SMALL TIME CROOKS (DVD-216)

Woody Allen returns to his slapstick days with this comic romp, which centers on a small-time hood, Ray Winkler, who just can’t catch a break. It’s as if Virgil Starkwell has finally gotten out of prison and is still up to his old scheming. Against his wife Frenchy’s (Tracey Ullman) better judgment, Ray puts together a ragtag group of misfits, including a scene-stealing Elaine May, and immerses them in a crazy plot to rob a bank. But everything gets upended when their front, a cookie store, takes off, thrusting the Winklers into the upper echelons of New York’s high society.