Woody Allen and Tracey Ullman play a husband and wife team in Small Time Crooks who hit the big time, but purely by accident. Allen who is as the title says, a small time crook who has done small time in the joint and has collected a gang of misfits just like him. Probably he saw the famous Edward G. Robinson classic Larceny, Inc. where Robinson and his associates buy a luggage store because of its location next to a bank where the plan is to tunnel from the store basement into the bank and rob it. Naturally Allen claims this as his original scheme.
But to do that Allen has to have a business and that's where his bimbo of a wife Tracey Ullman comes in. She has one talent, she bakes some really out of this world cookies, cookies that Famous Amos would envy. They catch on and even when a cop catches Allen and his crew breaking into the bank he wants in on the business, the cookie business.
But these rather unsophisticated Small Time Crooks who are all of a sudden fabulously wealthy find that it doesn't wear well on them. Both Allen and Ullman become targets of all kinds of big time crooks. Ullman has this lizard of an art dealer/gigolo played by Hugh Grant putting the moves on her. As she is the one with the recipe for the cookies, the money is all in her name. Woody in the meantime finds a sympathetic ear in Elaine May.
As Small Time Crooks was getting started I thought I was watching a remake of Larceny, Inc. I thought I was watching a remake. But Woody Allen took it way beyond what Warner Brothers had in mind for that 1942 film. He and Ullman are a perfectly matched pair and in a weird way they show that money might buy happiness, but happiness means different things to different people.
It's not Allen's best effort, but Small Time Crooks will definitely find an audience. It sure did with me.
But to do that Allen has to have a business and that's where his bimbo of a wife Tracey Ullman comes in. She has one talent, she bakes some really out of this world cookies, cookies that Famous Amos would envy. They catch on and even when a cop catches Allen and his crew breaking into the bank he wants in on the business, the cookie business.
But these rather unsophisticated Small Time Crooks who are all of a sudden fabulously wealthy find that it doesn't wear well on them. Both Allen and Ullman become targets of all kinds of big time crooks. Ullman has this lizard of an art dealer/gigolo played by Hugh Grant putting the moves on her. As she is the one with the recipe for the cookies, the money is all in her name. Woody in the meantime finds a sympathetic ear in Elaine May.
As Small Time Crooks was getting started I thought I was watching a remake of Larceny, Inc. I thought I was watching a remake. But Woody Allen took it way beyond what Warner Brothers had in mind for that 1942 film. He and Ullman are a perfectly matched pair and in a weird way they show that money might buy happiness, but happiness means different things to different people.
It's not Allen's best effort, but Small Time Crooks will definitely find an audience. It sure did with me.