Take the Money and Run (1969)

Take the Money and Run (1969)

Directed by: Woody Allen

Starring: Woody Allen, Janet Margolin, Marcel Hillaire

This is apparently Woody Allen’s first (or maybe second, I’m not gonna LOOK) movie, and it’s… well, it’s extremely different from what one would modernly associate with Woody Allen. It’s basically sketch slapstick comedy, which is weird, but not entirely unfunny. There are a couple really good jokes in here, but that’s all it is, a series of jokes.

Allen plays the world’s worst criminal, who is constantly getting into scrapes that he can’t possibly get out of, due to his ineptitude. He’s hopelessly in love with a woman far out of his league (she works as a clothes-washer) and has no real skills besides crime with which to support his family, even though he doesn’t really have any skills in crime either.

It’s not bad. I wouldn’t watch it twice, but there are certainly some funny gags here. If you’re a fan of Woody Allen, Take the Money and Run doesn’t really apply, since it’s just so different from anything he’s famous for. There’s almost nothing of the humor used in Annie Hall in this, for example. Instead of dry, rambling witticisms, it’s all goofy gags and wacky puns. Which can certainly be fine. I feel like I’m defending this way more than I want to be.