Take the Money and Run (film)
1969 film by Woody Allen
Take the Money and Run is a 1969 American mockumentary crime comedy film directed by Woody Allen. Allen co-wrote the screenplay with Mickey Rose and stars alongside Janet Margolin. The film chronicles the life of Virgil Starkwell, an inept bank robber.
Filmed in San Francisco and San Quentin State Prison, Take the Money and Run received Golden Laurel nominations for Male Comedy Performance (Woody Allen) and Male New Face (Woody Allen), and a Writers Guild of America Award nomination for Best Comedy Written Directly for the Screen (Woody Allen, Mickey Rose).
Plot
As a child, Virgil Starkwell is a frequent target of bullies, who take his glasses and stamp on them on the floor. In school, he scores well on an IQ test. When he steals a fountain pen, his teacher instructs the class to close their eyes so the thief can return it. While all eyes are closed, Virgil returns the pen, but takes the opportunity to "feel" all the girls.
As an adult, Virgil is clumsy and socially awkward. Stealing a gun to rob an armored truck, during a shootout with the guards, he finds that his gun is a cigarette lighter.
Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Take the Money and Run (film)” is 1969 film by Woody Allen. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Take, Money and film, not as a finished interpretation.
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Attribution, date and provenance are strongest when supported by the original work, a catalogue record and documented transmission. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 19, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q1146315. VIAF identifies the subject as 153146634499041932474. The Library of Congress control number is n2016029830. 18 of 20 selected statements include explicit references; 18 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1969.
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This entry incorporates text from “Take the Money and Run (film)” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.