Cast:
Woody Allen, Mia Farrow, Patrick Horgan [ More ]Director:
Woody AllenWriter:
Woody AllenProducer:
Robert GreenhutCinematographer:
Gordon WillisEditor:
Susan E. MorseProduction Designer:
Mel BourneProduction Companies:
Orion Pictures , Warner Bros.The following title card appears in opening credits after the title of the picture: "The following documentary would like to give special thanks to Dr. Eudora Fletcher, Paul Deghuee, and Mrs. Meryl Fletcher Varney." Fletcher, Deghuee, and Varney are fictional characters in the film.
The end credits contain “special thanks" to Ken Murray "for 'Golden Days of San Simeon' footage now appearing at the Hearst Castle in California." The end credits also contain the following statements: "The producers gratefully acknowledge and wish to thank the following for their assistance: John E. Allen; Harold Axe, M.D.; Nancy Casey; Bernard Chertok; Anthony Comanda; William [K.] Everson; Ralph Friedman; Bob Gaulin; Charles Gellert; Rick Herzog; Dan Jones; Paul Killiam; Laura Kreiss; Adele Lerner; Walter Levinsky; Joe Mallon; Louise Mastromano; Bill Murphy; Jack Muth; Robert Paquette; Robert Plagge; Harold Potter; John Rogers; Andrea Sheen; Bob Summers; Ted Troll; Robert Trondsen; Irwin Young. And also thank: Chappell Music, Inc.; Cinema Services, Inc.; Davlyn Gallery-New York; General Camera Corp.; The Harry Fox Agency; Kaufman Astoria Studio, Astoria, New York; Killiam Shows, Inc.; Lenses and Panaflex Cameras by Panavision; Magno Sound and Video Center, Inc; Mayor's Office of Film, Theatre and Broadcasting; National Medical Audio-Visual Center of the National Library of Medicine; New Jersey Motion Picture and Television Commission; vintage aircraft courtesy of Old Rhinebeck Aerodrome; Warner Bros. Music; Museum of Modern Art Film stills archive; New York Daily News photo archives; Religious News Service; RCA Records photo archives; Museum of the City of New York Yiddish Theatre Collection; Hicks family private photo collection; Kaplan family private photo collection; Lehman family private photo collection; Rivman family private photo collection; Sinreich family private photo collection."
Although the ...
The following title card appears in opening credits after the title of the picture: "The following documentary would like to give special thanks to Dr. Eudora Fletcher, Paul Deghuee, and Mrs. Meryl Fletcher Varney." Fletcher, Deghuee, and Varney are fictional characters in the film.
The end credits contain “special thanks" to Ken Murray "for 'Golden Days of San Simeon' footage now appearing at the Hearst Castle in California." The end credits also contain the following statements: "The producers gratefully acknowledge and wish to thank the following for their assistance: John E. Allen; Harold Axe, M.D.; Nancy Casey; Bernard Chertok; Anthony Comanda; William [K.] Everson; Ralph Friedman; Bob Gaulin; Charles Gellert; Rick Herzog; Dan Jones; Paul Killiam; Laura Kreiss; Adele Lerner; Walter Levinsky; Joe Mallon; Louise Mastromano; Bill Murphy; Jack Muth; Robert Paquette; Robert Plagge; Harold Potter; John Rogers; Andrea Sheen; Bob Summers; Ted Troll; Robert Trondsen; Irwin Young. And also thank: Chappell Music, Inc.; Cinema Services, Inc.; Davlyn Gallery-New York; General Camera Corp.; The Harry Fox Agency; Kaufman Astoria Studio, Astoria, New York; Killiam Shows, Inc.; Lenses and Panaflex Cameras by Panavision; Magno Sound and Video Center, Inc; Mayor's Office of Film, Theatre and Broadcasting; National Medical Audio-Visual Center of the National Library of Medicine; New Jersey Motion Picture and Television Commission; vintage aircraft courtesy of Old Rhinebeck Aerodrome; Warner Bros. Music; Museum of Modern Art Film stills archive; New York Daily News photo archives; Religious News Service; RCA Records photo archives; Museum of the City of New York Yiddish Theatre Collection; Hicks family private photo collection; Kaplan family private photo collection; Lehman family private photo collection; Rivman family private photo collection; Sinreich family private photo collection."
