After watching Casablanca last week, I thought it might be fun to watch Woody Allen’s homage to that classic film, Play It Again, Sam. The 1969 play version of Play It Again, Sam lasted over a year on Broadway. In 1972, the movie version hit the theaters. The movie was directed by Herbert Ross.
Play It Again, Sam was the first movie with Woody Allan and Diane Keaton acting together. Woody plays Allan Felix, a neurotic film critic, who’s been dumped by his wife. Felix is inept at dating and his best friend, Dick (Tony Roberts, and his wife, Linda (Diane Keaton), attempt to help Felix navigate the dating scene.
The reason I’m fond of Play It Again, Sam is Felix’s reoccurring hallucination of Humphrey Bogart (Jerry Lacy) who gives Felix advice.
Sure, it’s a silly movie, but Play It Again, Sam does honor Casablanca in its treatment of romance and love. Have you seen Play It Again, Sam? Are you a Wood Allen fan? GRADE: B+
I was a Woody Allen fan early on, but his personal life turned me off later.
Jerry, a lot of people feel the same way that you do. I try to focus on the work and not the personal problems of the artist.
Allen’s bad attitude expressed itself in his work rather early and often. It was impossible to miss by MANHATTAN.
I am a fan but most of his recent stuff isn’t very good. I liked this but haven’t seen it since it’s first release.
Steve, I prefer Woody’s early work, too. His latest movie is only showing in Europe.
Count me with the “I loved his early funny stuff” crowd—everything from “What’s Up, Tiger Lily” to “Annie Hall.” But the going got tough when he took a “serious” turn. Even without all the ugliness of his personal life, it seems as if he stayed frozen in that late-sixties/early-seventies mindset while the rest of us moved on. A few of his post-“Manhattan” movies were memorable (“Purple Rose of Cairo” for example), but it seems to me that he’s been churning out forgettable filler for the better part of three decades.
Deb, excellent analysis! I’m a big fan of Woody’s early work like BANANAS. Silly, funny stuff. Diane is a big fan of SLEEPER.
I sorta remember liking this, but the Bogart hallucination is the only thing I remember about it. Yes, I was a big fan, but Allen hasn’t made a good movie since “Blue Jasmine” nearly ten years ago. Count me as a skeptic regarding the accusation that’s turned him into a pariah, but it’s there and isn’t going away.
Michael, you’re right about BLUE JASMINE. That was a first-rate movie in my eyes. But, since then…mediocrity.
Yes and yes! I haven’t seen on of his movies in a while but I’d enjoyed most of them way back when! Nothing I’ve read about his accusations lead me to believe they have any validity!
Bob, nothing has been proved about Woody’s “problems.” But where there’s smoke…
Marrying the practical equivalent of one’s stepdaughter is already a big indication. But, then, I know at least one person who fantasizes that Michael Jackson never did anything remotely untoward, as well.
Where there’s smoke there’s a vengeful bitch named Mia Farrow!
Bob, Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned!
What everyone said. When we were dating, we saw Woody walking through a hotel lobby in Midtown. He had just done TIGER LILY then, so early. ANNIE HALL is one of my all-time favorites, has been since the first scene washed over me in 1977. There are others I love, but a lot of later ones we haven’t even seen. And no, I do not believe Mia’s crazed accusations, which she infected some of her kids with (IMHO).
As for PLAY IT AGAIN, SAM, I always found it kind of mediocre, especially compared with his better movies. We saw the original Broadway production with Allen, Keaton, Roberts, and Lacey, so the movie just seemed a rehash.
Jeff, for Bogart fans, PLAY IT AGAIN, SAM is a wonderful homage. Woody was just finding his footing in the movie industry. I think if he had directed PLAY IT AGAIN, SAM it might have been funnier.
I saw it, but don’t remember that much about it. I like some of his movies, mostly the early ones. I watched Annie Hall a year or so ago, and it wasn’t as good as I remembered. My favorite used to be Bananas, but I saw it 3-4 years ago and couldn’t see why I had loved it. I rarely watch his new films.
Re: his personal life. Hard to know what to believe, but the fact that he’s in a relationship with an adopted daughter isn’t too “seemly”.
Maggie, you might want to give SLEEPER another try.
I stuck with him for a long time. And then what everyone else said. I have never understood why he didn’t have a co-writer or buy scripts. Maybe the early ones were better because he used Marshall (was it Brick?) back then.
Clearly he has lost any idea of how people live now.
