{"id":16984,"date":"2017-11-16T02:42:32","date_gmt":"2017-11-16T07:42:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/?p=16984"},"modified":"2017-11-16T13:31:01","modified_gmt":"2017-11-16T18:31:01","slug":"br-take-the-money-and-run-1969","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/?p=16984","title":{"rendered":"BR: Take the Money and Run (1969)"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Film<\/strong>: Good<\/p>\n

Transfer<\/strong>: \u00a0Very Good<\/p>\n

Extras<\/strong>: n\/a<\/p>\n

Label:\u00a0<\/strong> KL Studio Classics<\/a><\/p>\n

Region:<\/strong>\u00a0A<\/p>\n

Released:<\/strong>\u00a0 October 10, 2017<\/p>\n

Genre:<\/strong>\u00a0 Comedy \/ Mockumentary<\/p>\n

Synopsis:<\/strong>\u00a0Fake documentary \/ expose of Virgil Starkwell, an utterly inept bank robber, husband, and cellist.<\/p>\n

Special Features:<\/strong>\u00a0 Theatrical Trailer.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Review:<\/strong><\/p>\n

There\u2019s a progression in Woody Allen\u2019s early as he moved from screenwriter to director, after having penned TV scripts and making the leap to screenwriter with\u00a0What\u2019s New Pussycat? <\/strong>(1965), and although What\u2019s Up Tiger Lily?<\/strong> (1966) is credited as his first directorial feature film, it\u2019s still a recut film sporting a satirical dub track penned & supervised by Allen, with voice work by himself and a team of actors.<\/p>\n

Take the Money and Run<\/strong> marked Allen\u2019s true feature film debut in which he directed, starred, and co-wrote (with Mickey Rose) a mockumentary of a lousy thief and his recurrent incarceration and escape from penitentiaries, and although it has more than a few brilliant absurdist sequences and small bits, Take<\/strong> is really a forerunner to his masterwork Zelig<\/a><\/strong> (1983), one of the best fake documentaries that similarly chronicles a fake subject \u2013 a human chameleon.<\/p>\n

Zelig<\/strong> is more of a doc using faux (but very convincing) archival footage and audio bits interwoven with interviews (some with real psychiatrists and philosophy figures), whereas Take<\/strong> does drift between fake doc, prison drama satire, and sketch comedy, which is perhaps why only certain scenes standout, and much of what surrounds them are one-liners and broad gags.<\/p>\n

Allen\u2019s Virgil Starkwell, a bonehead quickly arrested for \u2018trying to take\u2019 bank money during a delivery, and escaping prison by clumsy luck, and for a while masquerades as a cellist in a philharmonic. He quickly finds love with pretty girl Louise (Janet Margolin) and toys with a straight life until the need for cash leads him back to ill-conceived theft, culminating in the film\u2019s highpoint: due to bad penmanship, his robbery note befuddles the clerk, who brings it to the attention of the manager; soon after Starkwell is swarmed by puzzled bank staff, with no consensus on whether the note reads \u201cGun\u201d or \u201cGub.\u201d<\/p>\n

Starkwell\u2019s escape from a chain gang is almost as absurd and funny, with the men pretending to behave normally in spite of being tightly tethered with leg irons, but faux interviews with his parents (Henry Leff and Ethel Sokolow) in mustachioed Groucho glasses are oft-repeated, and the satirical montages of Starkwell and Louise making love and cavorting on a beach pull the film out of its mockumentary mode, specially since Marvin Hamlisch\u2019s music reaches a traditional generic lushness.<\/p>\n

Take<\/strong> was an experiment of folding together multiple genres, but in retrospect Allen may have realized winks to the audience should be more subtle, and the illusion of a real subject requires a score that draws from traditional archival sources, hence the refined artifact quality of \u00a0Zelig<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Buried in the sketches are Louise Lasser and western character actor Roy Engel as the prison guard captain, both of whom would appear in Lasser\u2019s iconic soap satire Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman<\/strong>. Also present is\u00a0prolific character actor Lonny Chapman (The Birds<\/strong>) as a fellow gangman, and stentorian Jason Beck providing the grave crime-doesn\u2019t-pay narration that glues many of the scenes together with absurd factoids. (Allen would bring Beck back\u00a0 into the fold in Radio Days<\/a><\/strong> in 1987.)<\/p>\n

Allen is very comfortable playing a schnook, but Margolin (David and Lisa<\/strong>, Morituri<\/strong>, Last Embrace<\/strong>) seems a little lost, perhaps a little confused as to what should be played straight or tongue-in-cheek, although she did appear in Allen\u2019s Annie Hall<\/strong> (1977).<\/p>\n

Hamlisch\u2019s score may be lush and propulsive, but it\u2019s also appropriately cheeky, swiftly shifting from serious to maudlin, romantic to ridiculous, and unlike his music for Allen\u2019s Bananas<\/strong> (1971), it has yet to enjoy a commercial release.<\/p>\n

Previously released on DVD by MGM, Take<\/strong> makes its Blu-ray debut via Kino\u2019s KL Studio Classics line in a bare bones edition. The grain and print wear may add to the film\u2019s mockumentary texture, but the source print is an indication this ABC Pictures production wasn\u2019t especially well preserved.<\/p>\n

Allen would craft a more precise mockumentary for PBS in the half-hour program Men of<\/strong> Crisis: The Harvey Wallinger Story<\/strong><\/a> (1971), and reunite with co-writer Rose for Bananas<\/strong> (1971). After a solid decade writing for hit TV sketch comedy shows (The Smothers Brothers Show<\/strong>) and sitcoms (The Odd Couple<\/strong>), Rose branched out once as writer-director in the meandering slasher film satire Student Bodies <\/strong>(1981), although an uncredited Michael Ritchie (The Candidate<\/strong>, Smile<\/strong>, Fletch<\/strong>) reportedly produced and co-directed some material.<\/p>\n

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\u00a9 2017 Mark R. Hasan<\/p>\n

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External References:<\/strong>
\nEditor’s Blog<\/a> — IMDB<\/a> \u00a0— \u00a0Composer Filmography<\/a>
\n\u00a0<\/span>
\nVendor Search Links:<\/strong>
\nAmazon.ca<\/a>\"\" \"\" —\u00a0<\/span> Amazon.com<\/a>\"\" \"\" —\u00a0<\/span> Amazon.co.uk<\/a><\/p>\n

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