Tombe les filles et tais-toi!
Mach's noch einmal, Sam
Genre: Comedy
Run Time: 85 minutes
Film Remarks:
Allan Felix is a mild mannered film critic (Woody Allen), who is dumped by his wife.
His ego is crushed, as he struggles with resurfacing from this humbling and humiliating
experience. Felix's hero persona is the tough
guy played by Humphrey Bogart in many of his movies, namely
Casablanca.
The apparition of Bogart shows up throughout the film to
give the writer advice. With the encouragement of his two married friends, Dick and Linda Christie (Tony Roberts
and Diane Keaton),
he tries dating again, with
less than satisfactory results, until he relaxes.
Main Cast:
- Woody Allen .... Allan Felix
- Diane Keaton .... Linda Christie
- Tony Roberts .... Dick Christie
- Jerry Lacy .... Humphrey Bogart
- Susan Anspach .... Nancy Felix
- Jennifer Salt .... Sharon Lake
- Joy Bang .... Julie
- Viva .... Jennifer
- Susanne Zenor .... Discotheque Girl (as Suzanne Zenor)
- Diana Davila .... Museum Girl
- Mari Fletcher .... Fantasy Sharon
- Michael Greene .... Hood #1
- Ted Markland .... Hood #2
See Full Cast & Credits
Editorial:
Written for the stage and coherently opened up for the screen by veteran director Herbert Ross,
Play It Again, Sam is closer to a conventional comedy than Woody Allen's more self-contained films, but
his smart script and archetypal hero-nebbish achieve a special charm aimed squarely at movie buffs.
Allen is Allan Felix, a film critic on the rebound after his wife's desertion trying to brave the
choppy waters of born-again bachelorhood and struggling to reconcile his celluloid obsessions with
the hazards of real-world dating. His apartment is a shrine to Humphrey Bogart from
Casablanca, and it's none other
than Bogey himself who materializes at strategic moments to counsel Allan on romantic strategy. He
gets more corporeal aid from his married friends, Linda (Diane Keaton) and Dick (Tony Roberts), who
try to orchestrate prospective matches and reassure him when those chemistry experiments explode.
When Allan finds himself falling in love with Linda, the dissonance between fantasy and reality
proves both funny and poignant--a precursor to the deeper emotionalism missing from the star's
earlier directorial efforts that was soon to inform Allen's most affecting '70s comedies. It's also
the start of his onscreen relationship with Keaton, further underscoring Allen's evolution toward a
more satisfying contemplation of the friction between head and heart.
--Sam Sutherland from Amazon.com
Film Trivia & Awards - Play It Again, Sam:
Trivia for Play It Again, Sam.
Many folks know that this was Diane Keaton's first film with Woody Allen, but did you also know....
Additional:
Release Date: May 4, 1972 (USA), December 16, 1972 (Sweden),
December 22, 1972 (Finland), January 15, 1973 (Spain),
April 19, 1973 (West Germany)