Manhattan Murder Mystery

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These two eyes have seen a wide spectrum of occurrences but strangely enough they haven’t been exposed to the witty and chaotic mind of Woody Allen displayed in the myriad of his films. That is until now. My girlfriend has the best taste in movies...well pretty much everything. Each day I find myself becoming more cultured thanks to her. A while back she introduced me to Wes Anderson, the man has a talent of displaying lives I could only dream of. Adventures such as long train rides, out of thin air love, spirituality, and charisma. On second thought I think I have found those things, it’s just nice to see it presented to a wide audience via film. Aside from my aside (bad pun), I know. I was introduced to the idea of watching a 90’s spectacle of a movie. It has everything, Manhattan Murder Mystery. Even the title has such a repetitive and mysterious nature due to it’s use of alliteration. See how I worked in my knowledge of college level English? Maybe I’m just trying to be a smart ass to compensate for the six years I didn’t know english...that could be it. Where do I even begin when talking about this movie? I see a lot of parallels between me and Allen’s character Larry. Not Larry David, that’s a whole other topic worthy of a pamphlet all together. A mopey, sometimes pessimistic wimp. And I didn’t mean that in a condescending way at all. Allen’s character turns out to be the unsuspecting hero. If you haven’t seen the movie don’t get pissed at me, that wasn’t a spoiler. And secondly I make no apologies, as if divulging plot details was going to ruin your life anyway. It’s a wonder how Allen and Diane Keaton ended up as lovers in this story. Diane Keaton or as I like to call her DK, she wears the same version of an outfit everyday. Let’s face it, it’s her uniform. If the murder mystery full of plot twists doesn’t keep you on the edge of your seat, then the anticipation of Diane ever changing into something different will. Sadly she just rolls out per usual, or as the kids like to say “She woke up like this.” Too many fascinating elements exist in this movie, it truly is titillating. DK’s character Carol and her husband Larry have a lackluster marriage. Their zesty passion for one another faded all because they were too busy raising their son who attends Brown. Is working hard to guarantee your kid’s admission into an Ivy League college worth the many sexless years you will face after shipping them off? That’s my question to you. Larry works in publishing and has a flirtatious relationship with a tantalizing former waitress who lived with a poet and was a film critic. Woah! Does this fox have it all? Marcia Fox that is. Meanwhile Carol has a platonic relationship with a man named Ted...whose remarks makes Carol swoon. Combine that with some liquor and she’ll start seeing hallucinations. Or does she? Watch to find out. And just thrown in at random points in the film you hear the brassy voice of Joy Behar, or is it? Watch to find out.And there you have it, an all over the place review of the movie Manhattan Murder Mystery. I strongly recommend you watch it. And I’ll leave you with this:“Somebody got cremated Larry....SOMEBODY.”

Okay, okay, so I know that MANHATTAN MURDER MYSTERY has always been regarded -- by prevailing opinion, at any rate -- as a lesser Woody Allen film, unfit to be considered among the heyday gems such as ANNIE HALL, MANHATTAN, HANNAH AND HER SISTERS, and CRIMES AND MISDEMEANORS, but who cares about prevailing opinion anyway? This film is very funny and certainly one of my favorites. (Is that blasphemy?) Although it certainly doesn't have much of a deep message camouflaged behind the one-liners, it is a lot of fun; it even seems like the actors had a lot of fun making it -- which seems somewhat incredible in light of the fact that it was filmed in the deep, dark shadow of the Mia Farrow-Soon Yi Previn scandal. (A recent biography, obviously slanted in Allen's favor, reported that, even after the scandal, Mia Farrow still intended to play the Diane Keaton character in this film and was surprised that she was replaced. In the Farrow version of the film, the couple's characteristics were reversed: Allen was the snoop, and Farrow was the skeptic.)I've seen all of Allen's films, from the great (HUSBAND AND WIVES, for example) to the barely endurable (CURSE OF THE JADE SCORPION comes to mind), and I've seen most of them several times, but MMM is the one I always keep coming back to... the cinematic equivalent of comfort food. The storyline? It's really beside the point, I guess, since it's just a backdrop for Allen and Keaton's very funny interactions as a bored, aging, and -- need it be mentioned? -- neurotic New York City couple. One night, returning from a evening out, they meet their neighbors, the Houses, in the elevator and then join them for coffee. Soon after, Mrs. House drops dead -- or so it seems. But Keaton's character suspects foul play and embarks as an amateur sleuth, much to her husband's dismay. She's convinced that Mr. House is a little "too perky," as she puts it, after his longtime wife's sudden demise, and she stops at nothing to prove her instincts are right.I have a bad habit -- an affliction, really. I quote movie lines. Yes, I'm one of "those" people. Along with HALLOWEEN (don't ask), I think I quote from MMM more than any other film. There are lots of great lines here, especially when Allen's character become flustered at his wife's often extreme (and illegal, by the way) tactics in solving the mystery -- if it is in fact a mystery at all. He reminds her at one point of her previous stint in psychotherapy, and how, just like a car, maybe it's time for tune-up. This captures Allen's perplexity nicely at Keaton's increasingly aggressive detective work, including a stake-out with a torch-carrying friend played by Alan Alda.The thing that makes MMM a great movie, without question, is the chemistry between Diane Keaton and Woody Allen. There is such a naturalness in their exchanges that it is difficult to believe that they have not been long-married, and their timing, tics, and mannerisms perfectly evoke a marriage in its doldrums needing a "shot of adrenaline" to enliven it again. (I've made my point. I love this movie. I'll shut up now.)

