10 Strangest Fictitious Countries

The biggest problem with Woody Allen's "early, funny ones" is that it's difficult to pick a favourite. The young talent was clearly still having a ball experimenting and aspiring to heroes like Groucho Marx, and their fast pace and joke-a-minute success ratio often overlooks the easy mistakes to which a young director falls prey.

Allen was in full Marx territory with Bananas as Fielding Mellish, a neurotic blue-collar worker looking to impress an activist. In doing so, he becomes embroiled in a coup d'etat and its aftereffects on the South America Banana Republic of San Marcos.

We don't learn much about San Marcos, but that's the point. Allen's Mellish is a nebbish working-class type who doesn't really care, and when he finally does get involved it's purely out of self-interest. What's clear is that, like many South American dictatorships, it's insanely and comically corrupt.

And here lies the biggest difference between Allen and Marx. In Groucho's day, he would have had the run of the joint in a few day's time. Woody's tongue was never as sharp or silver, and surviving the absurdity was enough.