Production

After viewing the first cut of Crimes and Misdemeanors, Woody Allen chose to get rid of the first act, call back actors for reshoots, and focus on what turned out to be the film's central story.

Music

Allen makes use of classical and jazz music in many of the film's scenes. The soundtrack includes Franz Schubert's String Quartet No. 15 (a recording by the Juilliard String Quartet), which is used in the scenes leading up to Dolores' death, and Judah discovering her body.

Influences

The outline of Judah's moral dilemma—whether a person can continue everyday life with the knowledge of having committed murder—evokes the pivotal idea of Russian novelist Fyodor Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment (1866), despite suggesting a resolution nearly opposite to that of the novel.

Soundtrack

  • Rosalie (1937) – Written by Cole Porter – Performed by The Jazz Band
  • Excerpt from the Soundtrack of 'Mr. & Mrs. Smith' (1941) – Music by Edward Ward
  • Dancing on the Ceiling (1930) – Music by Richard Rodgers – Performed by Bernie Leighton
  • Taking a Chance on Love (1940) – Music by Vernon Duke – Lyrics by John La Touche
  • I Know That You Know (1926) – Music by Vincent Youmans – Lyrics by Anne Caldwell
  • English Suite No. 2 in A minor (1722) – Music by Johann Sebastian Bach – Performed by Alicia de Larrocha
  • Home Cooking – Written by Hilton Ruiz – Performed by The Hilton Ruiz Quartet
  • Happy Birthday to You (1893) – Written by Mildred J. Hill & Patty S. Hill
  • Sweet Georgia Brown (1925) – Music by Ben Bernie & Maceo Pinkard – Lyrics by Kenneth Casey
  • I've Got You (1942) – Music by Jacques Press – Lyrics by Frank Loesser
  • This Year's Kisses (1937) – Written by Irving Berlin – Performed by Ozzie Nelson
  • All I Do Is Dream of You (1934) – Music by Nacio Herb Brown – Lyrics by Arthur Freed
  • String Quartet in G major, Op. 161, D.887, 1st movement(1826) – Music by Franz Schubert – Performed by the Juilliard String Quartet
  • Murder He Says (1942) – Music by Jimmy McHugh – Lyrics by Frank Loesser
  • Beautiful Love (1931) – Music by Victor Young, Wayne King and Egbert Van Alstyne – Lyrics by Haven Gillespie
  • Great Day (1929) – Music by Vincent Youmans – Lyrics by Billy Rose & Edward Eliscu
  • Star Eyes (1943) – Music by Gene de Paul – Lyrics by Don Raye – Performed by Lee Musiker
  • Because (1902) – Music by Guy d'Hardelot – Lyrics by Edward Teschemacher
  • Crazy Rhythm (1928) – Music by Roger Wolfe Kahn & Joseph Meyer – Lyrics by Irving Caesar
  • I'll See You Again (1929) – Written by Noël Coward
  • Hopak - traditional Ukrainian dance
  • Cuban Mambo (1958) – Music by Xavier Cugat & Rafael Angulo – Lyrics by Jack Wiseman
  • Polkadots and Moonbeams (1939) – Music by Jimmy Van Heusen – Lyrics by Johnny Burke
  • I'll Be Seeing You (1938) – Music by Sammy Fain – Lyrics by Irving Kahal – Performed by Liberace

Reception

Box office

The film grossed a domestic total of $18,254,702. Woody Allen personally selected Denver for the world premiere of Crimes and Misdemeanors to open the 12th Denver International Film Festival on

October 19, 1989. Festival representative Gloria Campbell told the Colorado Springs Gazette Telegraph that Allen chose Denver because of the strength of his following there, noting that Hannah and Her Sisters "had a better run at the Esquire in Denver than anywhere else in the country."

Critical response

Crimes and Misdemeanors received mostly positive reviews. It holds a 92% rating on review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, based on 50 critics, with an average rating of 7.9/10. It holds a 77/100 weighted average score on Metacritic, based on 10 critics.

