Take The Money and Run

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Take the Money and Run is a 1969 comedy film co-written by, directed by and starring Woody Allen. It is a mockumentary, chronicling the life of Virgil Starkwell, a bungling petty thief. His entry into a life of crime at a young age, his crime spree, his first prison term and eventual escape, the birth and growth of his family, as well as his eventual capture at the hands of the FBI are some of the notable events depicted.

This film was the first to be directed by Allen. (He had wanted Jerry Lewis to direct originally; when that didn't work out, Allen got the notion to direct it himself.) The hysterical and almost slapstick style is similar to that of Allen's next several films, including Sleeper and Bananas.

Allen discussed the concept of filming a mockumentary in an interview with Richard Schickel. "Take the Money and Run was a pseudo-documentary. The idea of doing a documentary, which I later finally perfected when I did Zelig was with me from the first day I started movies. I thought that was an ideal vehicle for doing comedy, because the documentary format was very serious, so you were immediately operating in an area where any little thing you did upset the seriousness and was thereby funny. And you could tell your story laugh by laugh by laugh... The object of the movie was for every inch of it to be a laugh."

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