Play It Again, Sam

Play It Again, Sam is a 1972 American comedy film written by and starring Woody Allen, based on his 1969 Broadway play of the same name. The film was directed by Herbert Ross, instead of Allen, who usually directs his own written work.

Play It Again, Sam

The film is about a recently divorced film critic, Allan Felix, who is urged to begin dating again by his best friend and his best friend's wife. Allan identifies with the 1942 film Casablanca and the character Rick Blaine as played by Humphrey Bogart. The film is liberally sprinkled with clips from the movie and ghost-like appearances of Bogart (Jerry Lacy) giving advice on how to treat women.

Apart from apparitions of Bogart, Allan also has frequent flashbacks of conversations with his ex-wife, Nancy, who constantly ridiculed his sexual inadequacy. Allan has just been through a messy divorce. His best friend, Dick Christie, and Dick's wife, Linda, try to convince him to go out with women again, setting him up on a series of blind dates, all of which turn out badly. Throughout the film, he is seen receiving dating advice from the ghost of Bogart, who is visible and audible only to Allan. Allan's ex-wife Nancy also makes fantasy appearances, as he imagines conversations with her about the breakdown of their marriage. On one occasion, the fantasy seems to run out of control, with both Bogart and Nancy appearing.

Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times praised the film, giving it three out of four stars and saying, "as comedies go, this is a very funny one." He elaborated, concluding, "Maybe the movie has too much coherence, and the plot is too predictable; that's a weakness of films based on well-made Broadway plays. Still, that's hardly a serious complaint about something as funny as Play It Again, Sam."[2] Gene Siskel of the Chicago Tribune also gave it three out of four stars, writing, "For those who prefer their films with a beginning, middle and an end, and, consequently, were unsettled by the hellzapoppin' plots of 'Bananas' or 'Take the Money and Run,' 'Play It Again Sam' will provide warmth, sanity, and an unconventional story with laughs."[3] Vincent Canby of The New York Times called it "a very funny film" although he felt that "the shape of the ordinary Broadway comedy, with three acts and a beginning, middle and end, inhibit the Woody Allen that I, at least, appreciate most."[4] Charles Champlin of the Los Angeles Times wrote that the film was "in the tradition of the best bright comedies of the past, full of funny lines and situations but supported and enriched by an accurately perceived and recognizable character whose own consistency provides the logic for mad events and a lasting power for the laughter."[5] David McGillivray of The Monthly Film Bulletin called it "a treat for Woody Allen fans and a quite amusing, unobjectionable comedy for everyone else," though he thought it "hardly improves" on the original play.[6]

All of this is slightly less mad than your usual Woody Allen comedy, maybe because "Play It Again, Sam" is based on Woody's Broadway play, and with a play it's a little hard to work in material like a Howard Cosell play-by-play of an assassination in South America. Still, as comedies go, this is a very funny one. Woody Allen is one of those rare comedians who understands that humor can be based on pathos as well as sadism. While the high-pressure comics overwhelm us with aggressive humor, Woody is off in the bathroom somewhere being attacked by a hairdryer.

The notion of using a Bogart character is surprisingly successful. The Bogie imitation by Jerry Lacy is good, if not great, and the movie begins and ends with variations on that great "Casablanca" ending. That, and the movie's rather conventional Broadway plot structure, give it more coherence than the previous Woody Allen films, "Take the Money and Run" and "Bananas." Maybe the movie has too much coherence, and the plot is too predictable; that's a weakness of films based on well-made Broadway plays. Still, that's hardly a serious complaint about something as funny as Play It Again, Sam."

Andrew Horton is Professor of Film and Literature at the University of Oklahoma and Director of the Aegean Institute. He is author of the popular Writing the Character-Centered Screenplay (California, 1994) and other books. Stuart Y. McDougal is Director of the Program in Comparative Literature at the University of Michigan. His previous books include Made into Movies: From Literature to Film (1985).

And, of course, the most famous one of them all for Tyler Eifert (Notre Dame). That got a smile from No. 85 as he took a few verbal jousts. Plus, one not as famous. The German national anthem for Moritz Bohringer, the Bengals' practice squad player from Germany.

Staley, who worked in Billy Price's equipment room at Ohio State before coming home, originally frowned on a Media Friday Fight Song when he found out that Bengals radio analyst Dave Lapham (Syracuse), his play-by-play voice Dan Hoard (Syracuse), Bengals director of communications Emily Parker (Syracuse) and a Bengals.com senior writer (Syracuse) all went to the Ivy of I-90.

The first time new Bengals left tackle Orlando Brown Jr. lines up next to new Bengals tight end Irv Smith Jr. against, say, Cleveland sack ace Myles Garrett, it won't be all that new. Irv Smith Sr., who advised his son to sign with the Bengals this week, lived it nearly 25 years ago. It was his last year in the NFL and he was with the 1999 expansion Browns playing tight end and his right tackle was Orlando "Zeus" Brown Sr.

Newly released music by a certain artist is never assessed in isolation by the audiences, who tend to compare it with the previous musical catalogue of the corresponding artist. Through a repeated interaction with the artist's music, the audiences build their own expectations about the future releases which affect the overall market reception. In this paper, we provide a general framework that incorporates the dynamics of these references towards addressing the classical dilemma of incremental versus radical innovation. We develop a theory rooted in classical behavioral economics of reference-building, and consider preference structures of habit formation and satiation. We then empirically measure the response of audiences to different degrees of innovation in successive musical album releases, by using a multi-attribute musical description of songs, together with their corresponding radio plays and critics' reviews. We find that a median deviation of the musical attributes of the newly released album from the reference levels of the audiences reduces the plays of the newly released albums by 23.1%, while that of the past albums increase by 13.8%, supporting the evidence for the existence of habit formation over radio stations. On the other hand, critics display the effect of satiation with a median deviation from the reference levels resulting in an average increase of 14.9% in their ratings. Our counterfactual analyses demonstrate how these findings can be utilized to adopt appropriate innovation rates to tailor-make products that cater to the preference structures of target consumers.

Woody Allen, though best known for his films, has also enjoyed a very successful career in theater. His first great success was Don't Drink the Water, which opened in 1968, and ran for 598 performances for almost two years on Broadway. Play It Again, Sam opened in 1969, playe ...

"The memory benefit that comes from performing a melody rather than just listening to it, or saying a word out loud rather than just hearing or reading it, is known as the 'production effect' on memory", says Prof. Palmer, a Canada Research Chair in Cognitive Neuroscience of Performance. "Scientists have debated whether the production effect is due to motor memories, such as knowing the feel of a particular sequence of finger movements on piano keys, or simply due to strengthened auditory memories, such as knowing how the melody tones should sound. Our paper provides new evidence that motor memories play a role in improving listeners' recognition of tones they have previously performed."

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