Woody Allen's 1993 film Manhattan Murder Mystery does not, for me, rank with his very best work, but is nevertheless extremely enjoyable with some typically great Allen one-liners mixed in. The film is also notable for the fact that it reunites Allen with Diane Keaton, for their first significant coupling since 1979 when they were paired together in Allen's great masterpiece Manhattan. Incidentally, Keaton replaced Mia Farrow in the lead role for the film, following the breakdown of Farrow's relationship with Allen at the time.As the title suggests, the film is a (very) intricately plotted murder mystery interspersed with great comedy acting by the main protagonists Allen as Larry Lipton, a publishing executive, and Keaton his wife Carol, who proves to be a very enthusiastic amateur sleuth. The plot centres on suspicions that Carol has that the apparently straightforward death by heart attack of one of their neighbours is actually a murder committed by the husband Paul House (superbly played by Jerry Adler, later star of The Sopranos TV series). Along with friend Ted (another great performance in an Allen film by Alan Alda, following that in Crimes and Misdemeanours) Carol dreams up numerous possible murder schemes, to Larry's total disbelief, until Larry becomes convinced all is not as it seems when he and Carol spot Mrs House still alive. It transpires that the neighbours had contrived a complex plot for Mrs House to take the place (and large inheritance) of her doppelganger sister upon her death at the Houses' appartment, only for Mrs House to be double-crossed (and eventually murdered) by Paul, who is intending to elope with a younger mistress (Helen Moss played by Melanie Norris)In addition to Allen and Keaton's excellent performances, plaudits should also go to Angelica Huston as Marcia Fox, an aspiring author friend of Larry's, who is brilliant as a potential temptress for both Larry and Ted, and who skillfully pieces together the plot hatched by Paul. Huston's role is far more substantial than the one she had in her first outing with Allen in Crimes and Misdemeanours, and was a role for which she was rightly nominated for a BAFTA as Best Supporting Actress.The film contains a number of particularly well scripted and shot set pieces, including the sequence in which the group of amateur sleuths attempt to trap Paul by playing to him a phone recording of Helen's voice, recorded at a fake acting audition, which has been edited together by Larry & co. to suggest that Larry and Carol have possession of Paul's wife's dead body. Also impressive is the final denouement scene, where Paul confronts Larry in an old cinema to the playing backdrop of the magnificent mirror scene from the climax of Orson Welles' The Lady From Shanghai.In summary therefore, not a film to compare with the likes of Manhattan, The Purple Rose of Cairo or Crimes and Misdemeanours, but well worth seeing for some great Allen-scripted comedy and top acting performances from messrs. Allen, Keaton, Alda, Huston and Adler.

SAFE READING - NO SPOILERSI have been a great fan of Woody Allen from his stand-up days; the neurotic, inept and socially unsophisticated Jewish character he plays (and joked about) has the same qualities as Chaplain's bowler-hatted character.With flavours of Hitchcock's "Rear Window", a jazzy score, filled with funny scenes and classic Allen one-liners, it tells the story of the typical Allen neurotic and lovelorn character looking for the right woman but with a subtle blend of murder. As all of Allen's early films were, it is set in New York and the city (as usual) comes off well; he always did use his settings to great effect and to their advantage.With all of this going on, it is Allen and Keaton's film with Keaton winning by a length. Very kindly, he wrote her character with his usual great skill and generously awarded her some great scenes in which he almost plays the butt of her jokes, looking a little like the straight guy. They make a wonderfully, neurotic pair and their comic timing elevates this film to one of his funniest against some very stiff competition.Recommended

What a majestic movie - Woody Allen's tongue-in-cheek homage to many a mystery movie, as well as a number of Hitchcock classics such as Rear Window.The wonderful Diane Keaton stars as Allen's energetic partner with a fertile imagination, convinced their New York apartment neighbour has murdered his wife. Allen is horrified at her amateur sleuthing but equally aghast that handsome pal Alan Alda is so keen to help her with the mystery. So he ends up as a reluctant and hapless assistant.It's mesmerising, hilarious and full of neat plot twists, coupled with some terrific set pieces and a fine finale. I'm not a Woody Allen fan but this is magnificent.

I am among those who thought Woody Allen's best films were made in the 60s and 70s, but here's a really entertaining "conversation with himself" that manages to make the ensemble cast into a kind of subconscious chorus of the director's inner thoughts and anxieties. Perhaps the first ensemble portrayal of a highly humorous solipsism! And it's good fun in the ordinary sense as well!

I love everything about this film, Allen & Keaton back together (personally I didn't miss Farrow for a second!), great supporting cast, great music etc.. For those unfamiliar with Woody's films, this is a good place to start because it's such an easy watch, if however Allen's performance gets on your nerves then he is obviously not your cup of tea. I've seen almost all his movies at least once but this one many times. The plot reminds me of those classic Thin Man films of the 30's, as the cast play detective after the death of an elderly neighbor. I recommend you give this a try, not guaranteed to cater for all tastes but I believe the majority will approve.