Self-hating Jew filter/ Gefilter

September 5, 2007 7:54 AM

Help me remember which of Woody Allen's movies contains this scene...

...in it, Allen dons fake sidecurls and a Hassidic-style hat and gives a mock lecture on the meaning of Passover. Note: this is not the scene in "Annie Hall" when Annie's anti-Semitic grandmother looks at Allen at her dinner table and sees him in ultra-orthodox garb. IMDB, unfortunately, doesn't seem to mention it, but I believe it's in one of his earlier films (i.e. the era of "Bananas").

I promise it's for a good cause. Thanks to all!

posted by foxy_hedgehog to media & arts (8 comments total)

It's either
Take The Money And Run or Zelig. In Take the Money and Run, he takes some sort of drug that causes a temporary transformation, in Zelig, his character blends in with people.

There's a whole page of Woody Allen trivia here:
http://wso.williams.edu/orgs/trivia/snapper/hours/woodyans.htm
posted by cosmicbandito at 8:20 AM on September 5, 2007

Hmm. I remember this being from "Take the Money and Run", but can't find supporting evidence.
posted by rottytooth at 8:20 AM on September 5, 2007

Its from his first film, Take the Money and Run. In jail, Allen's character, Virgil Starkwell, agrees to be a guinea pig for a new drug. It turns him briefly into a rabbi, and Allen is seen sitting in his cell with rabbinical beard, hat and ringlets, discoursing on the Talmud.
posted by ND¢ at 8:22 AM on September 5, 2007

Here's a link to the scene ND¢ mentions, with a photo.
posted by iconomy at 8:28 AM on September 5, 2007

There's a scene in Zelig where he turns into a hasidim, but there's no discoursing going on.
posted by signal at 8:41 AM on September 5, 2007

Is it in black and white? If it is, then I think it's from 'Love and Death.' My memory's a little fuzzy, though. Otherwise, 'Take the Money and Run' seems a likely candidate.
posted by SixteenTons at 12:09 PM on September 5, 2007

Nope, it's definitely the rabbi behind bars scene from Take the Money and Run.
posted by Rykey at 1:08 PM on September 5, 2007

Huzzah to you all! PS I didn't know there were this many movies where Allen becomes a Hassid manque.
posted by foxy_hedgehog at 6:33 PM on September 5, 2007