When a director has been working for more than half a century, and has made over fifty films and television shows, there are bound to be a few duds scattered throughout their career. If you asked one of them what their worst film is, they would usually find one particular film that they feel is the biggest disappointment for some reason or another. Woody Allen has gone on record as saying he considers his worst film to be The Curse of the Jade Scorpion – and while it isn’t entirely sure exactly when he made this assertion, we would at least hope that it was before he made Irrational Man or Wonder Wheel since both of these are just a few of the films that are significantly worse than this one. However, the criticism of his work does not come as a result of his trademark self-deprecation, but rather the fact that he is notoriously critical of his vision, and if it is not realized exactly as he imagined, or at least offers something new to the conversation, then it is not worth much in his opinion. Fortunately, his perspective (while valuable) is not the final word, because he still made a wildly entertaining film that is superior to a lot of what he made in the years that followed it, especially since this represents the director at his most wickedly ambitious and undeniably brilliant, which is something that has slightly eroded as the years have gone on. A far cry from the work he was producing at his peak, and still a film with undeniable flaws that are not easy to overlook, even by those who consider themselves steadfast adherents to the director’s work, but there is something almost mystical about this film, a sense of danger and intrigue that only a director like Allen could capture with such fervour, which allows even a very simple film like this to be much better in execution than we may have imagined at the outset.

Allen is very fond of the past – he has not refused to embrace modernity (as evident by his movement towards more contemporary stories and styles of filmmaking, as well as his outward appreciation for various actors from the newer generation), but he has tended towards paying the most attention to previous decades, which are often the root of some of his most intriguing stories. The Curse of the Jade Scorpion is set during the 1940s, and as a result, it pays tribute to several genres popular at the time – in particular, we find broad overtures of both film noir and screwball comedy, both of which are cornerstones of cinema from that era, and certainly the kinds of film that not only entertained Allen in his younger years but guided his writing and directing skills over the years. Allen is part of a group of comedic filmmakers that can make a pastiche without it being a spoof or parody but rather crafted as affectionate and loving tributes to a bygone era, not only the films that defined the period but the people who populated it and defined that specific generation. It is difficult to argue against the charming nature of The Curse of the Jade Scorpion, which is so clearly crafted as an upbeat and entertaining comedy that pays homage to a different generation of cinema, especially when it is made by someone who implicitly understands how these genres work, being able to deconstruct them and rebuild to form versions of these stories drawn directly from his imaginative, wonderfully eccentric vision that very few would deny makes an impact, even in slightly lesser works, such as the present film. It also helps that there is a level of simplicity simmering beneath the surface of this story, which becomes one of the few elements of the film that makes it so intriguing, even when some of these ideas aren’t fully developed.

One of the reasons Allen has given for his disappointment in The Curse of the Jade Scorpion is the decision to cast himself in the leading role – he wasn’t his own first choice, and he only played the role out of necessity after his initial attempts to contact other actors to take on the part proved futile. Ultimately, my opinion is once again slightly contradictory to that of the director, particularly in how this film contains one of Allen’s stronger performances – it is clear that the role was not written with himself in mind, which is clear through the character being slightly less of a nebbish than we usually see from the actor, but rather a more charismatic and upbeat character, while still being formed along the lines of the kind of individual Allen has mastered. He’s very good in the role, and, unfortunately, he felt like he turned in a lacklustre performance since this film proves that he can deliver more complex work when playing a character that is less of the manifestation of his internal neuroses, and instead, just an entertaining and upbeat individual that is defined by his surroundings. He’s joined by Helen Hunt in the stereotypical “brassy broad” role, and she’s wonderful as usual, playing with the rapid-fire dialogue and drawing on her inherent comedic sensibilities, while Charlize Theron has an early role a physical dead ringer for Veronica Lake with a Lauren Bacall personality. Supporting roles by Dan Aykroyd and Wallace Shawn add to the entertaining nature of the film, and despite some of the narrative flaws, The Curse of the Jade Scorpion does have a bevvy of fascinating characters that help tie everything together in creative and captivating ways.

However, while I do remain extremely positive on this film and find the derision it received at the time of the release quite unfortunate (as well as finding its development into something of a cult classic with newer audiences wonderfully relieving), it would be foolish to think that The Curse of the Jade Scorpion is a perfect film or even a great one. There are flaws throughout this film that are noticeable, but still somewhat excusable to a certain extent, but not enough to disqualify any opinion that this is not a particularly strong film. It is undeniable that there are good ideas scattered throughout this film, but we all know that a film cannot depend solely on a strong concept and that it instead needs to find new ways to explore certain subjects without becoming overly dependent on the premise, which is only the starting point for the story. The Curse of the Jade Scorpion becomes quite repetitive – the first act is a masterful example of setting up a story, with good character development and allusions to some very good ideas, but then it gradually starts to fall apart at the seams, becoming a series of moments that repeat the same ideas but don’t get anywhere notable. Instead, the film relies too heavily on its underlying premise and doesn’t do enough work to make the story dynamic and interesting, which is one of the fundamental flaws that prevent it from being nearly as strong as it could have been with more work done in the latter portions, whether it be streamlining some of the storyline (twenty minutes could have been carved from the film, especially since it was aiming to be a rapid-fire screwball comedy, and running at 100 minutes makes it feel twice as long as it should) or developing on many of its more promising components, which leads to a slightly more disappointing experience that doesn’t quite live up to the potential that it had at the outset.

I am arguably much more enamoured with The Curse of the Jade Scorpion than most people, which is not a particularly widespread occurrence when it comes to Allen – for the most part, he is praised for the good films and derided for those who don’t match his level of quality, and there are very rarely instances where the critical and commercial consensus of his films aren’t directly reflective of the quality of the work. However, one of the great benefits of a comedy made by a canonical director is that there will always be a portion of the audience, whether large or small, that will rabidly defend everything that it represents, or at least find more merit in it than a lot of viewers. This is certainly the case for this film, which is a much more entertaining affair than many have suggested, including the director himself. It is by no means perfect, and it has a lot of shortcomings that make us yearn for what this film could have been had it been made a couple of decades earlier since it is undeniably the kind of premise that would have benefitted from Allen’s thornier, less world-weary side that he exhibited in the 1970s, the peak of his satirical skills. However, this doesn’t invalidate the fact that The Curse of the Jade Scorpion has many merits, and it eventually flourishes into quite a charming film, an entertaining romp that pays sufficient tribute to the screwball comedies of the 1940s, with the same madcap energy and sense of controlled chaos that made that such an endearing era for filmmaking. It carries itself with a lot of sophistication and is not afraid to take a few risks. Not one of Allen’s best, but still a wickedly entertaining film all the same, it is difficult to not find something valuable embedded somewhere in this compelling comedy.