Martin Landau
Woody Allen originally cast Martin Landau as Dr. Rosenthal’s shady brother, a part that eventually went to Jerry Orbach. Landau became a familiar face to television viewers for most of his career, but never really had much success on the big screen despite one of his earliest performances being a particularly memorable one in Alfred Hitchcock’s blockbuster North by Northwest. Winning the part of Judah came in the middle of a streak of highly regarded performances that netted Landau three Oscar nominations for Best Supporting Actor. Although he would not win for Crimes and Misdemeanors, he would take home the statue five years later for bringing Bela Lugosi back from the dead in Tim Burton’s Ed Wood. Interestingly, actors with less screen time than Landau gets in this film have been nominated in the Best Actor category.
Woody Allen
Allen plays a variation on his traditional character of the neurotic intellectual, but unusual for Allen, Cliff Stern shows a definite paternal inclination that most of his characters do not. Cliff has a close relationship with his niece, but is also a documentarian filmmaker with a definite distaste for popular culture, so he is not that far removed from previous characters portrayed by Woody.
Anjelica Huston
Oscar-Winner Anjelica Huston plays the pivotal character in the film: the mistress whom Dr. Rosenthal hires a hit man to kill. It is this decision to have a “mistake” taken care and the lack of consequences that result which forms the philosophical basis of the film.
Mia Farrow
The other narrative thread also features a love interest, but in this case, she is the one who seems to make an immoral decision. Hers is the misdemeanor to Judah’s felony, of course, but essential to the philosophical argument at heart. Farrow’s appearance here comes after a string of performances in Woody’s movies that—taken as a body of work—is as impressive any other actress working in the decade.
Alan Alda
Alda brilliantly portrays a narcissistic TV producer allegedly based on Larry Gelbart who had been part of Sid Caesar’s famous troupe of writers that also included Woody Allen, Neil Simon and Carl Reiner. Alda had also worked closely with Gelbart on the sitcom MASH. The closeness of these working relationships doubtlessly fueled what became one of Alda’s most memorable performances away from his signature role of Hawkeye on that TV comedy.
Sam Waterston
Waterston plays the moral conscience of the film, a patient of Dr. Rosenthal. Ben is also a rabbi who becomes a symbol of the question of morality by virtue of his slowly losing his sight throughout the movie until he winds up completely blind at the end.
