The Curse of the Jade Scorpion (2001 Woody Allen & scr)

A fantastic idea (insurance investigator doesn't know he's the thief, triggered by hypnotism) which he'd had 35 years earlier, Woody's 'flop' ("it may be the worst film I've made") needs reevaluating. It didn't even rate a UK theatrical release.

It has a great 40s feel (evoking The Front Page and Double Indemnity) with splendid Santo Loquasto designs and locations, beautifully shot by Zhao Fei. The eclectic soundtrack is as good as usual, using one particular song to act as the robbery theme.

OK, I think I might agree with 'I think I went wrong in playing the lead', but that doesn't sink the film by any means, and we have good one-liners and juicy insults between him and Helen Hunt, of whom he thought more highly than I do. With Dan Aykroyd, Elizabeth Berkeley, Charlize Theron (a sort of Veronica Lake character, displaying what Woody calls 'screen humidity'), David Ogden Stiers, Wallace Shawn and John Schuck ('Painless' from the film of MASH). It's great fun.

Another film we'd unjustly neglected for years and years.

Quotes from Eric Lax 'Conversations with Woody Allen' (2009).