Crimes and Misdemeanors (1989): Woody Allen Oscar-Nominated Inquisition into the Nature of Evil, Boasting Terrific Star Cast, Allen, Farrow, Anjelica Huston, Martin Landau, Claire Bloom

Crimes and Misdemeanors, Woody Allen’s masterful inquisition into the nature of evil, silenced those critics and fans that wished he would return to his outrageous farces (Bananas) and romantic serio-comedies (Annie Hall, Manhattan) of the 1970s.

Grade: B+ (**** out of *****)

Crimes and Misdemeanors
Theatrical release poster

Allen tackles morality and murder in a story about Judah Rosenthal (Martin Landau), an ophthalmologist esteemed by family, friends and colleagues. Judah has a less admirable life: His mistress, Dolores (Anjelica Huston) is determined to reveal their affair to his wife Miriam (Claire Bloom), and threatens to expose his past embezzling. Judah decides he has no choice but to have her killed and he does that with the help of his underworld-connected brother, Jack (Jerry Orbach).

Instead of taking a casually brutal approach, Allen dwells on the consequences of sin. But he doesn’t neglect humor, which resides in the relationships between a politically committed documentarian, Cliff Stern (played by Allen himself), his egotistical commercial TV director brother-in-law Lester (Alan Alda) and a TV producer (Mia Farrow), with whom Cliff falls in love. In the film’s dark final scene, Judah and Cliff finally meet, both struggling with their ideas of right and wrong, morality and immorality, crimes and misdemeanors.

The stories run parallel, and Allen shows originality in interweaving the comedy with the melodrama, which some of his core fans found hard to accept. But there was no doubt that Allen’s intent in examining heavy themes like guilt and justice, and the arbitrary randomness of both phenomena, was serious.

Released by Orion and produced by Jack Rollins and Charles H. Joffe, “Crimes and Misdemeanors” was nominated for three Oscars: for Director Allen, Supporting Actor Martin Landau, and Original Screenplay for Allen. As director, Allen lost to Oliver Stone for “Born on the Fourth of July;” as writer, he lost to Tom Schulman for “Dead Poets Society.” Landau lost to Denzel Washington for “Glory.”