The picture's plot has some similarities to that of the 1942 comedy Larceny, Inc.[1] Small Time Crooks was the highest-grossing film directed by Allen at the North American box office between 1989's Crimes and Misdemeanors and 2005's Match Point.

Career criminal Ray and his cronies want to lease a closed pizzeria so they can dig a tunnel from the basement of the restaurant to a nearby bank.

One day Frenchy throws a big party and overhears people making fun of their poor decorating taste and lack of culture.

Small Time Crooks opened up on the same day as Dinosaur and Road Trip and was the highest-grossing film directed by Allen at the North American box office between 1989's Crimes and Misdemeanors and 2005's Match Point, with a gross of $17.2 million;[3] the film became nicely profitable for North American distributor DreamWorks Pictures.

[7] Audiences surveyed by CinemaScore gave the film a grade "B" on scale of A to F.[8] Stephen Holden of The New York Times wrote: "In this sweet, funny wisp of a movie, Mr. Allen shucks off his fabled angst and returns in spirit to those wide-eyed days of yesteryear, before Chekhov, Kafka and Ingmar Bergman invaded his creative imagination.

"[9] Todd McCarthy of Variety magazine called it a "Breezy, enjoyable romp gratifyingly zigzags in directions that aren't apparent at the outset and features some intriguingly personal subtext for longtime Woody watchers.

"[10] Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times gave it 3 out of 4, and wrote: "Dumb as they (allegedly) are, the characters in Small Time Crooks are smarter, edgier and more original than the dreary crowd in so many new comedies.