Crimes and Misdemeanors is a 1989 American existential comedy drama film written and directed by Woody Allen, who stars alongside Martin Landau, Mia Farrow, Anjelica Huston, Jerry Orbach, Alan Alda, Sam Waterston, and Joanna Gleason.

The film was met with critical acclaim, receiving three Academy Award nominations: Allen, for Best Director and Best Original Screenplay, and Landau, for Best Actor in a Supporting Role.

Despondent over his failing marriage to Lester's sister Wendy, he woos Halley, showing her footage from his ongoing documentary about Professor Louis Levy, a renowned philosopher.

Cliff learns that Professor Levy, whom he had been profiling for a documentary centered on his philosophical views and the strength of his celebration of life, has committed suicide, leaving a curt note that only says: "I've gone out the window".

Cliff has maliciously edited the film, which juxtaposes footage of Lester with clownish poses of Benito Mussolini addressing a throng of supporters from a balcony.

Rabbi Ben, who is now blind, shares a dance with his daughter while the voice of Professor Levy is heard, saying that the universe is a dark and indifferent place which human beings fill with love, in the hope that “future generations will understand more.”[3] After viewing the first cut of the film, Allen decided to throw out the first act, call back actors for reshoots, and focus on what turned out to be the central story.

The outline of Judah's moral dilemma—whether a person can continue everyday life with the knowledge of having committed murder—evokes[6] the pivotal idea of Russian novelist Fyodor Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment (1866), despite suggesting a resolution nearly opposite to that of the novel.

[10] Vincent Canby of The New York Times lauded the film, remarking:The wonder of Crimes and Misdemeanors is the facility with which Mr. Allen deals with so many interlocking stories of so many differing tones and voices.

"[11]Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times gave the film four out of four, writing:The movie generates the best kind of suspense, because it's not about what will happen to people—it's about what decisions they will reach.

"[14] The film was nominated for three Academy Awards: Allen for Best Director and Best Original Screenplay, and Martin Landau for Best Actor in a Supporting Role.

In a 2016 Time Out contributors' poll, it ranked second only to Annie Hall among Allen's efforts, with Dave Calhoun praising it as "the film in which Woody's comic and serious sides most comfortably align".

This bubblingly wise film, rich with beautifully dovetailing metaphors about blindness and conscience and the perils of self-knowledge, [...] is Allen on soaring form, gliding so elegantly through its maze of ideas it's as if the spirit of Fred Astaire gave it lift-off.

"[18] Crimes and Misdemeanors was also named Allen's second best by Chris Nashawaty of Entertainment Weekly[19] and Barbara VanDenbergh of The Arizona Republic,[20] third by Darian Lusk of CBS News,[21] and fourth by Zachary Wigon of Nerve.