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In their current series of great films from 1969, Tryon Fine Arts Center will be showing Woody Allen’s Take the Money and Run on Tuesday, February 4.

Take the Money and Run was the first film that Allen created as co-writer (with Mickey Rose), director and star and the first in which he brings together his decade long experience as a comedy writer and stand-up comedian. He made the decision to take control of his own production after appearing in a supporting role in the 1967 James Bond satire, Casino Royale, which he felt he could have made funnier. Allen’s character, Virgil, the bumbling, completely inept would be bank-robber could not have been played by anyone else.   

 Critic Roger Ebert’s brief description sums up the film as follows: “It’s done like an old March of Time newsreel, with a narrator recounting Woody’s childhood, life and unsuccessful career as an utterly inept criminal. The blackouts before the credits are particularly good. And other scenes (notably Woody’s tangle with a prison shirt-folding machine, and his escape attempt while chained to five other prisoners) are hilarious.”

 Some other notable moments from the film that are recounted by Tom Dirks on AMC Filmsite, such as  Virgil playing cello in a marching band, Virgil’s parents being interviewed wearing Groucho Marx disguises and Virgil being punished by being locked in a cell with an insurance salesman, give hints of the type of humor we would become familiar with in future Woody Allen movies.

Allen received two Golden Laurel nominations for Male Comedy Performance and Male New Face, and the Writers’ Guild of America nominated Allen and Mickey Rose for Best Comedy Written Directly for the Screen.

The show will begin at 7:00 p.m. For more information, please visit www.tryonarts.org or by calling 828-859-8322.

 

Submitted by Frances Flynn