A recent divorce gets romantic communication from the ghost of Humphrey Bogart.

Film Details

MPAA Rating

Genre

Comedy

Accommodation

Romance

Release Date

April 28, 1972

Premiere Data

not available

Production Visitor

Apjac Productions, Inc.; Rollins-Joffe Productions

Distribution Company

Paramount Pictures Corp.

Land

Us

Location

San Francisco, California, United States; San Francisco--Golden Gate Park, California, United States; San Francisco--San Francisco International Airport, California, United states of america; San Francisco--San Francisco Museum of Fine art, California, United States; Sausalito, California, United states

Screenplay Information

Based on the play Play It Again, Sam past Woody Allen, produced on the New York stage by David Merrick (New York, 12 Feb 1969).

Technical Specs

Duration

1h 24m

Audio

Mono

Colour

Color (Technicolor)

Theatrical Attribute Ratio

ane.85 : 1

Synopsis

Allan Felix, a San Francisco pic critic, watches the last scenes of Casablanca and finds himself inspired by the manliness and selflessness of the character of Rick Blaine, played by Humphrey Bogart. Soon, all the same, he reverts to his typical neuroses and insecurity, and recalls the contempo deviation of his wife Nancy, who left him to feel a more exciting life. Wondering how to be more cocky-confident, Allan imagines Bogart sitting in his room, advising him to treat women like dames. Later, Allan is visited by his best friends, overworked businessman Dick Christie and his wife Linda, a model. Although Dick tries to convince Allan that Nancy's exodus means Allan is gratis to play around, Allan complains that he has no luck with women. Every bit Linda, another neurotic, and Allan commiserate and compare medications, Dick obsessively calls his part to report on his exact whereabouts. Although Dick and Linda honey each other, she feels abased by his constant piece of work schedule. The adjacent solar day, Dick suggests a double engagement, and when Allan insists on a blonde with large breasts, Linda points out that girls who wait that way often practice non have dandy minds. Equally Allan imagines Nancy on the back of motorcycle lament nearly him to her new beau, Linda decides to invite her photographer's assistant, Sharon Lake, to dinner. Allan is immediately overwrought with excitement. At habitation, as Allan worries most the possible outcomes of the evening, Bogart recommends that he remain cool and calm. Allan imagines himself winning over Sharon with his manliness, merely by the time of the engagement, he is verging on hysteria. Desperate to appear cool, Allan repulses Sharon with his bizarre utterances and uncontrollable clumsiness. Although he is convinced that she likes him, at the end of the evening she shuts her door in his face. Over repeated phone calls, he and Linda discuss his chances with women, and she suggests that he date her friend Jennifer. That engagement is even worse, however, equally she calls herself a nymphomaniac only and so refuses to allow him to kiss her. Allan and Linda go to the museum, where Linda admires his intensity, which is so dissimilar Dick. Allan asks out a beautiful girl, undeterred by her proclamation that she plans to commit suicide that weekend. Days later, Allan, Dick and Linda take a vacation at the beach. Allan and Linda go to a nightclub, but the gorgeous woman on the dance flooring rejects his advances. While Dick attends endless meetings, Linda and Allan relish each other'south company. She urges Allan to be himself with women, and, knowing it is her favorite beast, he gives her a plastic skunk for her birthday, which she treasures. Dick afterwards reveals to Allan that Linda feels neglected, just that he is also decorated to dote on her. Dick sets upwardly Allan with a adult female from his part, Julie, and on their date Julie insists on entering a biker bar. At that place, two crude men harass them and Allan ineffectually attempts to protect his appointment. Meanwhile, Linda learns that he is on a engagement, and is surprised to notice that she is jealous. When Allan returns, bedraggled and hobbling, his comments about the date reduce her to tears of laughter. Dorsum in the city, both Allan and Linda wander their corresponding homes feeling lonely. 1 night, Linda comes over, suffering an anxiety set on because Dick is abroad on a business trip. Equally they walk in the park, she suggests dinner and moving picture, and he immediately imagines them kissing. Realizing that he is in honey with her but that, as his best friend's married woman, she is off-limits, he is torn betwixt lust and guilt. In the grocery store, Allan pictures Bogart encouraging him to come up on to Linda while Nancy insists that Dick will shell him up, so hopefully imagines Dick asking him to wait afterwards Linda while Dick leaves to live with his new Eskimo lover. At dwelling house, he start prepares a romantic repast for Linda, and then, envisioning her screaming equally he tries to kiss her, speedily snuffs out the candles. When Linda arrives she has taken Librium and is calorie-free-headed. Nervous, Allan tries to talk her in to leaving the flat, but when she asks if he believes it is possible to dearest two people at once, he hears Bogart urging him to buss her. He does not respond speedily enough, and when he tries once more later, the kiss is interrupted by a phone call from Dick. Linda, who is becoming drunk, tells Allan she could only cheat on Dick if she were in love, and Bogart reappears to push button Allan into making a move. As Allan apprehensively compliments Linda, he imagines Nancy entering and shooting Bogart. Confused, he lunges at Linda, who pulls away and rushes out. Allan is berating himself when she comes back in and kisses him. They make honey, and the side by side morning discuss how to tell Dick. Allan brings Linda home and so walks back to his apartment, feeling uncharacteristically cocky and gregarious. Buying Linda a music box, he runs into Nancy in a store and handles the meeting with aplomb. Later, he frets about how Dick will have the news, imagining him having three different responses: offset understanding, and then killing himself, then killing Allan. Dick is waiting outside Allan'south apartment, and at that place confides that he is afraid Linda is having an matter. Seeing his friend's distress and repentance, Allan calls Linda to instruct her non to leave him, but she is already telling Dick that their marriage is over. When Dick leaves for the drome in response, Linda follows in a cab and Allan rushes afterwards them. In his mind, his cab driver is Bogart, who demonstrates how to permit a "dame" down easily, then declares he is proud of Allan for his selflessness. At the airport, the three go to the gate at the same time. Allan tells Linda they must telephone call it off, but she has already reached the aforementioned decision, and thanks him for helping her realize she still loves Dick. Thrilled finally to have a chance to say the words, he recites the lines from the departing scene of Casablanca , in which Rick tells Ilsa that she volition regret non post-obit Victor onto his plane, ending with "Maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, simply presently and for the rest of your life." Allan and then reassures Dick that although he tried to seduce Linda, she rebuffed him. Equally Dick and Linda walk off into the fog, Allan is joined by Bogart. Allan has finally realized that he can concenter a woman past being himself, and then bids farewell to Bogart, who says admiringly, "Here's looking at you, kid."

