Woody Allen Tonight: Part 1 of "Hassidic Tales" (from "Getting Even")

Perhaps Woody himself would approve of the idea of having this memorable scene from Take the Money and Run posted in Hungarian. In it the imprisoned aspiring career criminal Virgil Starkwell subjects himself to a drug test that has the unfortunate side effect of turning him into a rabbi.


"Why is [the man who journeyed to Chelm to meet the rabbi described as "perhaps the greatest noodge of the medieval era"] bothering Rabbi Ben Kaddish -- the Rabbi doesn't have enough trouble? The truth is, the Rabbi's in over his head with gamblers, and he has also been named in a paternity case by a Mrs. Hecht."

-- from the interpretation of tonight's first "Hassidic Tale"

by Ken

Who can forget the scene from Woody Allen's Take the Money and Run, where we can see (if not quite hear) above confirmed criminal Virgil Starkwell is turned into a rabbi? The wisdom of the rabbanim has never been far from Woody's thoughts -- or the gullibility of the people who pay attention.

There are six "Hassidic Tales" in this 1970 piece, which we're going to split down the middle between tonight and tomorrow night.


FOR OUR FIRST THREE "HASSIDIC TALES," CLICK HERE

SO FAR IN "WOODY ALLEN TONIGHT"

from Getting Even (1971)
"A Look at Organized Crime"
"Death Knocks," Part 1 and Part 2
"A Twenties Memory"
Coming tomorrow: "Hassidic Tales, with a Guide to Their Interpretation by the Noted Scholar," Part 2
Coming soon: "The Schmeed Memoirs" and "Count Dracula"

THURBER TONIGHT (including WOODY ALLEN, ROBERT BENCHLEY, BOB AND RAY, WILL CUPPY, WOLCOTT GIBBS, RING LARDNER, S. J. PERELMAN, JEAN SHEPHERD, and E. B. WHITE TONIGHT): Check out the series to date

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