SMALL TIME CROOKS
A goofy crime comedy with marriage, money, and unnecessary profanity.
Should You Watch It?
This is one of Woody Allen’s more amusing and more moral comedies. Its marriage is bickering but endearing, and the story teaches that crime does not really pay. It also finds comic value in an unlikely success story involving a cookie shop, a failed bank heist, and a con man.
The film is not quite wholesome family entertainment. Seven unnecessary strong profanities and a significant amount of other mild foul language make the PG-13 rating meaningful. The source also identifies alcohol use, smoking, fraud, burglary, and a married couple flirting with the idea of adultery.
If you enjoy Allen’s goofy screwball style, watch it at home with older teens and adults, where you can judge the content for your family.
The Story
NO SPOILERS — WE KEEP THE SURPRISESRay is an incompetent ex-con who cannot hold a job. He persuades his wife, Frenchy, to open a cookie shop as a front for his gang’s attempt to tunnel into a bank vault.
Frenchy’s recipes prove far more successful than the heist. Their new wealth brings dreams of high society, lessons in art and culture, and strain on a marriage that still has affection beneath its constant bickering. Then an aristocratic con man enters their lives.
Is It Any Good?
Three stars means this is a rather amusing comedy with inspired flashes of Woody Allen’s comic talent. It returns to the goofy screwball style associated with his earlier work and is much better than some of his recent movies, including Deconstructing Harry.
The marriage between Ray and Frenchy gives the comedy an endearing center. The cookie-shop scheme and the complications surrounding money, education, culture, and high society provide the film’s comic engine.
The main weakness is that Allen seems too old for the part. The result is an entertaining but imperfect comedy rather than a fully satisfying one.
The Worldview
The film presents a mild moral worldview with pagan elements, some of which are rebuked. It mildly extols married life and teaches that crime does not really pay. The story also treats fraud, burglary, and the pursuit of wealth and social status as sources of comic trouble rather than true fulfillment.
Marriage remains the film’s strongest positive value. Ray and Frenchy bicker constantly, yet they clearly care for each other. Their relationship is tested by ambition, money, and the temptation to look elsewhere, but the story ultimately values their marriage.
The film’s pagan elements are part of its worldview, though the source notes that some are rebuked. Its moral lessons are therefore positive in places without offering a distinctly biblical foundation. Scripture says, “Let marriage be held in honor among all” (Hebrews 13:4).
The Content Guide
The specifics — spoilers included by nature — so you can judge for your own family.
Content Summary
Mild moral worldview with pagan elements, some of which are rebuked; 12 obscenities, 14 mild profanities & 7 strong profanities, mostly exclamatory; very mild slapstick violence such as man bursts water pipe which floods basement & policeman pulls gun on bank thieves; no sex; no nudity; alcohol use; smoking; and, bank heist comically fails, con man seeks older woman for her wealth, comical burglary sequence, married couple separates & flirts with the idea of adultery but comes back together, & woman is victim of fraud.
Talk About It
Questions for the drive home, the dinner table, or the youth group.
Ray and Frenchy bicker but still care for each other. What helps a marriage remain faithful when money and ambition create pressure?
Ephesians 5:25–33 · Hebrews 13:4The characters pursue wealth through crime, fraud, and deception. Why does Scripture warn us against loving money, and what does honest work look like?
1 Timothy 6:9–10 · Ephesians 4:28Frenchy wants acceptance in high society. What is the difference between growing in wisdom and chasing status?
Proverbs 11:2 · James 3:13The story flirts with marital unfaithfulness before returning to the marriage. Why does Scripture call believers to flee sexual immorality and honor their covenant?
1 Corinthians 6:18 · Malachi 2:14–16The Final Word
Small Time Crooks is a funny, imperfect comedy with a surprisingly positive view of marriage and consequences for crime. Its profanity and other content make it unsuitable as wholesome family viewing. For older teens and adults, WAIT FOR HOME—and consider our family-friendly picks instead.
