Play It Again Sam

“Play it Again Sam” is a 1972 film that combines some of the best slapstick acting and humorous quotes by Woody Allen in his long and prolific career. Although Allen did not direct it (it was directed by Herbert Ross), he both assumed the leading role and wrote the play and screenplay as well. Allen, who co-stars in the movie with Diane Keaton, plays a geeky and neurotic film critic named Allan, who tries to get over his wife having recently left him with the help of a couple, played by Keaton and Tony Roberts, who are his close friends. Allan is a big fan and admirer of Humphrey Bogart, and the film begins with him coming out of a theatre after watching “Casablanca” and imagining himself to be his hero. After a few minutes of Allan moving his move in Bogart’s signature way, he sadly relents to the realization that he can never be like Boggy.

The meat of the film centers around Allan’s various psychological neurosis, as Roberts and Keaton attempt to fix him up with a number of suitors to hilarious consequences. Allan has almost no confidence and, as a result, nervously spoils one date after another. As this unfolds, Dick, played by Tony Roberts, gets more and more distracted by his business ventures, which leaves Linda, played by Keaton, to feel neglected. All the while, Allan and Linda start to feel attracted to each other, as Allan is able to be himself around her and she starts to appreciate his endearing qualities.

Throughout the movie, Allan gets romance coaching from an imaginary Humphrey Bogart. “I never met a dame that didn’t understand a slap in the face or a slug from a 45,” Bogart says to Allan. Boggy then tries to lead Allan through his fledgling affair and romance with Linda., although Allan continuously stumbles. The movie eventually follows the pot of “Casablanca” and Allan gradually evolves from the stumbling buffoon into the cool Bogartesque character. Allan and Linda finally consummate their relationship and flirt with the idea of running away together, only to decide it is best in the end that Linda remains with Dick.

No description of a Woody Allen movie could be complete without mentioning some of the lines from the movie. In one sequence, Bogart reacts to Allan’s wearing too much cologne before a date and says, “Somewhere in life you got turned around; it’s her job to smell good for you.” In the film, Allan’s friend Dick, in a time long before cell phones, repeatedly explains to his business associate what number/s he can be reached at. His approach is so deadpan, that despite using the joke over and over again, it never gets old: “I'll be at 362-9296 for a while; then I'll be at 648-0024 for about fifteen minutes; then I'll be at 752-0420, and then I'll be home, at 621-4598.”

In one of the funniest scenes of the movie, Allan attempts to hit on a gloomy girl in an art museum:

Allan: That's quite a lovely Jackson Pollock, isn't it?

Museum Girl: Yes, it is.

Allan: What does it say to you?

Museum Girl: It restates the negativeness of the universe. The hideous lonely emptiness of existence. Nothingness. The predicament of Man forced to live in a barren, Godless eternity like a tiny flame flickering in an immense void with nothing but waste, horror and degradation, forming a useless bleak straitjacket in a black absurd cosmos.

Allan: What are you doing Saturday night?

Museum Girl: Committing suicide.

Allan: What about Friday night?

Although the film never reached the height or popularity of “Annie Hall” or “Manhattan,” which came a few years later, it is absolutely chalk full of hilarious one-liners and encounters that make it one of my all-time comedic favorites. Perhaps my favorite quote of all in the movie also comes from the character of Allan, “I love the rain- it washes off memories from the sidewalk of life.”