Red-Barracuda
This is the Woody Allen movie which is always quite easy to overlook. The reason being is that it is the one time where he wrote and starred in a film that he did not also direct. It was based on a Broadway play that he had written and was directed by Herbert Ross. But in all honestly it feels like it could very easily be an Allen directed effort to me and if I didn't know otherwise I would never be able to guess it was anyone else at the helm quite frankly. It stands out a bit when compared to the other films he was directing at the time, all of which were pure comedies with no real focus on realistic situations or even plots but it is very similar indeed to later films such as the classic Annie Hall (1977), which combined broad comedy and physical humour with realistic relationship material that that merged comedy, drama and romance. Quite honestly, no matter who directed this one, it remains one of the best films that Allen has ever been involved in and is successfully hilarious as well as making pertinent observations about male-female relationships.The story centres on a newly divorced neurotic film critic, who has problems with forming new relationships with women. His best friends try to help him meet new ladies but it leads to a series of disastrous dates. The story is straight forward enough but the performances and writing are really what it is all about. Allen is accompanied for the first time by a couple of actors he would work with several times in Tony Roberts and Diane Keaton, who play his best friends; with Roberts so work-obsessed he neglects his wife Keaton who spends increasing amounts of time with Allen, resulting in them having a short affair. All the actors have great chemistry together, with Allen and Keaton in particular working beautifully together.Allen's script is very good with many typically memorable one-liners but it is sometimes the more physical moments that create the biggest laughs, such as the uproarious scene where he is introduced to a new date in his flat and then proceeds to make an absolute clown of himself which had me squirming with laughter. Another aspect which makes this one stand out is the way it pays homage to Casablanca (1942), which Allen's character is obsessed with. Throughout the picture he is visited by an incarnation of Humphrey Bogart, brilliantly played by Jerry Lacy, who offers hilariously unsubtle advice in how to pull women. This mixing of fantasy into a comedy-drama framework is something Allen would return to repeatedly in his later career but its arguable that he never did it so well and funny as he did here. All-in-all, this slightly overlooked movie is truly a great Woody Allen movie, irrespective of whether he was in the director's chair or not!
moonspinner55
Woody Allen adapted his own hit play and stars in this modestly amusing comedy about a recently-divorced film historian in San Francisco, cartoonishly insecure around women, who is fixed up on dates by his best friends and advised on relationship matters by the spirit of Humphrey Bogart in his "Casablanca" period. Herbert Ross directed, with Librium-slow changes in tempo (the movie pokes along from low-keyed slapstick to dazed romantic comedy). In her first film with Allen, Diane Keaton hasn't yet found her niche on-screen; her whining matches Woody's, but her overall personality is so piqued she tends to evaporate in the middle of scenes. Allen has stuffed his screenplay with one-liners and repetitive jokes that tend to run together, some making an impact and all the rest bombing out. Susan Anspach adds a slight edge as Allen's ex-wife, but Tony Roberts is a hole in the screen as the buddy who may lose his wife to Woody, a complication only Bogie could help iron out. ** from ****
dierregi
Right at the start of his movie-making career Allen could be truly hilarious. His jokes and mannerism were still fresh and entertaining. Coupled this with a simple plot and references to one of the great classics of all time and the result is this wonderful, funny movie.Allen plays Allan, a movie critic crushed by his divorce. He openly admits his ex-wife did not find him attractive and left him looking for greener pastures. Unfortunately, throughout the years Allen denied his unattractiveness and his jokes became stale. But here he is still in top form and very honest. His character is funny and vulnerable, therefore likable.A couple of married friends try to fix him with some dates which end disastrously. Along the way, Linda, the Keaton character sort of fall for Allan and they have one of the most hilarious "dates". Obviously, Keaton and Allen had great chemistry and the San Francisco location added an element of openness, which is not to be found int he more claustrophobic New York-based movies. Also noteworthy are the amazing clothes Keaton wears in the movie. She plays a model with excellent taste, wearing timeless outfits.The Bogey-ghost friend is very entertaining, giving absurd advice to Allan. The ending is great, managing to be both original and playing homage to Casablanca. One of the best Allen ever.
