The Compleat Neurotic

When menaced by a revolver-brandishing intruder in his new play, Woody Allen implores, "Don't pull the trigger. I'm a bleeder!" Though no shot is fired, Play It Again, Sam is riddled with laughs. Apart from being a hemophiliac, Allen's latest hero, Allan Felix, is an exposed ganglion of neuroses, guilts and self-recriminations. He looks like a wilted scarecrow that would cringe at a sparrow's chirp. He has so many psychological hang-ups that he makes playgoers feel positively healthy, which may be why they tend to love him.

Allan Felix's problem in the play is that no one seems to love him. His wife has just left him. He is too inept to cook even a frozen TV dinner, though he does relish licking it. His best friend (Anthony Roberts) and his best friend's wife (Diane Keaton) round up several miniskirted cuties for him, but nothing happens. Even in his fantasies, girls reject him.

One fantasy hero does not reject him --Humphrey Bogart. Bogey (Jerry Lacy) coaches him. Result: he ends up in bed with his best friend's wife. More guilt, more self-recrimination. Too much more of the same, perhaps, for the play does not properly progress along with the evening. However, it is amusement enough to have Woody Allen's kooky angle of vision, his nimble jokes and his woefully unconfident presence.

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