Crimes and Misdemeanors (1989)

Crimes and Misdemeanors (1989)

starring Woody Allen, Martin Landau, Mia Farrow, Alan Alda

written and directed by Woody Allen

104 minutes

Judah Rosenthal (Martin Landau) is petrified because Dolores Paley, with whom he has been having an affair for the past couple years, insists that he end things with his wife. She threatens to tell Judah's wife if he doesn't. Judah tries reasoning with Delores but she insists on getting her way. Judah turns to his brother Jack, who has mob connections, for advice. Jack suggests that he could have Delores killed. Judah refuses to contemplate such a course of action but he later changes his mind.

Clifford Stern (Woody Allen) has fallen out of love with his wife and into it with Halley Reed (Mia Farrow). He meets her while they are collaborating on a documentary that they are making about Lester (Alan Alda), Cliff's brother-in-law. Lester is a successful producer of sitcoms. Cliff is an unsuccessful director of documentaries. Cliff desperately wants Halley and bristles when he sees Lester hitting on her. He allows his feelings to guide his directorial decisions.

Thoughts

The stories of Judah and Cliff share the screen but are for the most part only tangentially related to one another. Judah is an ophthalmologist. One of his patients is Ben, another of Cliff's brothers-in-law. The last big scene in the movie takes place at a wedding. Judah and Cliff cross paths briefly at the wedding reception.

I've seen this episode at least once before. I'm pretty sure I first saw it in a theatre not long after it was first released. I must have watched it more than once since then because there were lots of scenes that were very familiar to me. It had been quite a while since I last watched it, possibly sometime during the late 1990s.

This film was nominated for three Academy Awards: Best Director (Woody Allen), Best Supporting Actor (Martin Landau), Best Original Screenplay (Woody Allen). It did not win any of those awards.

I enjoyed watching this movie again. I'm not sure it lived up to my lofty memory of it but it was still a very good film, well worth my time. One aspect of it that I really admire is how unpreachy it is despite the moral quandaries that both Judah and Cliff find themselves facing.

Notes

There are clips from five other movies shown during this film:

• 20,000 Years in Sing Sing (1932)
• The Last Gangster (1937)
• Mr. & Mrs. Smith (1941)
• This Gun for Hire (1942)
• Happy Go Lucky (1943)

I've seen at least 15 movies that Woody Allen has appeared in, most of them were ones he directed. I watched most of those films years ago, during the 1980s or 1990s. He was in most of the films he's directed that I've seen.

When I think of Martin Martin Landau I think of Space 1999 and Mission Impossible (1966) but the most recent thing I've watched (in which he appeared) was an episode of The Outer Limits, 1.06 The Man Who Was Never Born.

This is the fourth movie that Mia Farrow has been in that I've watched in the past year. Most recently I saw her in Radio Days (1987). All four of those films were directed by Woody Allen.

The only thing in which I've seen Alan Alda in recent years was an episode of The Phil Silvers Show, 3.24 Bilko the Art Lover. I've seen him in a few other movies but nothing that I've watched recently. I know him best from M*A*S*H. 

Other actors who appeared in this movie and that I recognized from other things I have watched include Anjelica Huston, Joanna Gleason, Sam Waterston, Jerry Orbach, and Daryl Hannah.