Years before THIS IS SPINAL TAP, Woody Allen exploded into movie theatres with his outright, groundbreaking, zany mockumentary TAKE THE MONEY AND RUN which in its brief run presented the story of one hapless Virgil Starkwell, one of Allen's many anti-heroes, who entered into a life of crime but even then was considered inept to the nth level. In one of the movie's most hilarious moments (which itself is a nod to the type of cerebral Surrealism and cinema of the absurd which Bunuel championed), Starkwell tries to rob a bank in the most polite of ways, but none of the clerks can make up their minds if the word he's written is "gub" or "gum". (It's actually "gun.") They do, however, stage a contest in which people may vote for whom they prefer rob this bank. Woody Allen was asked by his producers to change the ending for TAKE THE MONEY AND RUN because it was deemed too bloody (it was, in fact, purportedly close to that of BONNIE AND CLYDE); hence, the ending that survives today. As a whole the movie is a classic of Allen's early wacky comedy and features Janet Margolin as Starkwell's wife and then-partner Louise Lasser in a small role.
Review of Take the Money and Run
