Bungling criminals have been a source of good and bad entertainment over the years and there are some of these movies that are bad enough to leave a horrible taste in your mouth. Woody Allen has don't some very inventive movies, whether it's the story or the style that the film was shot in he usually has some different way to convey the plot. Doing a fake documentary about a fictitious character is not something new, and Allen will later do it successfully in 1983 with Zelig. But unfortunately here the humor is so dry its brittle, and the story just doesn't capture the viewer's attention.
The life of Virgil Starkwell is examined from his early criminal career through his botched hold-ups and into his outlandish jailbreaks. The story itself is slow to start and regrettably doesn't pick up enough to carry the rest of the plot, which is unfortunate because some of the situations that Starkwell gets into would be funny in the right frame work. Some of the scenes come across so bad that its hard to believe that these were the final shots that were used to complete the movie. The only bright spot in this film is hearing Jackson Beck, the renowned newsreel narrator and voice over actor, recount the story from the documenters point of view.
I usually like Allen's work and over the years have grown to love some of the films that other people just couldn't grasp or enjoy. Here he seems to bungle along making the film as much as Starkwell does in the story, with just about as much success. If your looking for an early film of Allen's to watch and enjoy don't bother with this one, you'll thank yourself afterwards.
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