Coconutdaddy Productions

  If Bananas is Woody Allen at his wildest, then Take the Money and Run is Woody Allen at his most historically mischievous — a spoof stitched together from every old‑school crime cliché you can imagine. It’s not the funniest thing he ever made, but it is one of the earliest examples of Allen grabbing the documentary format, shaking it like a snow globe, and letting the flakes fall wherever the joke lands. Allen plays Virgil Starkwell, the lovable loser who can’t catch a break even when he’s trying to commit a crime. He’s the kind of guy who would rob a bank with a note so poorly written the teller needs clarification. He’s the guy who gets the raw deal, the wrong turn, the bad luck — and somehow still finds love in the middle of all the chaos. You can practically see the DNA of Larry David’s “no good deed goes unpunished” attitude forming right here. Virgil tries, fails, tries again, fails harder, and the universe shrugs. Unlike Bananas , which is fueled by romantic motivation ...