I liked this one but not as much as the other first six or so.
Patti, I think Woody took a Wrong Turn when he started making “serious” movies. Humor is what I look for in a Woody Allen work.
Patti nailed it with, “Clearly he has lost any idea of how people live now.” But, looking back, I wonder what his ideas about how people lived in the 1970s were. Annie Hall has that gorgeous apartment—with a balcony!—on what salary? I can’t even remember, other than her singing gig, what her job was supposed to be. He created a tidy, WASP-y, upper-middle-class world of trust funds, artistic pursuits, upscale jobs, with no concern of where the rent was coming from or how you were going to pay for a root canal. I guess it was just as unreal then as it is now—but the rest of us have moved on since then—and he hasn’t.
Deb, you and Patti are so right! I think it’s telling that Woody plays jazz (from the 1940s) and includes a lot of “old fashioned” music in his movies. There’s no doubt he’s living in the Past and his movies reside there, too.
I liked SLEEPER and BANANAS but not so much his later films.
Rick, same here. The later Woody films vary in quality.
Unlike everyone else in the Free World, I’m not personally close enough to the family to make a judgement on the accusations and denials, so I withhold judgement. Of the later films, MANHATTAN MURDER MYSTERY and MIDNIGHT IN PARIS are quite good.
Dan, I liked MIDNIGHT IN PARIS, too. I’m not sure I saw MANHATTAN MURDER MYSTERY.
I always liked Hannah and Her Sisters,, Crimes and Misdemeanors, Love and Death, Husbands and Wives, His last good movie was probably Match Point.
Steve, MATCH POINT–with Scarlett Johansson–delighted me!
I do enjoy Woody Allen but my all-time favorite is Annie Hall.
“That’s OK. I can walk to the curb from here.”
If I wasn’t already committed to WTF (just because) or “Where do these stairs go? They go up.” (Ghostbusters), I’d have that put on my tombstone. By the way, K. hates all of them so it may be just the standard name, birth, and death dates (heavy sigh).
I have to go now,, Duane, because I’m due back on the planet Earth.
My grammy never gave gifts. She was too busy getting raped by Cossacks.
I used to be a heroin addict. Now I’m a methadone addict.
I’m into leather.
Beth, I might just watch ANNIE HALL next week. I finally found my copy of it! I love the scene with Marshall McLuhan during the argument about movie criticism.
TAKE THE MONEY AND RUN
BANANAS
SLEEPER
ANNIE HALL
MANHATTAN
THE PURPLE ROSE OF CAIRO
HANNAH AND HER SISTERS
RADIO DAYS
I’ll stand on those eight.
What about LOVE AND DEATH? I’d put that just below ANNIE HALL for my all-time-favorite Woody Allen movie.
Jeff, excellent list! You and Beth are motivating me to rewatch ANNIE HALL.
The one I’ll keep from childhood enjoyment is WHAT’S UP, TIGER LILY?–but the writing of the redubbing of that one was a collective effort.
PLAY IT AGAIN, SAM was watchable enough for me when I first caught it on tv in the mid ’70s, about the same time as TIGER. His jokes have usually struck me even from early on as overworked. I’m less enchanted by his fictions, as well, than many.
For several reasons, anyone giving off an exploitation vibe in his manner, again rather clear to me well before the marriage or the public fight with Farrow, who clearly knows how to pick ’em considering her two most famous romances, tends to get my hairs up. Every time a woman character was portrayed as an idiot for not preferring his sweaty creep persona in a film over…well, much of anything…it was clear to me he was letting some not so submerged anger out. And, by MANHATTAN, it was clearly even worse than that.
I believe Patti refers to Marshall Brickman.
Todd, I’ve always preferred Woody’s movies to his writings.
Anyone else remember the great Jerry Lacy as the witch-hunter “Reverend Trask” on DARK SHADOWS in the late ’60s? I haven’t been motivated to watch a Woody Allen movie in years. Last one was RADIO DAYS.
Fred, I may have to dig out RADIO DAYS and watch it again.
I think Annie Hall was on TCM last week.
I watched it again and still laughed out loud.
This movie will definitely pick up your spirits, George.
One of my favorite evenings was watching a double feature of Casablanca and then Play It Again Sam about 1975. Five minutes between the two films. A glorious night!!
Scott, the comments about CASABLANCA on this blog led me to rewatch PLAY IT AGAIN, SAM. I’m glad I did! You’re right: those two movies make a great Double Feature!