Kino Lorber
In the early 1970s, I was a budding film buff and the Humphrey Bogart cult was booming in the college dorms with books, posters, and re-releases.
I had just discovered Bogart and the now-classic Citadel Press volume, Bogey, became one of the very first books in my personal library. I had yet to see Casablanca, although it would eventually become my all-time favorite film.
Around that same time, Woody Allen was making movies. I’d see ads in the papers for Bananas and Take the Money and Run but as far as I remember, my only real exposure to Woody prior to that was from his comic book appearance with The Maniaks in the mid-1960s.
Even then, I had no idea he was a real person!
It shouldn’t come as any surprise to anyone, then, that my first ever Woody Allen film was one of the rare Woody pictures not directed by Woody—1972’s Play It Again, Sam.
Based on a successful Broadway play written by and starring Allen, the film co-starred Diane Keaton and Tony Roberts, both from the stage cast and new to films. I had never heard of them. In fact, the only person in the film I knew was Jerry Lacy, who played Bogart. Lacy had, after all, been a semi-regular on TV’s Dark Shadows, generally playing members of the Trask family. To me, that made him a star!
It wasn’t exactly Bogart he was playing, however. More like Bogart’s ghost. Oh, the real Bogart’s here as well! The film opens with a condensed version of the ending of Casablanca (which is what intrigued me to watch it the next time it came on TV.)
The picture is produced by Arthur P. Jacobs, the man behind the Planet of the Apes movies, and directed by Herb Ross, who would go on to become one of the most successful mainstream directors of the decade. Surprisingly, since it’s built so much around one of the quintessential Warner Brothers movies, it was released by Paramount!
Never having seen the stage version I can’t say for sure but it feels like a number of the quick gags with Allen walking along the streets of San Francisco—as opposed to his more typical New York City—were added to keep the picture from feeling setbound.
Woody plays Woody, essentially the same lovable nebbish character he had already established and continued to play variations on for many years. His wife leaves him and his married friends, played by Roberts and Keaton, keep trying to fix him up, while the ghost of Bogey gives him advice on how to handle women. There’s never any acknowledgement that he’s a ghost, just as no other character sees when Woody breaks the fourth wall, something that worked on stage but was riskier in modern film.
“But you’re Bogart!” Allen tells his trench-coated mentor.
“Everybody is, kid, at certain times.”
Even before the characters recognize it, the audience can see the slowly simmering romance between Allen and Keaton. This leads to a lovely ending that cleverly reprises the opening Casablanca scene.
Some additional pluses and minuses: Tony Roberts’ running gag of calling in his present phone numbers every time he shows up is hilarious. Never minding what modern audiences might think of Woody Allen personally, his constantly whining character here can be pretty annoying at times. There’s also a sequence of pretty cringey rape gags and a bit of fantasy violence against women.
As far as Diane Keaton, she’s just lovely throughout. With the same three main cast members, it’s hard not to see Play It Again, Sam as a sort of dry run for Annie Hall, still five years in the future. That’s where Keaton would create her ultimate character, opposite a more human version of Woody’s nebbish.
As I wrote, Play It Again, Sam was the film that introduced me to Woody Allen movies. He was so popular around that time that his earlier pictures were being re-released in theaters in double features and I was able to quickly catch up.
That was more than 50 years ago now. As time went on, Allen became one of the world’s most idiosyncratic filmmakers, which makes it all the more fascinating to look back on his early work, especially this one, to see how another A-list director handled his unique character.
Ross presents Play It Again, Sam as a stylish and charming non-romance, made all the more fun if one is familiar with Bogart and, in particular, Casablanca. “You must remember this…”
Extras include commentary and a trailer.
Booksteve recommends.
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