No, Humphrey Bogart never actually said, "Play it again, Sam" - neither in Casablanca (1942) nor in any of the other Bogart films Woody Allen references in this movie, adapted from his hit Broadway play. But that hardly seems to matter, because while Play It Again, Sam (1972) is one of the most appealing and funny "romantic" comedies of its period (a modern angst-filled version of Casablanca), it's also a witty and charming take on what movies mean to us - the words and images we (sometimes mistakenly) take from them, their impact on our ideas of life and love, and their function as collective cultural dreams. Allan Felix, Allen's character in this movie, is a film writer whose wife has left him because she wants to get out into the world and experience "Life," while he prefers to sit in the dark in front of a flickering screen. His romantic ideals are totally informed by movies, and in his hilariously troubled relationships with women, he turns to a fantasy Bogart for advice and support. If he thinks Bogie really said the line, then aren't the facts rather beside the point?

Set in San Francisco, the story centers around the attempts of a well-meaning married couple, Linda (Diane Keaton) and Dick (Tony Roberts), to find a suitable mate - or at least set up a non-disastrous date - for the dumped and lonely Woody. Every effort, of course, ends up a mess. The only woman he's comfortable with is Linda, and as they are forced together more and more by her workaholic husband's neglect, they begin to fall for each other. Egged on by the ghost of Bogie, they begin an affair, and like the romantic ideal he always imagined in his movie-dream world, Woody makes a great and noble sacrifice for the sake of Linda and Dick's marriage, played out on the tarmac in a near-exact duplicate of the closing scene of Casablanca. Life imitates art in a bittersweet ending for all concerned.

This is the first time audiences got to see Allen and Keaton together on film. It was the beginning of an off-screen relationship that lasted only a few years but resulted in an ideal movie team that would co-star in seven more feature films together, from Sleeper (1973) to Manhattan Murder Mystery (1993). In between, of course, there was Keaton's Academy Award-winning performance as the title character of Allen's Annie Hall (1977) - which may not be the totally factual account of their relationship, but did that matter to the audiences who believed that it was? The two initially paired up while working on the stage version of Play It Again, Sam, where they also became good friends with Tony Roberts. Allen directed Roberts in five movies after this, including A Midsummer Night's Sex Comedy (1982), the beginning of Allen's long on-and-off-screen relationship with Mia Farrow.

Although this stays in the memory as a Woody Allen film, he did not actually direct it, even though he had already made three movies of his own - What's Up, Tiger Lily? (1966), Take the Money and Run (1969), and Bananas (1971). "I would never want to direct a play into a movie," Allen said in an interview with Cinema in March 1972. "I would only be interested in working on original projects for the screen. I was already at work on [Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex, 1972], and I didn't want to spend a year doing a project that I had done on Broadway." Instead, he adapted the play in about 10 days ("It was so easy to do") with the help of director Herb Ross, who Allen found ideal for the job. He hoped that with Ross at the helm, he would get "a nice, solid, funny commercial picture, and hopefully entice a broader audience for me than I get with my own films." That's exactly what happened. Saturday Review found the actor "never so droll or so touching under his own direction," and critical praise for Keaton gave her career another boost after her appearance in The Godfather (1972). It made Allen a star with mass-audience appeal for the first time and helped him financially - his 10 percent of the gross brought him more than $1 million in profits.

Director Herbert Ross began his career as a dancer and choreographer, working for the American Ballet Theater while in his 20s, then choreographing Hollywood films beginning in the mid-1950s, with Carmen Jones (1954) and later Dr. Dolittle (1967) and Funny Girl (1968). He directed two of the biggest hits of 1977, The Goodbye Girl and The Turning Point, a ballet movie that earned him Oscar nominations for Best Picture and Best Director. The Goodbye Girl, which also got a Best Picture nod, was the second film in his frequent association with writer Neil Simon.

Producers: Charles H. Joffe, Arthur P. Jacobs, Frank Capra, Jr.
Director: Herbert Ross
Screenplay: Woody Allen, based on his play
Cinematography: Owen Roizman
Editing: Marion Rothman
Production Design: Ed Wittstein
Original Music: Billy Goldenberg
Cast: Woody Allen (Allan), Diane Keaton (Linda), Tony Roberts (Dick), Jerry Lacy (Humphrey Bogart), Susan Anspach (Nancy), Jennifer Salt (Sharon), Joy Bang (Julie), Viva (Jennifer).
C-86m. Letterboxed. Closed captioning.

by Rob Nixon