PLAY IT AGAIN, SAM has one of the most quotable (and joke-able) line in cinema history: "I'm so depressed." It introduces Woody Allen as a complete neurotic who can't seem to look at the open doors all around him and prefers to consult an analyst -- be it an actual psychiatrist or us, the viewer -- and whine about his inability to relate to the little things in life without creating some turbulent drama complete with hoots and clicks. It's survived to this day, and whenever his name comes up, people tend to sigh and think, "Oh no -- more angst coming from successful white people from the Upper East Side!" <br /><br />However, this is not a Woody Allen movie. This is Herbert Ross' adaptation of a Woody Allen play, but it's done in such a way that from start to finish it resembles the type of comic fantasies Allen himself would direct in the latter part of the Seventies and from then on. PLAY IT AGAIN, SAM tells the story of Allan Felix, a film critic whose wife Nancy (Susan Anspach) has left him because she, plain and simple, needs excitement. (Sounds familiar? He would explore a near-identical situation with the relationship between Alvy Singer and Annie Hall.) Allan of course, becomes depressed. Because his apartment is a shrine to all things Humphrey Bogart (the movie begins with Allan at an art-house movie theatre at the end of CASABLANCA), it's no surprise when Bogart makes his own appearance and gives Allan pointers about how to react to women while telling him what went wrong. At the same time, Linda and Dick (Diane Keaton and Tony Roberts), his married friends, also make their appearance and try to see if prospective matches can take Allan off of his arrested development. Sadly -- or should I say, hilariously -- every women they set Allan up with proves to be dismal failures, but the surprising thing is that the more time Allan and Linda spend time together, the more they find that they relate to each other. It's just time when pressure from Bogart and Allan's own growing gumption will make him take the next step.<br /><br />One of the most remarkable things in PLAY IT AGAIN, SAM is how it becomes the first Woody Allen story to incorporate fantasy as a part of reality in a way that doesn't seem gimmicky. No dreamy music, no special effects -- they just appear, in Allan's mind, cohabiting and egging him on in his neuroses. Bogart suddenly materializing in the background, in shadows, is priceless (and Jerry Lacy virtually channels Bogart's mannerisms and voice down to a science), but so is a sequence when Allan and Linda are sitting on the sofa. Allan is receiving pressure from Bogart to make a move on her. Suddenly, an angry Nancy makes her announcement, complete with a gun, and shoots Bogart in classic film-noir fashion. Needless to say, Allan and Linda resolve their issue separately, but it's a clever move, one that would make its appearance in a plethora of situations in subsequent movies. However, blending the events of CASABLANCA as a part of what transpires between Allan and Linda elevates the more comedic aspects of PLAY IT AGAIN, SAM to a very touching moment. It's part of Allen's way of paying homage to the classic films that were made when he was growing up, and he would return to this again in THE PURPLE ROSE OF CAIRO with equally clever results.