Although the copyright claimant is Orion-Warner Company, the notice on the film reads: "Copyright Orion Pictures Co."
Among the twentieth-century news figures and popular personalities seen in newsreel footage and still photographs are: Al Capone, Calvin Coolidge, Charles A. Lindbergh, Lou Gehrig, Eugene O'Neill, Jack Dempsey, Herbert Hoover, Josephine Baker, Fanny Brice, Marion Davies, William Randolph Hearst, New York Mayor Jimmy Walker, Adolphe Menjou, Claire Windsor, Dolores Del Rio, Carole Lombard, William Haines, Marie Dressler and Adolph Hitler.
Nazi SS-Obergruppenführer Oswald Pohl (30 Jun 1892 - 7 Jun 1951), seen in one of the film's contemporary interviews, was an historic figure, but is played by actor Kuno Spunholz.
Through newsreel footage, photographs and re-enactments, the life and exploits of Leonard Zelig, the “human chameleon” of the 1920s, is told in documentary fashion. Zelig is seen as an imposter playing for the New York Yankees, a gangster associate of Al Capone, a black jazz musician. In 1926, police investigate the disappearance of a clerk named Leonard Zelig. Only two clues were left behind in his apartment: a photo of Zelig with playwright Eugene O'Neill and another photo of Zelig looking like opera singer Enrico Caruso dressed as “Pagliacci.” Zelig, now seemingly an Asian man, is found in a Chinatown joss house and taken to a psychiatric hospital for questioning. By the time he arrives at the hospital, however, Zelig has turned back into a Caucasian. His hospital report reads in part: "After admittance to the hospital, he seemed to possess a veritable stockpile of different disguises which he donned mysteriously and at a moment's notice, always in an attempt to mock the person he was with. Extremely anti-social, bad manners, low self opinion." When psychiatrist Eudora Fletcher first meets Zelig, she believes him to be a doctor. She becomes fascinated with his case and begins to study his condition. The press is captivated by Zelig, known as “the Changing Man," and he becomes a national celebrity. Under hypnosis, Zelig reveals that he feels safe when he is like other people, and that he wants to be liked. He recalls that his condition first manifested when he was surrounded by a group of smart people who asked if he had read Moby Dick. Zelig was ...
Through newsreel footage, photographs and re-enactments, the life and exploits of Leonard Zelig, the “human chameleon” of the 1920s, is told in documentary fashion. Zelig is seen as an imposter playing for the New York Yankees, a gangster associate of Al Capone, a black jazz musician. In 1926, police investigate the disappearance of a clerk named Leonard Zelig. Only two clues were left behind in his apartment: a photo of Zelig with playwright Eugene O'Neill and another photo of Zelig looking like opera singer Enrico Caruso dressed as “Pagliacci.” Zelig, now seemingly an Asian man, is found in a Chinatown joss house and taken to a psychiatric hospital for questioning. By the time he arrives at the hospital, however, Zelig has turned back into a Caucasian. His hospital report reads in part: "After admittance to the hospital, he seemed to possess a veritable stockpile of different disguises which he donned mysteriously and at a moment's notice, always in an attempt to mock the person he was with. Extremely anti-social, bad manners, low self opinion." When psychiatrist Eudora Fletcher first meets Zelig, she believes him to be a doctor. She becomes fascinated with his case and begins to study his condition. The press is captivated by Zelig, known as “the Changing Man," and he becomes a national celebrity. Under hypnosis, Zelig reveals that he feels safe when he is like other people, and that he wants to be liked. He recalls that his condition first manifested when he was surrounded by a group of smart people who asked if he had read Moby Dick. Zelig was ashamed to admit that he had not read the novel, so he pretended otherwise. Dr. Fletcher receives no support from the psychiatric community, and Zelig's half-sister takes him out of the hospital in hopes of exploiting his strange condition. People flock to see him. Zelig becomes the subject of a 1935 biographical film and several novelty songs, and hundreds of merchandise items are churned out to