To me, this movie is perfection.

Simple and well acted, it has tension enough to knot the stomach.

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

The best films of this genre always show a path and provide a takeaway for being a better person.

Take the Money and Run was one of the first mockumentaries to be widely released. Again and again we go back to the parents' talking heads and their Groucho Marx masks, because they are so ashamed of their son's crimes that they dare not show their faces. This is, like Ebert notes, mildly funny the first time and less so with each revisit as they continually bicker and fight (one notable exception is when the narrator interrupts them himself and orders them to get to the point - a sure jab at the tendency for many of these talking heads to waffle on and on). Another aspect of the mockumentary is the brooding voice- over narration that is full of self-seriousness and self-importance. It presents Virgil as an infamous outlaw, not quite Bonnie and Clyde, but nevertheless iconic enough to have a documentary made about his life and crimes. Throughout the film, we keep expecting that the story will build to some monumental, historical point, some crazed crime of infamy, but it doesn't. The story is like his life; a deflated, missed punchline. Most stories have the protagonists wavering from their morality and considering breaking bad and descending into a life of crime, if only to survive. Virgil is not like most protagonists. He does the opposite - so many times he is nearly tempted to go straight, to give up crime and find a nice, honest job. Suffice to say he fails at that too. A lot of the film's comedy is drawn from Allen's stand- up tendencies. So as the jokes come thick and fast we have less interesting visuals on the screen. That is not to say that they are not funny. One of his bank robberies fails because his handwriting is too messy and the characters debate endlessly on his real meaning - he is then told to go through the proper bank hold-up procedures. His spars with his wife are particularly inspired; one argument mixes the usual domestic pains (laundry mix-ups, hogging the bathroom) with the occasion of a big group score. Another has him innocently desiring a tie instead of a newborn child. In a classic bait and switch, Virgil falls head over heels in love with her at first sight, and then decides not to rob her, in that exact order. And there are humorous visual gags too. A favourite of Virgil's is to fiddle endlessly with Louise's clothes, but never successfully remove them (one instance has him stage a blow by blow re-enactment of the usual wordless romantic surprise from behind). An early one throws him, a seated cello player, into a marching band, fighting the ever probing urge of whether to play another note or keep dragging his chair along. Poor Virgil. His music mentor recounts that he could not even become proficient at the instrument: "He blew into it". This is pretty damning if you are playing the trumpet or clarinet, and absolutely catastrophic if you are playing the cello. There is an extended gag where Virgil is chained up with several other prisoners; this makes for many funny situations, particularly as they shuffle forwards and waddle around trying to appease a policeman, who tells them to each check a different window in the house, and as Virgil tries to have a private conversation with his wife. Try as he like, Virgil cannot seem to get away from his destiny.

A lot of movie-goers believe Christopher Guest's "This is Spinal Tap" directed by Rob Reiner was the first American "mockumentary". A "mockumentary" is a type of fictional film in the format of a non-fiction documentary format with fake interviews and sometimes a voice-over narrator. Most often they spoof some kind of overused subject. While "Spinal Tap" may have been the first "rockumentary", about 15 years previously, Woody Allen produced and released "Take the Money and Run". Much of what happens in Allen's offering is the model by which nearly all subsequent mockumentaries would follow, including many by Christopher Guest. And it still stands as possibly Allen's best pure comedic effort.In the 1950's and 1960's, a number of documentaries produced both for the small and large screens told the stories of criminals. (Guest would later make mockumentaries about music groups, hometown theatre, and dog shows.) "Take the Money and Run", written, directed and starring Woody Allen, spoofs documentaries about criminals for the first-ever mockumentary in the United States, complete with narrator and interviews. The first voice of the film is that of narrator Jackson Beck who made a career of doing voice-overs for such documentaries and television advertisements. The "story" involves hardened criminal Virgil Starkwell (Woody Allen), his life and exploits over the years as a mediocre thief. As one character put it: "You know, he never made the 'ten most wanted' list. It's very unfair voting; it's who you know." Similar to "Monty Python's Flying Circus", all the characters, especially the narrator, play their parts dead-pan. In other words, they pretend what they're doing is serious, even though, in the end, it's quite silly. For example, when narrator Beck announces they will hear interviews of Starkwell's parents, he says in all seriousness they will wear disguises. Then we see the parents wearing plastic Grouch Marx noses and glasses. This is the kind of humour which permeates the entire film. In another famous scene, Starkwell is spending time in a maximum security facility where he must endure extra punishment for breaking the rules: he must spend time in solitary confinement with an insurance salesman."Take the Money and Run" at its essence is a series of interconnected comedy sketches, very similar to the feel of Monty Python. Nearly every bit is roll-over-the-floor hilarious. Often the scene begins somewhat "seriously" until Allen applies a zinger towards the end. Much of the later work of Christopher Guest owes much to Allen's original mockumentary. And apparently, one of Starkwell's criminal associates, Frankie Wolf, is still wanted by authorities for dancing with a mailman.

Oh Woody Allen, you beauty. One of your movies a day keep the blues away. I must have seen more than a dozen Allen movies and this is the funniest of the lot. It tells the tale of an "inept robber" according to the IMDb survey. made in the same documentary mode as his latter Zelig, this is a much better movie than that due to hilarious events happening throughout the movie and Allen's exceptional acting. He is absolutely adorable as the robber who tries the most outrageous ideas to get out of the jam he is in and which include such originality as making a gun out of soap and black polish. This is among his earliest movies and we can see that Woody Allen was a prodigy, an exceptional talent right from the word go. Absolutely fantastic.

The clumsy Virgil Starkwell (Woody Allen) is bullied when he is a child. Then he decides to play cello, but without musical talent, the loser joins a street gang and ends in prison. When he escapes, he meets the laundry worker Louise (Janet Margolin) and lies to her, telling that he plays cello in the symphonic orchestra. He is arrested in a hold up and Louise finds him in prison. He breaks out and flees with Louise to another state. He tries to be honest but he is incapable to fit in any job. When he finally finds a job position suitable for his intellect, he is blackmailed by a colleague and returns to his criminal life. But his heists are disastrous and he always ends in prison."Take the Money and Run" is the second film by Woody Allen in a documentary style the same way he does with "Zelig" in 1983, and tells the saga of a clumsy smalltime thief. The last time I had seen this film was on 22 August 1999 and this time I found it still enjoyable, but less than the last time. Virgil Starkwell is an incompetent loser obsessed with bank heists. The narrative and interviews in the documentary style of the 60's and 70's have hilarious moments and is closed by the funny interview of his neighbor that asks to the interviewer how an imbecile like Virgil could plan the heist of banks. My vote is seven.Title (Brazil): "Um Assaltante Bem Trapalhão" ("A Very Clumsy Thief")