-Leaving one screenplay barely begun, Woody left for a tour of Europe in the summer of 1988. It wasn't long before another script idea popped into his head. Rather than abandon the earlier idea, Woody decided to combine the two scripts into one and began scribbling a new screenplay on the stationery of the various hotels at which he stayed. The collection of drafts imprinted with the logos of Stockholm's Grand Hotel, the Villa d'Este on Lake Como, the Gritti Palace in Venice and Claridge's in London became the basis for one of Woody's most popular and critically acclaimed movies. [3]
-As Woody later explained, "Crimes And Misdemeanors” is about people who don't see. They don't see themselves as others see them. They don't see the right and wrong situations. And that was a strong metaphor in the movie." [3]
-“Crimes and Misdemeanors” is Woody Allen’s heaviest, most intimidating film yet. [2]
-In “Crimes and Misdemeanors,” a brilliant balance between comedy and drama, Woody turned out a successful film that was serious, witty, and bore no resemblance to Bergman movies. [4]
-"Crimes and Misdemeanors" is not, properly speaking, a thriller, and yet it plays like one. In fact, it plays a little like those film noir classics of the 1940s, like "Double Indemnity," in which a man thinks of himself as moral, but finds out otherwise. The movie generates the best kind of suspense, because it's not about what will happen to people - it's about what decisions they will reach. We have the same information they have. What would we do? How far would we go to protect our happiness and reputation? How selfish would we be? Is our comfort worth more than another person's life? Allen does not evade this question, and his answer seems to be, yes, for some people, it would be. Anyone who reads the crime reports in the daily papers would be hard put to disagree with him. [6]
-Woody Allen: “I think it’s one of my better films. I think it’s one of the more successful ones, because I felt it had some substance to chew on and it portrayed the philosophical and intellectual interest that I had in this subject matter in a reasonably entertaining way. I thought there were some laughs in it and some tense moments. So, in general, I felt more positive about it.” [5]
Judah Rosenthal is an ophthalmologist and a pillar of the community who has a big problem: his mistress Dolores Paley has told him that he is to leave his wife and marry her - as he had promised to do - or she will tell everyone of their affair. When he intercepts a letter Dolores has written to his wife Miriam, he is frantic. He confesses all to his shady brother Jack who assures him that he has friends who can take care of her. Meanwhile, filmmaker Cliff Stern is having his own problems. He's been working on a documentary film for some time but has yet to complete it. He and his wife Wendy have long ago stopped loving one another and are clearly on their way to divorce. He falls in love with Halley Reed who works with a producer, Lester. Cliff soon finds himself making a documentary about Lester and hates every minute of it. [1]
-Woody Allen didn’t plan to appear in it. It had, originally, been just about Judah Rosenthal (Landau). I guess Touchstone (who was distributing it) couldn’t help but notice that “Another Woman” and “September” were financial disasters (even by art-house standards), while “Hannah and her Sisters” was a hit, and “Manhattan” and “Annie Hall” were veritable blockbusters. This led them to the (perhaps reasonable) conclusion that Woody Allen movies were only profitable ventures when Woody Allen himself appeared in them. So, when the screenplay for “Crimes and Misdemeanor”s came across the table, no doubt looking for all the world like an even grimmer Another Woman, Allen was reportedly asked to write a small part for himself. [2]
-To the best of my knowledge, this is the first instance of studio interference in Allen’s work since way back in 1966, when “What’s Up, Tiger Lily?” was re-worked without Allen’s knowledge or consent. [2]
-A variety of titles were proposed and rejected including "Brothers," dropped because of a similarly-titled television show and "High Crimes And Misdemeanors" which Woody thought sounded too much like Gilbert and Sullivan. [3]
-It was also nearly called “The Eyes of God.” [2]
-One-third of the film had Woody Allen's character shooting a documentary on old vaudevillians, with Mia Farrow as the head of the institute to which they belonged. Allen didn't like the scenes in the final cut. During postproduction he cut an entire third of the film, then rewrote and re-shot that section from scratch. As a result, Sean Young's scenes were cut out, and Daryl Hannah's role was reduced to a brief cameo. [1]
-The [Mia Farrow] side-story was re-shot almost entirely at the last minute. In the original version, Farrow was married, not Allen, and she worked at a hospital at which Allen was shooting a documentary. Lester was only a minor character. [2]
This is reality. In reality we rationalize, we deny or we couldn't go on living.
