Manhattan Murder Mystery - Production

Production

The screenplay for Manhattan Murder Mystery started out as Annie Hall but Woody Allen did not feel that it was substantial enough even though he loved mysteries. He decided to go in a different direction. He had put off making the film for years because he felt it was too lightweight, "like an airplane book read". Allen decided to revisit the material in the early 1990s, contacting Marshall Brickman, who co-wrote Annie Hall, and they worked on the story some more. His wife in the film was originally written for Mia Farrow until she and Woody Allen ended their relationship and became embroiled in a custody battle over their three children. Allegations in the media claimed that changes were made to the film in what was "definitely a reaction" to Allen's relationship problems, including the casting of Anjelica Huston in the role of what the script had called, "a much younger first-time novelist" with whom Allen's character became romantically involved (Huston was 41 during production).

In the fall of 1992, Allen called Diane Keaton and asked her to fill in for Farrow, and she immediately accepted. When asked if he had re-written the script to fit Keaton's talents, Allen said, "No, I couldn't do that. In a regular script I would have done that upon hiring Diane Keaton. But I couldn't because it's a murder mystery, and it's very tightly plotted, so it's very hard to make big changes....I had written more to what Mia likes to do. Mia likes to do funny things, but she's not as broad a comedian as Diane is. So Diane made this part funnier than I wrote it".

Making the film was a form of escape for Allen because the "past year was so exhausting that I wanted to just indulge myself in something I could relax and enjoy". He also found it very therapeutic working with Keaton again. After getting over her initial panic in her first scene with Alan Alda, Keaton and Allen slipped back into their old rhythm. After she had trouble with that scene, Allen decided to re-shoot it. In the meantime, she worked with her acting coach and did other scenes that went well. According to Allen, Keaton changed the dynamic of the film because he "always look(s) sober and normal compared to Keaton. I turn into the straight man". Huston said that the set was "oddly free of anxiety, introspection and pain", and this was due to Keaton's presence.

The film was shot in the fall of 1992 on the streets of Greenwich Village, the Upper East Side and the Upper West Side. Allen had cinematographer Carlo Di Palma rely on hand-held cameras, "swiveling restlessly from one room to another, or zooming in abruptly for a close look " in a style one reviewer called "meaningless affectation."

Larry and Carol Lipton's apartment is at 200 East 78th Street, between 2nd and 3rd Avenue and between two groups of New York City Designated Landmarks, east of one group of rowhouses and west of another group. Allen staged a climactic shoot-out in a roomful of mirrors that, according to Allen, referenced a similar shoot-out in Orson Welles' film, The Lady from Shanghai.

This was Allen's second and final film with TriStar Pictures, and it was speculated in the press that this deal was not extended because of the filmmaker's personal problems, or that his films were not very profitable. Allen, however, denied these allegations in interviews at the time. Zach Braff made his feature film debut in a one-scene role as the son of Allen and Keaton's characters; Braff later said, "When I look at that scene now, all I can see is the terror in my eyes".