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A Cowardly Nebbish Would Never Fall For His Best Friend's Wife. Or Woody? Woody Allen plays film magazine writer Allan Felix, a man who, since his wife left him, has been an amalgam of devastation and cowardice. Allan is a disheveled mess. An uber-schlemiel. |
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Helping him get back into the dating world is his apparition of Humphrey Bogart (Jerry Lacy). He's Allan's hidden, tough-guy interior longing to come out, but Allan's too scared to let him take the leap. Allan's no Bogart, but will he be by the end of the movie? You see, Allan is resistant because he is insecure and doesn't know how to be himself around women. On the dates, he demands sympathy, telling one that his wife is dead (he asks Dick to tell his prospective date that his wife died in a mine shaft explosion). To impress the girl, he "casually" holds up his high school track medal. To impress another, he demonstrates how Chinese people use a shoveling movement when eating rice (yup, that didn't go well either). He also creates havoc; in one uncomfortable date moment he all but destroys his living room. But he's not Clouseau. All his tics are on story and come from a very real place. He's a nervous wreck, and that's how nervous wrecks act. Besides Bob Hope, who Woody admittedly lifted his "faux nervous guy" from, PLAY IT AGAIN, SAM marks one of the first appearances of Hero Neuroticus. There doesn't seem to be a wasted sweat bead, grunt, or record toss (more on this later). It's also the first pairing of Woody and the magnificent Diane Keaton. PLAY IT AGAIN, SAM adapted by Woody Allen from his Broadway play, was directed by Herbert Ross and photographed by Owen Roizman, both of whom have laundry lists of commercial successes. It's an adeptly structured romantic comedy, for love eventually does find Allan Felix in the end. And like Bogey, he handles it with class. Here's looking at you, Woody. |
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