THE MOVIE

This Woody Allen film follows the adventures of C.W Briggs a bumbling investigator who works for an insurance company in the 1940s. Briggs is a bit old fashioned and although a very successful investigator is starting to fall behind when it comes to modern systems for efficiency and streamlining.

Then one night while out at an office function Briggs, along with the offices new efficiency expert Betty Ann Fitzgerald, are hypnotized. The only problem is the cunning hypnotist doesn’t fully bring them out of their hypnotic state. So, a few days later, when he phones Briggs up he is able to control him over the phone. Making him steal several large caches of jewels.

This is pretty standard Allen stuff and at stages it even seems that he is re-treading old ground. However, as usual it is very entertaining and provides the audience with not only a few laughs, but a bit of excitement, thrills and mystery. Allen knows exactly what he is doing with this material and it shows as the film is competently written and well acted. Fans of Allen should certainly check this one out although anyone interested in getting into his films should probably start elsewhere.

THE TRANSFER

Video:

This DVD looks great and really allows you to marvel at the wonderful production design that went into this film. It is presented in 16x9, 1.78:1 widescreen and is very sharp, showing plenty of detail, even in shadow. Colors look great and the palate chosen for the film is recreated wonderfully with no problems. There is a bit of aliasing and some film artefacts present but these are minor and don’t really warrant a mention. All up this is a great transfer.

Audio:

The audio on this is very simple and comes in the form of an English DD 2.0 track. All of the dialogue is clear and easy to hear, syncing up well with the onscreen action. Although this is really the only important part of the transfer I felt that the music needed to be discussed. This film uses typical ‘forties’ music to convey feel but I felt that some of it was mixed a little to high and came across a tad obtrusive. Still that may have been intended.

THE EXTRAS

No real extras here. We have the usual biographies and production notes and then a trailer.

SUMMARY

This is an enjoyable and fun film that while good to watch doesn’t really stay with you afterwards. Still that isn’t saying that you shouldn’t watch it. Allen is a master of this stuff and here he is really on his game. If only it wasn’t going over familiar ground.