Trivia for
Manhattan (1979) More at IMDbPro »

• This was Woody Allen's first film shot using the widescreen (2.35:1) anamorphic Panavision process.
  
  
• Woody Allen disliked his work in this film so much he offered to direct another film for United Artists for free if they kept "Manhattan" on the shelf for good.
  
  
• Stacey Nelkin, whom Woody Allen dated while she was at New York's Stuyvesant High School, was reportedly the inspiration for the character of Tracey.
  
  
• Presentations of this film on television (broadcast, cable or home video) required preservation of the widescreen format. This presented a problem in the U.S. since certain F.C.C. technical regulations did not permit a portion of the screen to be left blank as in letterboxing. The problem was solved by making the area above and below the frame gray. The regulations have since been changed and letterboxing with black borders is now permitted.
  
  
• This is one of the very few Woody Allen films to not have opening credits.
  
  
• Director's Trademark (Woody Allen): [writer] Jill is a novelist.
  
  
• While this is Woody Allen's least favorite of the movies he has directed, this was the most commercially successful film of his career. He said years later that he was still in disbelief that he "got away with it".
  
  
• Toward the end of the film, when Isaac is haranguing Yale, he mentions Yale someday being before a Senate subcommittee "naming names". In The Front (1976), Woody Allen's character winds up before a Congressional committee to "name names", including the character played by Michael Murphy.
  
  
• When released on video, it was the first cassette to be encoded with the letterbox format.
  
  
• While talking to Mary in the museum, Issac (Woody Allen) says that the brain is the most overrated body part. While in Allen's film Sleeper (1973), his character Miles Monroe says that it's his second favorite body part.
  
  
• Jodie Foster was considered for the role of Tracy.
  
  

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