Woody Allen as Miles Monroe, the Rip van Winkle protagonist of his sci-fi comedy SLEEPER.


Allen, nebbish-like owner of a Greenwich Vil- lage health food store, awakens from a 1973 ulcer operation into the totalitarian world of 2173. Wrapped in tin foil, his frozen body has been preserved for 200 years. In the interim, the world has been taken over by The Leader, whose secret police are determined to elimi- nate a burgeoning underground composed of dissenters, non-conformists and long-haired weirdos. As an “alien,” Allen is Number 1 on The Leader’s wipe-out list. The ensuing series of incidents is impossible to synopsize, but it involves a plot to kidnap The Leader’s nose (all that remains after his house was bombed) be- fore the entire Leader can be reconstituted via cloning. Along the way, Allen poses as a robot (they all wear tuxedos), falls for Rod McKuen- influenced reactionary poetess Diane Keaton, battles a giant pudding, flies, falls down (of- ten) and gets off some really zingy gag lines. Somehow, he even manages to play the Blanche Dubois part from A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE. If SLEEPER has a real flaw, it’s that Allen often cuts short some of the best material in his haste


to get on with something new, and major varia- tions between the official synopsis and what appears on screen suggest that a lot of last- minute juggling was done in the editing room. Even so, there are enough inspired moments to firmly establish Allen—if he needs es- tablishing—as one of the screen’s most unique comic talents, whose continued efforts prom- ise something of eventually classic caliber. Diane Keaton, his co-star in PLAY IT AGAIN,


SAM, is marvelously funny and sexy at the same time, and the unfamiliar supporting players are perfectly cast. The music, by the Preservation Hall Jazz Band and Allen’s own New Orleans Funeral and Ragtime Orchestra, consists mostly of jazzy renditions of old favorites like “Rock Around the Clock.” The futuristic trappings are modest but imaginative.


1973. United Artists (Rollins & Jaffe Productions). DeLuxe Color. 85 minutes. Woody Allen, Diane Keaton. Produced by Jack Grossberg. Directed by Woody Allen.


Entertainment, and included in the DVD box set THE WOODY ALLEN COLLECTION.


Available on VHS and DVD from MGM Home 21

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