"Take the Money and Run" is my "Citizen Kane." That movie changed my life as a kid. I had never heard an adult be funny before like that - I even wondered if Woody realized how funny it was.

When I saw this story on the news, I turned to my wife and said, "That's right out of the Woody Allen movie - Take the Money and Run."

His movies like "Manhattan" and "Hannah and Her Sisters" will always get the critical praise, but "Take the Money and Run" is the one for me. Along with "Bananas" and "Sleeper." Of course, there are great lines in all of them. Better lines than anyone else in the history of comedy, in my opinion.

Among the many scenes that killed me in "Take the Money and Run" was when he cased the bank by hiding a camera in an object that people wouldn't suspect - a loaf of bread. But then he walks through the bank clicking away taking pictures with the bread pressed to his eyes. I still can't believe how ridiculous that is.

One topic we have been on lately is whether or not to forgive favorite artists for transgressions. It was never quite the same after Woody and Soon-Yi but I'll always love Woody Allen. I can't help it.

Remember when he was in his school's marching band, but he played the cello? I think that was "Money."

Sure, he had to keep moving his chair forward.
I also couldn't get over when he escapes with the chain gang, and goes back to see his wife. He's been gone, she's very upset, and he's really trying to sweet talk her but of course he's chained to the other inmates so they're right there listening.
First they grin and then they start cracking up as he says these really sappy things to his wife. I thought that was priceless.

Then of course his parents are ashamed so they want to appear in disguise for their interview: "He was a good kid," "No, he wasn't - he was a rotten kid." And the disguises are those fake Groucho Marx glasses and noses.

Ridiculous.

And yet it worked, at least in its day. Which is all that matters.

Cello Teacher: "He had no conception
of the instrument. He was blowing into it."

A wonderfully absurd movie . . .

Much of the movie was filmed in San Francisco, and my friend's mom and dad (both college instructors in real life!) played Woody's parents. They told me that some of the best lines in the movie were thought up on the spot by Woody. Before that movie, Woody was doing standup, which was also hilarious.

A couple of years ago, I was a handwriting coach in my son's classroom (really! it was not my favorite volunteer assignment, but you do what the teacher needs you to do, right?). Anyhow, if only this story had come out then, I could have encouraged the kids in their efforts: "Come on, Susie, keep trying; you don't want to have such messy handwriting that the bank teller can't read it when you hold her up, do you?"

I first saw TTMAR when I was in high school, shortly after the film was released. One of my favorite lines was from the voice over, after Woody's character was on the run: "Authorities searched the entire civilized world...and parts of Philadelphia..."