-Woody Allen: “…Existential subjects to me are still the only subjects worth dealing with. Any time one deals with other subjects one is not aiming for the highest goal. One can be aiming at some very interesting things, but it’s not the deepest thing for me. I don’t think that one can aim more deeply than at so-called existential themes, the spiritual themes.” [5]
-WA: “’Crimes and Misdemeanors’ is about people who don’t see. They don’t see themselves as others see them. They don’t see the right and wrong of situations. And that was a strong metaphor in the movie.” [5]
-WA: “[Judah] has a set of values and they are his values. And we live in a world where there’s nobody to punish you, if you don’t punish yourself. Judah is someone who does what’s expedient for him when he has to. And he gets away with it! And leads a wonderful life after, presumably. If he doesn’t choose to punish himself then he’s gotten away with it.” [5]
-WA: “My feeling was that once his brother calls and tells him that the deed is done, Judah crosses an irrevocable threshold in his life from which he can never return. At first it starts to dawn on him. He meets if with a mixture of relief and terror as well. And when he sits there with the group of people, he’s like in a different world. They’re all talking about mundane things, and he’s realizing that he has to get back to the flat of his mistress. He instantly starts to feel anxiety and fear. When he’s in the flat, he’s able to get a possession of himself, sufficiently. But what’s interesting to me there is what goes through his mind at the time. What I’m interested in is just his mind.” [5]
-WA: “…It’s too meaningful a moment. It’s very important that we stop the forward flow of the narrative and look in there for a while. His internal conflict is so important at the time, because the deed that he’s just been responsible for is so immense.” [5]
-[SPOLIERS] [Woody is asked if Judah has managed to solve his moral dilemma, he responses:] “Solved it? No! It’s not a big moral dilemma for him at all. As soon as his brother suggests the murder of Dolores, his first reaction is the stereotypical reaction dictated by his social milieu, but even minutes later, before his brother leaves, he’s already thinking, ‘Well you know, maybe I should give this idea some thought.’ And all his thinking after that becomes rationalizations to permit him to carry on with the plan. Judah’s never really in too much of a quandary. Any quandary he has, he’s going to rationalize it away to do what he wants. And he does it, and gets away with it. He has a couple of tense moments after, a couple of bad moments, but that’s all. He leaves the party with his beautiful wife. His daughter is going to get married soon. Everything is fine for him. So, if he doesn’t choose to punish himself, nobody else will. Evil is only punished if you get caught. He’s a terrible person, but he himself is fine.” –Woody Allen [5]
-The role of Prof. Louis Levy, subject of Cliff Stern's documentary in this film, is played by non-actor and therapist friend of Woody Allen's , world-renowned Martin Bergmann, clinical professor of psychology in New York University's post-doctoral program. [1]
-Originally, Alan Alda was only supposed to appear in the opening party scene with Daryl Hannah. Woody Allen expanded Alda's part after he asked Alda to improvise and Allen liked the improvisation. Allen wrote Alda's part as they went along. [1]
-Woody Allen felt that he had been too "nice" to the characters in the end of “Hannah and Her Sisters,” so he wrote this film as a response to those feelings. [1]
-Martin Landau was originally cast as Jack Rosenthal. [1]
-Originally, the iconic final scene was supposed to be between Judah and Ben. But Sam Waterston was unavailable for shooting, so Allen himself stepped in. [2]
-The adopted daughter of Mia Farrow and Woody Allen, Dylan O'Sullivan Farrow, appears as an extra at the end, as a guest at Rabbi Ben's daughter's wedding. [1]
