Woody Allen's "Crimes and Misdemeanors"
"Crimes and Misdemeanors"
is Woody Allen's dark musing on sin and paying the bill. It has much of standard Allen: he plays the bumbler, unsuccessful and loses the girl. But there is less humor here than usual in his work. He wants to know how to deal with guilt. This is Woody noir.Judah (Martin Landau) is a successful eye-doctor who has been having an affair with Anjelica Houston. She's unhappy about the relationship and wants to have it out with Landau's wife, Barbara (Caroline Aaron). Landau is terrified and asks friend Jack (Jerry Orbach) what to do. Jack is a hood and suggests murder. Landau hesitates but finally goes along with the killing.Meanwhile, Cliff Stern (Allen) an unsuccessful film documentary maker, is having anunhappy marriage to
Wendy (Joanna Gleason). He winds up working on a documentary about Lester (Alan Alda), a successful show producer whom Cliff hatesThen Cliff falls for Halley (Mia Farrow) who is also in show business. Cliff makes the Lester documentary a cruel attack on the man and loses the job, of course.There's Allen's usual ideas about New York,about God and about love. Lots of good jazz including a short scene of Bobby Short at the piano. Clare Bloom (of Charlie Chaplin film fame) appears as does Sam Waterson (an Allen faithful) who plays a rabbi going blind which is some kind of symbolism, one fears. His daughter's wedding is the climax where Cliff and Judah sips
drinks and mull on sin. Judah gets off for the moment, but he may have problems later. Cliff muses about it all and the film ends.OK, it's all Allen and it was nominated for several Oscars, didn't make the grade. Too bad, it is better than what did that year, 1989. Rated PG-13 it runs one hour, 44 minutes. From Netflix.CastActorRoleMartin LandauJudah RosenthalMia FarrowHalley ReedWoody AllenCliff SternAlan AldaLesterAnjelica HustonDolores PaleyJoanna GleasonWendy SternClaire BloomMiriam RosenthalJerry OrbachJack RosenthalSam WatersonBenCaroline AaronBarbaraStephanie RothSharon Rosenthal