In Small Time Crooks, Woody Allen plays someone radically distinct from himself and his standard film persona--Ray, a failed safe-cracker who believes that his nickname "The Brain" is other than sarcastic. Increasingly, Allen is at his best when least present in his films, either by playing someone else or by having someone else play him. Good and funny as he is here, though, the film belongs to the two women stars: Tracey Ullmann is a force of nature as Frenchy, Ray's wife, who turns their cookie shop cover story for a bank job into a multi-million dollar enterprise and then decides that she wants to smarten up their image; Elaine May, meanwhile, is adorable as Frenchie's dim cousin May, one of the film's principal voices of good sense. Hugh Grant is a splendidly despicable gigolo and a large cast do impressive comic turns. Another of the film's stars, though, is the decor of Frenchie's apartment--there's a guilty pleasure in seeing just what vast wealth and bad taste can do. Small Time Crooks is lightweight Allen, but it is attractively good-humoured and intelligently plotted and not above the pleasures of pure slapstick--the sight gags when Ray and his gang are trying to tunnel into the bank are predictable but still funny.
On the DVD: The DVD has Dolby sound, which brings out attractively a score made up of forgotten pop songs from the late-Swing Era; the anamorphic widescreen picture gives surprising crispness to what is, most of the time, a chamber piece.--Roz Kaveney
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