Take the Money and Run

The clumsy Virgil Starkwell (Woody Allen) is bullied when he is a child. Then he decides to play cello, but without musical talent, the loser joins a street gang and ends in prison. When he escapes, he meets the laundry worker Louise (Janet Margolin) and lies to her, telling that he plays cello in the symphonic orchestra.

He is arrested in a hold up and Louise finds him in prison. He breaks out and flees with Louise to another state. He tries to be honest but he is incapable to fit in any job. When he finally finds a job position suitable for his intellect, he is blackmailed by a colleague and returns to his criminal life. But his heists are disastrous and he always ends in prison.

"Take the Money and Run" is the second film by Woody Allen in a documentary style the same way he does with "Zelig" in 1983, and tells the saga of a clumsy smalltime thief. The last time I had seen this film was on 22 August 1999 and this time I found it still enjoyable, but less than the last time.

Virgil Starkwell is an incompetent loser obsessed with bank heists. The narrative and interviews in the documentary style of the 60's and 70's have hilarious moments and is closed by the funny interview of his neighbor that asks to the interviewer how an imbecile like Virgil could plan the heist of banks. My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): "Um Assaltante Bem Trapalhão" ("A Very Clumsy Thief")

Take the Money and Run ranked rather high on the AFI's list of the 100 Funniest movies, which surprised me. Although it's got some hilarious bits of comedy (the bank robbery, of course, is the funniest bit), the humor seems a bit dated, on par with What's New Pussycat or Casino Royale as opposed to Bananas and Sleeper (his two early comedy classics, in my opinion). Janet Margolin (RIP) was a talented actress, but I didn't find her particularly funny in this movie. She was better in a brief role as one of Woody's high-strung ex-wives in Annie Hall. Louise Lasser and Diane Keaton were worthier (and funnier) replacements. A good bet for rainy day laughs, but not one of the funniest movies of all time.

Woody Allen hit gold with his second film, "Take the Money and Run", which is a basic film that works on so many levels and is memorable strictly for its charm and good wit.

The story follows Allen's Virgil Starkwell, whose life is told in documentary fashion. We learn he had a strange childhood and turned to crime to fulfill his needs. We learn of his romance and sympathize with him as we engage in prison escapes and witness him put in a chain gang. The documentary style might prove to be a "gimmick" of sorts, but it works because had the story been told any other way it simply would not have worked.

Also, "Take the Money" is an early token of what's to come and what the general audience will expect of Allen; smooth drama balanced by fast, witty monologues and lots of self-humiliation. To see this is to witness the early work of the director who ultimately brought us "Bananas", "Sleeper", "Manhattan", and the Oscar-winning "Annie Hall". And if anything, just track it for its over-the-top humor, not as in-your-face funny as "Sleeper" or as sexually hilarious as "Annie Hall", but it's warm and withdrawn, balanced all together by a very good ending (always one of the weaker parts in almost all of Allen's films).

Highly recommended! ***+ (8.5/10)

"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.

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 ?