Annie Hall At 40 News Bits: Marshall Brickman, Carol Kane, Russell Horton, Robert Weide and more

Annie Hall turned 40 earlier in the week, and there was fair amount of articles. Here’s a wrap up of what we could find.

Just like we did, Vanity Fair looked at the film that was originally envisioned. They spoke to co-writer Marshall Brickman and star Carol Kane.

Brickman says the Victorian comedy story line was actually part of another script:

One was a standard comedy, I think it was a period piece, like a Victorian comedy with costumes. Then there was this other odd idea that was Woody’s, a new form [for which] the structure would be based on associations the main character would have to the things in his life. A phrase or a word or an image would remind him of this and that.

Brickman agreed that the original cut was not working.

It was very off. As little as I knew at that time about film, I knew it needed work. It had wonderful, brilliant moments and a great performance by Diane [Keaton]. I didn’t realize to what extent you could take a cut of two-and-a-half hours that is like an albatross running down the beach trying to achieve airspeed, and try to turn it into a hawk.

Kane reveals she had a scene we’ve never heard about, with her playing cello.

I worked very hard to perfect the fingering. Then it came [time] to shoot the scene, and I started to play the cello—and I had forgotten, of course, this not being silent movie days, the fingering was not the only thing. There would be sound coming out of the cello. It was so horrendous. The crew was laughing. I don’t recall why the scene wasn’t in the final film, but that could have something to do with it.

EW spoke to another of the film’s stars – Russell Horton. Who? He’s the actor from the seminal scene featuring Marshall McLuhan. Says Horton:

Part of the reason the scene works is because I am such an a–hole and I actually believe what I’m doing, you know?

As usual, Horton never saw any part of the script he wasn’t in.

Now the second thing that’s very strange about him is, at that period, I don’t know if it’s true now, but he never let anybody see the whole script. I got the scene, but I had no idea where it fit in or how it related to anything that was going on. I didn’t even have the ending.

Fascinating insights – McLuhan kept blowing his lines. And Horton filmed a scene for Manhattan, as Mariel Hemingway‘s father, that was cut.

Robert Weide, director of the wonderful Woody Allen: A Documentary, recently spoke with Trailers From Hell, about Annie Hall.

The Guardian looked at 40 funniest moments

USA Today looked at 40 bits of trivia

Moviefone has 23 Things:

Finally, the photo we’ve used to lead this article is taken from Woody Allen’s official Facebook. They don’t do much but post great photos, and well worth a look.

40 years! And still considered one of the greatest films ever made.