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Take the Money and Run (PG, 1969)

common sense media says

Generous laughs in satirical early Woody Allen escapade.

parents & educators say
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What parents need to know

Parents need to know that there is gunplay -- harmless and bloodless -- and reckless driving in this madcap comedy that makes a hero out of a criminal character. Grownup ingredients include bedroom talk and a montage suggesting nudity in (pre-marital) sex. Some jokes trade lightly on ethnic images and stereotypes, particularly of African Americans and Jews.

Positive messages: Most of the characters here are simply drawn or joke stereotypes, some of them using popular clichés of African Americans and Jews (but not to an offensive extreme). You wouldn't want kids to imitate Virgil Starkwell (and in a passing but trademark Woody Allen gag, he's described as having been brought up as a "good atheist"), but that's part of the joke. His lawbreaking shows no meanness or sadism, even though he kills a woman blackmailing him.
Violence: Pistols and rifle fire, but nobody ever hit or hurt. Some slapstick roughhousing and gags in which characters get bashed, pummeled, exploded, or whipped, just offscreen.
Sex: A very mild, poetic montage suggesting nudity in (pre-marital) sex. Virgil's wife embarrasses him by talking (non-clinically) about their bedroom issues. Virgil is blackmailed by another woman who knows of his criminal past into a sexual relationship, but nothing is shown. Homosexuality is mentioned.
Language: "S--t" is said once.
Consumerism: Not applicable.
Drinking, drugs, & smoking: Brief social drinking.
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More on Take the Money and Run

What to talk about

Talk to your kids
Families can talk about the purpose of Woody Allen's comedy here. The movie spoofs the "serious" movies that turn robbers into folk heroes and evoke the "outlaw mystique." What about the main character here makes that idea comic? Looking at landmarks in crime-film history (Scarface, Bonnie and Clyde, The Bank Job), do you think Hollywood goes overboard in glamorizing wrongdoers?

What's the story?

What's the story?
In a "mockumentary" opening, viewers are told this will be the saga of dreaded bank robber Virgil Starkwell (Woody Allen), a guy so luckless and inept that as a boy he tried to play bass fiddle in a marching band. From juvenile-deliquency days robbing gumball machines, Starkwell progresses up to banks, even though nobody can read his stickup note (they think it says he has a "gub," not a gun). Despite his career-criminal leanings, Starkwell manages to romance and marry sweet, innocent Louise (Janet Margolin), but his bumbling outlaw escapades continue, even landing him on a chain gang. In the end, sentenced to 800 years in prison but no wiser, he hints to the documentary filmmakers he's planning yet another disastrous breakout attempt.

Is it any good?

Is it any good?
 

TAKE THE MONEY AND RUN was technically Woody Allen's first feature (he had previously orchestrated What's Up Tiger Lily?, a cinematic prank in which he rewrote all the dubbed dialog for an entire Japanese spy thriller to make it a goof about a secret-formula egg-salad recipe). The filmmaker had already established himself as a self-deprecating stand-up comic with a hilarious hangdog persona, and this plugs the popular comedian Allen and his sense of misfit absurdity and helplessness into a deadpan crime drama.

Crook biopics had cracked the 1960s box-office thanks to the ultraviolent Bonnie and Clyde, and Allen here mocks the Hollywood attitude dictating a big-screen robber has to be a matinee idol like Warren Beatty or James Cagney; Virgil's a stumblebum nebbish who can't even work in a prison laundry without accidents (Allen's slapstick physical humor is on-target throughout). It's still funny, even if the loose storyline just sort of stops in the end. Word is that the original script was such a disorganized bag of sketches that Allen's collaborators invented the wonderful fake-documentary framework as the only way to pull it together.

Movie themes & details

Movie Details
Studio: MGM/UA
Director: Woody Allen
Cast: Janet Margolin, Marcel Hillaire, Woody Allen
Genre: Comedy
Run time: 85 minutes
Theatrical release: August 18, 1969
DVD release: June 15, 1999
MPAA Rating: PG
This review was written by Charles Cassady Jr.
 
 

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Most useful reviews by all members

hamstergurl09
teen, 17 years old
11
 
My Favorite Movie Probably Ever
This is hysterical. A must-see, for sure. I reference it daily, but since it came out in 1970, not very many people get the reference. However, I think that Common Sense rated the appropriateness of this one too low (that's a first!). On for age 11? I think 11 is probably a bit too young for this movie. There's a scene with nudity. No private parts are shown, but it's still not really appropriate for 11 year olds.
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Lady Kataana
parent of 6 , and 12 , 12 year old
 
?!?!
Woody Allen for kids? Really?
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helped me decide (1) | had useful details (1) | read my mind (1)

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ON: Content is appropriate for kids this age.
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