-This is the first of four collaborations of director Woody Allen and cinematographer Sven Nykvist, who had been a regular director of photography for Ingmar Bergman, one of Allen's idols. The pair's three other collaborations were Another Woman (1988), the New York Stories (1989) segment "Oedipus Wrecks" and Celebrity (1998). [1]
-When author Stig Bjorkman asks Woody if he would “want to try and deal with death again in a poetical way?” Woody responses, “Yes, I would like to.” In 2005, Woody nails the subject matter in one of his biggest hits, “Match Point.” [5]
-Three Oscar nominations: Best Director, Best Screenplay and Best Supporting Actor (Martin Landau). The next year (this movie came out a bit later in Britain), it picked up six BAFTA nominations: Best Film, Best Director, Best Screenplay, Best Editing, Best Supporting Actor (Alda), and Best Supporting Actress (Huston). [2]
-Alan Alda won the Best Supporting Actor award from both the National Board of Review and the New York Film Critics Circle [3]
-Woody won the Writers Guild of America award for Best Screenplay Written Directly For The Screen. [3]
-Ranked at the No. #267 spot in an Empire Magazine poll of "The 500 Greatest Movies of All Time". [1]
-The movie was voted by the UK's 'The Guardian' newspaper readership as the third best Woody Allen film in October 2013. [1]
-Selected as one of the "1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die", edited by Steven Schneider. [1]
The last time I was inside a woman was when I visited the Statue of Liberty.
Comedy is tragedy plus time!
-Vincent Canby for The New York Times wrote: "The principal characters in ''Crimes and Misdemeanors,'' Mr. Allen's most securely serious and funny film to date, have a way of jumping headlong from the specific to the general, trying to place themselves in some larger system of things. So, too, does Mr. Allen, and never before has he made the leap with more self-assurance than in this adventurous dramatic comedy, which is a kind of companion piece to ''Hannah and Her Sisters.'' He hits the bull's-eye again."
-Roger Ebert for the Chicago Sun Times wrote: ""Crimes and Misdemeanors" tells his story with what Allen calls realism, and what others might call bleak irony. He also tells it with a great deal of humor. Who else but Woody Allen could make a movie in which virtue is punished, evildoing is rewarded and there is a lot of laughter - even subversive laughter at the most shocking times?"
-Every Woody Allen Website critic wrote: "At the time, I couldn’t believe the audacity of the movie — that it would tell the story it tells, the way it tells it. …but this was a movie that made itself infinitely more dispiriting by being about a much more mundane, familiar form of evil.The fearlessness of Martin Landau’s performance comes from the way he’s not afraid to be truly ugly and unlikable. Not many actors would want to be seen in this light. He commits a great crime, yes, but he’s dishonest and immoral on a smaller scale as well. He lies to his family and his friends, there are allusions to theft from his charitable organizations, and he often belittles those around him (especially his brother). Landau is playing Allen’s first real villain."
-Although critics debated the meaning of the film, the idea was perfectly clear to John Simon, who hailed Woody’s courage for tacking the subject and his “guts” to come up with an honest answer: “There is no justice, no rhyme or reason in the universe, no God.” The film was, in Simon’s opinion, “Allen’s first successful blending of drama and comedy plot and subplot.” [4]
-The accolades didn't impress Woody, however. Asked how he felt about the praise heaped upon this film he responded, "When I put out a film that enjoys any acceptance that isn't the most mild or grudging, I immediately become suspicious of it. A certain amount of positive response makes me feel comfortable and proud. Then beyond that, I start to feel convinced that a work of any real finesse and subtlety and depth couldn't be as popular as it is." [3]
- Crimes and Misdemeanors has a 94% Rotten Tomatoes rating as of 2021.
