly alongside his stand-up comedy material of the time. Forty years on, the mock documentary is a jaded and overused format, but this movie still shines.

The now legendary auteur Woody Allen made his directorial debut with this terrific comedy.

Woody's early films relied more on slap-stick than subtlety but he proves equally able with both comic forms, confirming him as a true cinematic genius. 'Take the Money and Run' is a vehicle for Allen's considerable talents really, Janet Margolin and the other actors simply provide him with a foundation to work from.

The script is excellent and many scenes remain memorable, (take the one where Woody is playing cello in a marching band and the bank hold-up using an illegible note). The directing is raw and rough but otherwise this is a brilliant work of comic genius.

No Woody Allen fan should be without this.

This is by far my best film Woody Allen every made. I weep with laughter first time I saw it! I love watching it over and over again seeing part I missed. The love sence with his wife is to die for. I also like the chain gang sence a great film

"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 the police 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.

This to me is his greatest film,everything from start to finish just had me in stitches... I love it, this is woody at his slap stick best..

From the very first moments, this film is hilariously funny, if you like Woody Allen, that is. Playing the typical character he plays so well, the hopeless New York criminal, Virgil Starkwell, we follow his life its lows and lowers. His early films had every kind of humour from the one-liners from his stand-up days to the slastick he learned from the old silent films.

His Jewish persecution complex comes through clearly and he does not have to speak a word as everything he touches turns to disaster.

Allen has always been a sharp director, able to use the camera so effectively to tell his tale of woe and his scripts have always been powerfully succinct, like his stage act. In this film, his debut, he showed his great skill in both these areas.

Not just because it is his first but because it is extremely funny, though not in his mature style, every Allen fan should have this film.

I know that this word has lost in meanings and nowadays every realesed movie is brilliant and got five or six stars in some magazine but this is a movie from the times when brilliant meant something...classic

A brilliant mock-documentary on the life of a criminal - played by
Allen - with some of the funniest lines and sight gags I've ever seen
in a film. It's important to remember that 'mockumentaries' weren't
common when Allen made this, and it was actually seen as quite
experimental in it's own crazy, low budget way.

This isn't the deep, brilliant film-maker of 'Annie Hall', etc, but an
amazingly smart and funny young Allen capturing the spirit of cinema
anarchists like the Marx Brothers.

The only small drawbacks; a sometimes cloying musical score and a
couple of slow sections around the love story. But these are very small
flies in the great ointment.

A minor point - there's a some debate as to whether the correct aspect ratio is 1:66
or 1:85. From what research I could do (as well as old fading memories of seeing the
film in theaters) I think 1:66 is actually correct.

I believe this release is in 1:85, whereas the out of print, but still often available used
NTSC Anchor Bay is in 1:66. Certainly not a life or death difference, but worth noting
for obsessive purists (like me).