Vincent Canby of The New York Times lauded the film, remarking:

Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times gave the film four out of four, writing:

Though normally a fierce critic of Allen's work, John Simon of National Review declared the film to be "Allen's first successful blending of drama and comedy, plot and subplot", and added:

Jonathan Rosenbaum of the Chicago Reader dismissed the film, writing:

Jim Hoberman revisited the film in 2014 for The New York Times, writing:

Accolades

The film was nominated for three Academy Awards: Allen for Best Director and Best Original Screenplay, and Martin Landau for Best Actor in a Supporting Role.

In Empire magazine's 2008 poll of "The 500 Greatest Movies of All Time", Crimes and Misdemeanors was ranked number 267. In 2010, it was the first film to win the 20/20 Award for Best Picture, Best Original Screenplay (Allen), and Best Supporting Actor (Landau). It also received three additional nominations, for Best Director (Woody Allen), Best Supporting Actor (Jerry Orbach) and Best Supporting Actress (Huston). In a 2016 Time Out contributors' poll, it ranked second only to Annie Hall among Allen's efforts, with Dave Calhoun praising it as "the film in which Woody's comic and serious sides most comfortably align". The film achieved the same rank in a 2016 article by The Daily Telegraph critics Robbie Collin and Tim Robey, who wrote, "Here [Allen is] thinking deeply about moral choice, the question of whether guilt in your own eyes or the eyes of the world matters more. This bubblingly wise film, rich with beautifully dovetailing metaphors about blindness and conscience and the perils of self-knowledge, [...] is Allen on soaring form, gliding so elegantly through its maze of ideas it's as if the spirit of Fred Astaire gave it lift-off." Crimes and Misdemeanors was also named Allen's second best by Chris Nashawaty of Entertainment Weekly and Barbara VanDenbergh of The Arizona Republic, third by Darian Lusk of CBS News, and fourth by Zachary Wigon of Nerve. In a 2015 BBC critics' poll, it was voted the 57th greatest American film ever made.

In 2006, Writers Guild of America West ranked its screenplay 57th in WGA’s list of 101 Greatest Screenplays. In October 2013, the film was voted by The Guardian readers as the third best film directed by Allen.

{| class="wikitable"

|-

! Year

! Award

! Category

! Nominated work

! Result

|-

|rowspan=3|1989 || rowspan=3|Academy Awards ||Best Director || Woody Allen ||

|-

|Best Supporting Actor || Martin Landau ||

|-

|Best Original Screenplay || Woody Allen ||

|-

|1989 || Golden Globe Awards || Best Motion Picture – Drama || Crimes and Misdemeanors ||

|-

|rowspan=6|1990 || rowspan=6|British Academy Film Awards || Best Film || Robert Greenhut <br/> Woody Allen ||

|-

|Best Director || rowspan=2|Woody Allen ||

|-

|Best Original Screenplay ||

|-

|Best Supporting Actor || Alan Alda ||

|-

|Best Supporting Actress || Anjelica Huston ||

|-

|Best Film Editing || Susan E. Morse ||

|-

|1990 || Directors Guild of America Awards || Outstanding Directing - Motion Pictures || rowspan=2|Woody Allen ||

|-

|1990 || Writers Guild of America Awards || Outstanding Original Screenplay ||

|-

|rowspan=2|1989 || rowspan=2|National Board of Review || Top 10 Films || Crimes and Misdemeanors ||

|-

|Best Supporting Actor || rowspan=2|Alan Alda ||

|-

|1989 || New York Film Critics Circle || Best Supporting Actor ||

|-

|1989 || Los Angeles Film Critics Association || Best Supporting Actor || Martin Landau ||

|-

|}

Release

Home media

Crimes and Misdemeanors was released through MGM Home Entertainment on DVD on June 5, 2001. A limited-edition Blu-ray of 3,000 units was later released by Twilight Time on February 11, 2014.

Notes

References