No one took this film seriously when it came out earlier this decade. Most people thought it a fluffy, trifle of a film. And it is certainly light-hearted compared to some of Allen's weightier fare (see Husbands and Wives, his best movie of the past decade). But having watched this film again recently I think it is a stunning achievement in comedy. Allen and Keaton have great chemistry as a couple in a humdrum marriage who stumble on to what turns out to be a murder cover-up. Watching all the people in this film try to figure out how to be detectives based on stuff they've seen in movies and read in books is hilarious, not to mention smart. The latenight dinner conversation among Allen, Keaton, Alda, and Huston is some of the best, sharpest, funniest, fastest dialogue ever written (or ad libbed). One of the best comedies of the 90s. frink-3
Review of Manhattan Murder Mystery