Crew

Videos

Picture show Details

MPAA Rating

Genre

Comedy

Accommodation

Romance

Release Date

Apr 28, 1972

Premiere Information

non available

Product Visitor

Apjac Productions, Inc.; Rollins-Joffe Productions

Distribution Visitor

Paramount Pictures Corp.

Country

United States

Location

San Francisco, California, The states; San Francisco--Golden Gate Park, California, United States; San Francisco--San Francisco International Airport, California, Us; San Francisco--San Francisco Museum of Art, California, Usa; Sausalito, California, The states

Screenplay Information

Based on the play Play It Over again, Sam by Woody Allen, produced on the New York stage by David Merrick (New York, 12 Feb 1969).

Technical Specs

Duration

1h 24m

Sound

Mono

Color

Color (Technicolor)

Theatrical Aspect Ratio

1.85 : 1

Articles

Play It Again, Sam

No, Humphrey Bogart never actually said, "Play it once again, Sam" - neither in Casablanca (1942) nor in any of the other Bogart films Woody Allen references in this movie, adapted from his striking Broadway play. But that hardly seems to matter, considering while Play It Once more, Sam (1972) is one of the virtually highly-seasoned and funny "romantic" comedies of its period (a modern angst-filled version of Casablanca), it'due south also a witty and charming take on what movies hateful to us - the words and images we (sometimes mistakenly) accept from them, their bear on on our ideas of life and dear, and their function every bit collective cultural dreams. Allan Felix, Allen'south character in this film, is a moving-picture show writer whose wife has left him because she wants to go out into the globe and experience "Life," while he prefers to sit in the dark in front of a flickering screen. His romantic ideals are totally informed by movies, and in his hilariously troubled relationships with women, he turns to a fantasy Bogart for advice and back up. If he thinks Bogie really said the line, and then aren't the facts rather beside the point?

