I saw it about 34 years ago when it first came out on VHS. I was disappointed. It could be lowered expectations at work, but I enjoyed watching it a second time.
Set somewhere in central Europe, apparently in the 1920s or '30s. A Nazi allegory. Allen joins other Jews trying to find a murderer prowling the city.
I took it as an arthouse film--it's in black & white--but John Baxter, in his biography of Allen, mentioned its failure as a horror movie which I found strange.
The Criterion Channel is featuring the films of Jodie Foster and included this movie. She has a small role as a prostitute, the weakest part of the movie. The prostitutes cheerfully chattering away about their work wasn't good, but it was shorter than I remembered.
Mia Farrow as a sword swallower in a circus who flees after she catches boyfriend clown John Malkovitch making out with Madonna. Farrow wanders around through the night with Allen.
I didn't remember Fred Gwynne being in it. John Malkovitch, Donald Pleasance, Lilly Tomlin, David Ogden Stiers, Kathy Bates, Madonna, John Cusack and Kurtwood Smith among others.
With music by Kurt Weill, mostly Threepenny Opera.
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