On the heels of Annie Hall, the Oscar-winning romantic comedy that rocketed Woody Allen to the front ranks of American filmmakers, Manhattan continued Allen's romantic obsessions in a slightly darker, more pessimistic vein. Allen stars as Isaac Davis, a TV comedy writer sick of the pap he is forced to churn out and harboring dreams of being the great American novelist. His love life is in barbed-wire territory: he is tormented by his second ex-wife Jill (Meryl Streep), a lesbian who has written a tell-all book about their marriage, and he is dating teenager Tracy (Mariel Hemingway), to whom he refuses to commit, and keeps hinting that a breakup may be imminent. Isaac's disillusioned (and married) best friend Yale (Michael Murphy) has begun an affair with the cerebral writer Mary Wilke (Diane Keaton). While Isaac makes a last minute, sink-or-swim decision to quit his job and devote all of his time to book writing, and neurotically moans about what the lack of a full time job will do to him ("My parents won't have as good of a seat in the synagogue," he moans. "They'll be far away from God... away from the action") Yale is crippled by his lack of resolve, as indicated by his inability to leave his wife Emily (Anne Byrne). Meanwhile, Isaac and Mary begin to fall for one another. Tracy then tells Isaac the basic truth that none of his hung-up friends and past lovers fully realizes: "You have to have a little more faith in people." Manhattan is both a seriocomic dissection of perpetually dissatisfied New Yorkers and an ode to the city itself, filmed in glorious black-and-white by ace cinematographer Gordon Willis, and set to a score of rhapsodic George Gershwin music.~Hal Erickson
Director
Woody Allen
Writers
Marshall Brickman
Woody Allen
Cast
Woody AllenIsaac Davis
Diane KeatonMary Wilke
Michael MurphyYale
Mariel HemingwayTracy
Meryl StreepJill
Anne ByrneEmily
Karen LudwigConnie
Michael O'DonoghueDennis
Victor TruroParty Guest
Tisa FarrowParty Guest
Helen HanftParty Guest
Bella AbzugGuest of Honor
Kenny VanceTelevision Producer
Charles LevinTV Actor No. 1
David RascheTV Actor No. 3
Damion ShellerIsaac's Son, Willie
Wallace ShawnJeremiah
Frances ConroyShakespearean Actor
Bill AnthonyPorsche Owner
John DoumanianPorsche Owner
Ray SerraPizzeria Waiter
Gary WeisTelevision Director
Karen AllenTV Actor No. 2
Mark Linn-BakerShakespearean Actor
Crew
Charles H. JoffeProducer
Gordon WillisCinematographer
Tom PiersonMusical Arrangement
Susan E. MorseEditor
Mel BourneProduction Designer
Robert GreenhutExecutive Producer
Albert WolskyCostume Designer
Ralph LaurenCostume Designer
Fred SchulerCamera Operator
Juliet TaylorCasting
Fern BuchnerMakeup
Zubin MehtaConductor
Details
Genre
Comedy
Subgenre
Urban Comedy,Comedy of Manners,Sophisticated Comedy,Romantic Comedy