James Hitchcock
Typecasting is not always a bad thing, at least not in comedy. Think, for example, of how much mileage Charlie Chaplin was able to get out of his "little tramp" character. Woody Allen is another comic genius who has been able to get away with playing essentially the same character in most of his films and still managing to come up with a fresh angle every time. (Or, at least, almost every time).Allan Felix, Woody's character in "Play It Again, Sam" is, as anyone familiar with the great man's oeuvre will not be surprised to learn, a nervous, self-doubting, self-deprecating, angst-ridden, neurotic Jewish intellectual. (The one unusual feature is that he lives in San Francisco whereas most other Woody characters are New Yorkers. Unusually, Woody passes up the opportunity to make jokes at the expense of Californians). Allan has a lot in common with his creator, even the same first name. (Woody's real name is, of course, Allan Konigsberg). Both men share a love of jazz (Oscar Peterson composed a piece specially for the film) and an interest in the history of the cinema, especially the cinema of the forties and fifties. Allan has a love for the films of Humphrey Bogart and a particular obsession with "Casablanca", from which the title is a quotation.(Or rather a misquotation. As Woody would have been well aware, what Bogart actually says is "Play it, Sam", but at one time a lot of people mistakenly believed that he inserts the word "again" into that sentence. Today, the error has been pointed out so many times that I doubt if there is anyone left still labouring under that particular misapprehension).Allan, a film critic, has recently been through a traumatic divorce from his wife Nancy which has drained his already limited reserves of self-confidence and confirmed his already well-developed feelings of inadequacy. His great regret is that he is not, and never will be, life the cool, self-assured characters played by Bogart. Allan holds regular conversations with a ghostly Bogart who acts as his mentor, especially as regards his relationships with women.This "ghost" is probably not to be identified with the real Bogart- I doubt if Lauren Bacall would have been very impressed by lines like "I never saw a dame yet that didn't understand a good slap in the mouth or a slug from a .45"- but is rather a composite of various Bogart characters, not only Rick from "Casablanca" but also the heroes of films noirs like "The Big Sleep", "Key Largo" and "Dead Reckoning". (The film makes reference to all these and other Bogart movies).Allan's two friends Dick and Linda (a married couple) try to persuade him to go out with women again, leading to a series of hilariously disastrous blind dates. Eventually, however, Allan does find love with a woman who returns his affections. The only problem is that the woman in question is Linda herself, the wife of his best friend. Allan, Linda and Dick therefore find themselves in a situation which parallels that of Rick, Ilsa and Victor in "Casablanca". (Anyone who has not seen that film will probably miss a lot of the humour in this one).The film is unusual in the Woody Allen canon as it was, apart from "What's New, Pussycat", the only film for which Woody wrote the script but which he did not direct. (It was directed by Herbert Ross). It has certain similarities with Woody's other slapstick comedies from the early seventies, such as "Bananas" and "Sleeper"; there is, for example, a running joke about Allan's physical clumsiness. In its stress on human relationships, however, it looks forward to later, more intellectual, comedies such as "Annie Hall" and "Manhattan".As always with Woody, there is a great supply of one-liners ("I wonder if she actually had an orgasm in the two years we were married, or did she fake it that night?"), but a lot of the humour in this film is character-driven. Tony Roberts's Dick is the precise opposite of Allan, self-assured and rather insensitive. He is a successful businessman, obsessed with his work to the exclusion of all else, including his wife whom he frequently neglects. There is another running joke about his constant telephone calls to his office to inform them of the numbers at which he can be contacted at any given time. Jerry Lacy has Humphrey Bogart's voice and mannerisms off to a "T", although he does not look much like Bogart, which doubtless explains why he generally keeps his fedora hat pulled over his face.This was Diane Keaton's first appearance in an Allen film; she was to appear in several more, their professional association continuing long after their romance had fizzled out. Her Linda is a gentle soul who has much in common with Allan than she does with her workaholic husband, sharing both his neuroses and his wry sense of humour. She falls in love with Allan but is worried about hurting her husband who, although he does not show it, loves her deeply. For all Linda's eccentricities, she is clearly a loving and lovable person, and it was the ability to play characters like this that made Keaton, although not really a classical beauty, one of the sexiest actresses of the seventies."Play It Again, Sam" may lack the philosophical depth and insight into human nature of films like "Annie Hall", "Manhattan" and "Hannah and Her Sisters", but it shares their brilliant wit and humour. (The idea of Humphrey Bogart as a quasi-religious mentor and guide to life perhaps prefigures the scene in "Hannah" where Woody's character rediscovers his will to live while watching a Marx Brothers comedy).It is not, perhaps, one of Woody's truly great films, but it is not far behind. 8/10
