Have you ever dreamt of becoming Humphrey Bogart or Ingrid Bergman in Casablanca? In that case, you must see Play it again, Sam; an absolutely delightful and delirious remake of the classic film, with Woody Allen and “his” Diane Keaton as leading actors (in fact, this film is considered as the seed of the splendid Annie Hall). Directed by Herbert Ross although originally written by Allen (he and Diane played the story at the theatres of New York before they made this film), it tells the life of Allan Felix (Woody Allen), a hypochondriac and neurotic man. The plot starts when his wife leaves him because she thinks that Allan pays more attention to the cinema than to their marriage. Then Allan, alone, takes refuge in his friends Dick (Tony Roberts) and Linda (Diane Keaton), who are married. They encourage Allan to go out with other girls, but he is too insecure and clumsy with women and he only collects spectacular failures.
On the other hand, Dick is a workaholic, so Linda has to spend more and more time with Allan. In fact, Allan falls in love with Linda, but his little self-confidence tortures him. Is it an unrequited love? Will he betray his good friend Dick breaking his marriage? Luckily, Allan gets an extra help: Bogart himself appears into hallucinations and dreams to give him advice about how he can seduce women.
As you can see, the film touches all of Woody Allen’s topics: neurosis, love issues, his characteristic humour… It is full of ingenious sentences, intelligent dialogues and crazy situations: Allen at his best. If you are a fan of Woody, you go will mad with this not-very-well-known film. If not, I’m sure that you will enjoy this cooling and non-pretentious tribute to Casablanca a lot. Of course, don’t try to watch it at the cinema (they are occupied with other fantastic new films from Hollywood, you know). But don’t worry, I have great news: there is a DVD edition in charge of Paramount (Sueños de seductor, another unfortunate translation. Also, the dubbing is quite poor, so remember to see the film in original version) and you can buy it now in Fnac (free advertising, but deserved) for only €5’95!
But, at the end, does Allan get the girl? Sorry, but I don’t want to spoil the film!
Go to http://www.casablancatrivia.com/ to learn more about Casablanca trivia and the book, Casablanca Film Trivia: Here’s Looking at You, Kid! that is devoted to it. The website has a sample chapter from the book, an interview and a biography of the author, factoids of information about the film, a Casablanca crossword puzzle, and other information. “Casablancaistas” will love it.