Bananas

Bananas (1971) is Woody Allen's absurdist comedy you can watch online on iFILM. An early effort from the director, who also takes the lead role himself.

Fielding Mellish is a hapless New York products tester smitten with Nancy, a political activist whose attention is fixed entirely on the revolution in tiny San Marcos. Desperate to impress her, Mellish heads to the banana republic, latches onto the rebels, and through a chain of ridiculous accidents ends up president of the whole country. From there it's a fake Castro beard, a return to the States, and a trial for subversion that nobody plays straight.

This was Allen's second feature as director, stitched together from sketches, mock newscasts, and silent-comedy sight gags. Sportscaster Howard Cosell calls the action like a prizefight — first from a battlefield assassination, later from the wedding night — in one of the film's best-known bits. Louise Lasser plays Nancy. Stream Bananas (1971) online on iFILM.