cash in on his popularity. However, Zelig's public popularity belies the loneliness and isolation he feels when not in the spotlight. Dr. Fletcher seeks to get legal custody of Zelig, but the courts turn her down. Later, when his half-sister is killed by her lover in a murder-suicide, Zelig goes missing again. Although the public is at first fascinated with the mystery of what happened to him, they soon take up other fads and interests. Only Dr. Fletcher keeps looking for the human chameleon. Zelig turns up posing as a Catholic priest in the entourage of Pope Pius XI and is deported back to the U.S., where he is readmitted to Manhattan Hospital. There, Dr. Fletcher steps in to treat Zelig. She takes him to her country home for therapy and engages her cousin, Paul Deghuee, to secretly film their sessions, certain that the record of her work will gain her recognition and attention. Sometime later, in remembering Fletcher’s work with Zelig, famed psychiatrist Dr. Bruno Bettelheim says that in his opinion, despite all the seeming changes in appearance and personality, Zelig was really quite normal and the ultimate conformist. When Dr. Fletcher has no breakthrough with Zelig and cannot convince him that he is not a psychiatrist himself, she tries reverse psychology and asks "Dr. Zelig" for help with her own problems, taking on Zelig's condition as her own. She tells him that she discussed the novel Moby Dick with friends, but in fact had never read the book. He finally breaks down, admits he's not a doctor, and even denies that he is Leonard Zelig. "I'm a nobody," he protests. Using hypnosis, Dr. Fletcher delves into Zelig's personality, and makes post-hypnotic suggestions to modify his behavior. When Zelig is not in a trance, she provides unconditional acceptance and love. In one filmed hypnosis session, Zelig tells Fletcher he hates her cooking and thinks her jokes are boring, but he is in love regardless and wants to go to bed with her. In retrospect, Fletcher reveals that she never thought she was attractive and had never had a real romance before she took up with Zelig. After Dr. Fletcher has spent three months with him, the hospital staff comes to see how he is progressing. He no longer takes on the personalities of those who surround him, but he has gone to the other extreme – so insistent on expressing his own opinions that he cannot abide it when others question them. After a two-week period of adjustment, Zelig is pronounced cured. He and Fletcher are again celebrities, fêted by politicians, newspaper tycoons and movie stars. When asked to give advice to the youth of America, Zelig says they should learn to be themselves. Fletcher finds fame and celebrity less rewarding than she had hoped. She and Zelig marry, and she draws strength from him. When a series of women come forward claiming to be married to Zelig, he is inundated with lawsuits for actions he took when under his various personalities. Zelig's condition deteriorates. At a Greek restaurant with Fletcher, he starts to become Greek. Soon after, Zelig again disappears. Despite a worldwide manhunt, he cannot be found. Finally, in 1932, Fletcher sees a newsreel that shows him at a Nazi party rally. She sails to Europe, but cannot find Zelig. She hears the Nazis will be having their largest rally ever in Munich, Germany, and as she searches the crowd during a speech by Adolph Hitler, she spots Zelig sitting on the podium behind the Nazi chancellor. He recognizes her in the crowd and they wave to each other. The two interrupt Hitler's speech, and in the resulting confusion, manage to escape from the Nazi SS officers pursuing them. An amateur pilot, Fletcher manages to take off in a stolen plane with Zelig, but she becomes terrified and loses control of the aircraft. Zelig takes on the personality of a pilot and flies the plane, eluding the German air force, and managing to set a world record for flying nonstop to the U.S. while upside down. He is received as a hero when they arrive in New York. After managing to sort out his legal troubles, he remarries Fletcher. Zelig's episodes of personality morphing become fewer and fewer, and on his deathbed he only regrets that he has just begun to read Moby Dick.
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