Set in San Francisco, the story centers around the attempts of a well-pregnant married couple, Linda (Diane Keaton) and Dick (Tony Roberts), to detect a suitable mate - or at least gear up a non-disastrous date - for the dumped and lone Woody. Every effort, of course, ends upwardly a mess. The only woman he's comfortable with is Linda, and every bit they are forced together more and more by her workaholic husband'due south neglect, they begin to autumn for each other. Egged on past the ghost of Bogie, they begin an affair, and like the romantic ideal he ever imagined in his movie-dream earth, Woody makes a great and noble sacrifice for the sake of Linda and Dick's spousal relationship, played out on the tarmac in a near-exact duplicate of the closing scene of Casablanca. Life imitates art in a bloodshot ending for all concerned.

This is the starting time time audiences got to run across Allen and Keaton together on film. Information technology was the beginning of an off-screen relationship that lasted just a few years only resulted in an ideal movie squad that would co-star in seven more than feature films together, from Sleeper (1973) to Manhattan Murder Mystery (1993). In betwixt, of course, there was Keaton's Academy Award-winning performance as the championship graphic symbol of Allen'due south Annie Hall (1977) - which may not be the totally factual account of their relationship, merely did that affair to the audiences who believed that it was? The two initially paired upwardly while working on the phase version of Play It Again, Sam, where they also became proficient friends with Tony Roberts. Allen directed Roberts in five movies afterwards this, including A Midsummer Dark'due south Sex One-act (1982), the outset of Allen's long on-and-off-screen relationship with Mia Farrow.

Although this stays in the memory equally a Woody Allen film, he did non actually direct it, even though he had already made iii movies of his own - What's Up, Tiger Lily? (1966), Take the Money and Run (1969), and Bananas (1971). "I would never desire to direct a play into a pic," Allen said in an interview with Cinema in March 1972. "I would only exist interested in working on original projects for the screen. I was already at piece of work on [Everything Y'all Always Wanted to Know Near Sex, 1972], and I didn't want to spend a yr doing a projection that I had washed on Broadway." Instead, he adapted the play in near 10 days ("It was so piece of cake to practice") with the help of director Herb Ross, who Allen found ideal for the job. He hoped that with Ross at the helm, he would get "a prissy, solid, funny commercial picture, and hopefully entice a broader audition for me than I get with my ain films." That's exactly what happened. Sat Review found the role player "never so droll or so touching under his own direction," and critical praise for Keaton gave her career another heave later her appearance in The Godfather (1972). It made Allen a star with mass-audience entreatment for the kickoff time and helped him financially - his 10 percent of the gross brought him more than $1 million in profits.

Director Herbert Ross began his career as a dancer and choreographer, working for the American Ballet Theater while in his 20s, and then choreographing Hollywood films beginning in the mid-1950s, with Carmen Jones (1954) and later Dr. Dolittle (1967) and Funny Girl (1968). He directed two of the biggest hits of 1977, The Goodbye Girl and The Turning Point, a ballet movie that earned him Oscar nominations for Best Picture and All-time Director. The Bye Girl, which likewise got a Best Picture nod, was the 2nd film in his frequent association with writer Neil Simon.

Producers: Charles H. Joffe, Arthur P. Jacobs, Frank Capra, Jr.
Director: Herbert Ross
Screenplay: Woody Allen, based on his play
Cinematography: Owen Roizman
Editing: Marion Rothman
Product Design: Ed Wittstein
Original Music: Billy Goldenberg
Cast: Woody Allen (Allan), Diane Keaton (Linda), Tony Roberts (Dick), Jerry Lacy (Humphrey Bogart), Susan Anspach (Nancy), Jennifer Salt (Sharon), Joy Bang (Julie), Viva (Jennifer).
C-86m. Letterboxed. Closed captioning.

past Rob Nixon

Play It Again, Sam

Play It Again, Sam

No, Humphrey Bogart never actually said, "Play it again, Sam" - neither in Casablanca (1942) nor in whatsoever of the other Bogart films Woody Allen references in this movie, adapted from his hit Broadway play. But that hardly seems to matter, because while Play Information technology Again, Sam (1972) is one of the virtually appealing and funny "romantic" comedies of its period (a mod angst-filled version of Casablanca), it's besides a witty and charming take on what movies hateful to us - the words and images we (sometimes mistakenly) take from them, their impact on our ideas of life and love, and their function as collective cultural dreams. Allan Felix, Allen's character in this flick, is a film writer whose wife has left him because she wants to get out into the world and feel "Life," while he prefers to sit in the dark in forepart of a flickering screen. His romantic ideals are totally informed past movies, and in his hilariously troubled relationships with women, he turns to a fantasy Bogart for advice and support. If he thinks Bogie actually said the line, so aren't the facts rather beside the point? Set in San Francisco, the story centers effectually the attempts of a well-meaning married couple, Linda (Diane Keaton) and Dick (Tony Roberts), to find a suitable mate - or at to the lowest degree gear up up a non-disastrous date - for the dumped and lonely Woody. Every effort, of course, ends up a mess. The only woman he's comfortable with is Linda, and every bit they are forced together more and more than by her workaholic husband's neglect, they begin to autumn for each other. Egged on past the ghost of Bogie, they brainstorm an affair, and like the romantic platonic he always imagined in his movie-dream world, Woody makes a keen and noble sacrifice for the sake of Linda and Dick'southward marriage, played out on the tarmac in a nigh-exact duplicate of the closing scene of Casablanca. Life imitates art in a bittersweet ending for all concerned. This is the start fourth dimension audiences got to see Allen and Keaton together on motion picture. Information technology was the kickoff of an off-screen human relationship that lasted just a few years but resulted in an platonic movie team that would co-star in seven more than feature films together, from Sleeper (1973) to Manhattan Murder Mystery (1993). In between, of course, there was Keaton'southward Academy Award-winning performance as the championship grapheme of Allen's Annie Hall (1977) - which may not be the totally factual account of their relationship, but did that matter to the audiences who believed that it was? The 2 initially paired up while working on the stage version of Play It Again, Sam, where they likewise became adept friends with Tony Roberts. Allen directed Roberts in five movies after this, including A Midsummer Night's Sexual practice Comedy (1982), the beginning of Allen's long on-and-off-screen relationship with Mia Farrow. Although this stays in the retention as a Woody Allen moving-picture show, he did not actually direct information technology, even though he had already made 3 movies of his ain - What's Up, Tiger Lily? (1966), Take the Money and Run (1969), and Bananas (1971). "I would never desire to direct a play into a movie," Allen said in an interview with Cinema in March 1972. "I would but be interested in working on original projects for the screen. I was already at work on [Everything You E'er Wanted to Know About Sex, 1972], and I didn't want to spend a year doing a projection that I had done on Broadway." Instead, he adapted the play in almost x days ("It was and so easy to do") with the aid of director Herb Ross, who Allen found ideal for the task. He hoped that with Ross at the helm, he would get "a nice, solid, funny commercial picture, and hopefully entice a broader audience for me than I go with my own films." That'due south exactly what happened. Sabbatum Review found the actor "never and so droll or and then touching nether his own direction," and disquisitional praise for Keaton gave her career another boost afterwards her appearance in The Godfather (1972). Information technology fabricated Allen a star with mass-audience appeal for the first time and helped him financially - his x percentage of the gross brought him more than $1 one thousand thousand in profits. Director Herbert Ross began his career equally a dancer and choreographer, working for the American Ballet Theater while in his 20s, then choreographing Hollywood films get-go in the mid-1950s, with Carmen Jones (1954) and later Dr. Dolittle (1967) and Funny Girl (1968). He directed two of the biggest hits of 1977, The Goodbye Girl and The Turning Point, a ballet movie that earned him Oscar nominations for Best Picture and Best Director. The Good day Girl, which also got a All-time Picture nod, was the second movie in his frequent clan with writer Neil Simon. Producers: Charles H. Joffe, Arthur P. Jacobs, Frank Capra, Jr. Manager: Herbert Ross Screenplay: Woody Allen, based on his play Cinematography: Owen Roizman Editing: Marion Rothman Product Design: Ed Wittstein Original Music: Baton Goldenberg Bandage: Woody Allen (Allan), Diane Keaton (Linda), Tony Roberts (Dick), Jerry Lacy (Humphrey Bogart), Susan Anspach (Nancy), Jennifer Salt (Sharon), Joy Bang (Julie), Viva (Jennifer). C-86m. Letterboxed. Closed captioning. by Rob Nixon

Quotes

Sorry I had to slap you around, but you got hysterical when I said, "No more."

- Allan

He was ever very fussy.

- Dick

Yes, but expect at the results.

- Allan

Aye, you never went out.

- Dick

Somewheres in life you got turned around; it's HER job to smell good for You.

- Bogart

My lawyer will call your lawyer.

- Nancy

I don't have a lawyer. Have him telephone call my dr..

- Allan

That'south quite a lovely Jackson Pollack, isn't it?

- Allan

Yes, it is.

- Museum Daughter

What does information technology say to you?

- Allan

It restates the negativeness of the universe. The hideous lonely emptiness of beingness. Pettiness. The predicament of Human being forced to live in a barren, Godless eternity like a tiny flame flickering in an immense void with nada but waste material, horror and degradation, forming a useless bleak straitjacket in a black absurd cosmos.

- Museum Girl

What are you doing Saturday dark?

- Allan

Trivia

Notes

Throughout the film, "Allan Felix" imagines himself in conversations with Humphrey Bogart, played by Jerry Lacy, and resembling the character of "Rick Blaine" from Bogart'due south 1943 Warner Bros. picture Casablanca. Play Information technology Again, Sam, which begins with the final scene from Casablanca, makes references to the movie throughout. The picture show takes its title from a popular quotation, "Play it again, Sam," which became a cultural phenomenon, even though it never was spoken in those exact words in the original motion-picture show. In Casablanca, Dooley Wilson, who played "Sam," sang the song "As Time Goes By." That song is heard in Play It Once more, Sam, and Wilson is listed in the onscreen credits equally the vocaliser. Allan imagines scenes from his life playing out as movie parodies; for example, when he thinks virtually breaking up with "Linda Christie," he fantasizes well-nigh information technology as if it were a scene from a film noir. At some other point, he imagines "Dick Christie" killing himself like the husband in A Star Is Built-in (run across below). Some of Allan's dialogue is heard as voice-over narration spoken by Woody Allen.
Play It Again, Sam was based on the Broadway play of the same name, which Allen wrote and starred in. The play, which was co-produced by Charles Joffe, the film's executive producer, also starred Diane Keaton, Tony Roberts, Mari Fletcher and Lacy, all of whom recreated their roles in the film version. It was during the play that Allen first met Keaton, with whom he became romantically involved. After the end of that relationship, the two enjoyed a lifelong friendship and worked together numerous times throughout their careers. Play It Again, Sam marked their start film together.
In Baronial 1968 Daily Diversity announced that Twentieth Century-Fox had already bought the film rights to the play, which did not open up on Broadway until Feb 1969. Hollywood Reporter reported on August 21, 1968 that Arthur P. Jacobs' production company, Apjac Productions, had bought the holding along with Fox, for $4.five meg. At that point, Allen was mentioned as a possible writer and star of the film, but a June 1971 Hollywood Reporter commodity stated that Allen was not ready to echo his stage role. Allen alleged in a modern interview that he was non considered to star in the pic version until afterward the success of his film Bananas (1971, ). Play Information technology Again, Sam is the third of a pocket-sized number of films in which Allen appeared but did non straight.
Jack Lieber was announced every bit the picture'south screenwriter in a May 1970 Hollywood Reporter news item, but in a February 1971 Daily Variety article stated that Lieber had been fired in September 1970. He sued Fox for $782,000 in amercement and remaining payments. The disposition of the suit has non been adamant.
The June 1971 Hollywood Reporter article noted that Jacobs was at that point ready to produce Play It Again, Sam with Paramount instead of Play a joke on and mentioned Charles Grodin every bit a co-writer. Although a August xix, 1971 Hollywood Reporter news item listed New York as the sole shooting location, as noted in contemporary sources, the production was moved to San Francisco due to problems with the motility picture manufacture'due south negotiations with the New York unions. Press materials list specific Bay Area locations, including Sausalito, the San Francisco Museum of Fine art, Golden Gate Park and the San Francisco International Aerodrome. Although an October 1971 Daily Variety news item stated that Jessica Mitford and Barnaby Conrad would play themselves, they did non announced in the concluding film. Mod sources add Tom Bullock to the cast. Reviews were generally laudatory. The New York Times reviewer called Allen "the premiere comic intelligence at work in America today."

Miscellaneous Notes

Released in United States Wintertime January 1, 1972

Re-released in Paris July 31, 1991.

Released in United States Wintertime January i, 1972