A group of comedians are having lunch together at a New York restaurant and start recounting anecdotes about a theatrical agent named Danny Rose. Billy Crystal, in his film "Forget Paris", was also to use the device of telling a story through the reminiscences of a group of friends having a meal together, and Woody Allen himself was to do something similar in "Melinda and Melinda". The actors who appear in the restaurant scenes are, apparently, all well-known American comedians, but this point is likely to be lost on non-Americans; I had just about heard of Milton Berle, but names such as Sandy Baron, Morty Gunty and Corbett Monica meant nothing to me.
Danny is generally regarded in the entertainment world as a big joke, largely because most of the performers he represents are totally lacking in talent. The one partial exception is an Italian-American singer named Lou Canova whose once-successful career has gone into a decline, but is hoping to make a comeback. Lou is married but is having an affair, and persuades Danny to masquerade as the boyfriend of his mistress, Tina, in order to divert attention from the affair. Unfortunately, Tina turns out to be the former girlfriend of a gangster, who gets jealous at the idea that she might be romantically involved with another man. Danny suddenly finds that he is in danger from the Mob.
The film is sometimes quoted in support of the contention that Allen has a wider range as an actor than that with which he is normally credited, but to my mind Danny Rose, a neurotic Jewish New Yorker, is not all that different from the average Woody character, although less intellectual and more working-class. (Woody was to widen his range more successfully in some other films, such as "Small Time Crooks"). Actually, Woody is pretty good here, and gives a performance which is well up to his normal standards, making Danny a lovable loser who remains convinced, in spite of all the evidence to the contrary, that he might just one day be a winner. The script also contains some classic Woodyisms such as "You know what my philosophy of life is? That it's important to have some laughs, but you gotta suffer a little too, because otherwise you miss the whole point to life".
And yet "Broadway Danny Rose" has never been my favourite Woody Allen film. Woody, apparently, felt that Mia Farrow was not really right for the part of Tina, a "tough Italian broad", so she wears dark glasses virtually throughout the film in an attempt to make her look tougher. Mia never looks comfortable as Tina, and it would have been easier to have cast another actress in the role and dispensed with the sunglasses, but Woody seems to have felt himself honour-bound, in both his "Diane" and his "Mia" periods, to cast his current lady-love in a leading role in every film he made. (Thank goodness Soon-Yi has not taken up an acting career).
Like a number of Woody's other films, this one is shot in black and white, although the cinematography is never as distinctive as it is in his great black-and-white masterpiece, "Manhattan". The main reason, however, why the film is not my favourite is that story is not a very involving one. In films like "Annie Hall", Manhattan" and "Hannah and her Sisters", Woody is able to combine humour with a deep understanding of the psychology of human relationships and with characters one can care about. All he serves up in "Broadway Danny Rose" is a familiar tale about mobsters, revolving around the normal Hollywood clichés about Italian-Americans which form the basis of most American films about organised crime. Danny may be a lovable schmuck, but there is nothing lovable, or even likable, about most of the other characters, which means that the story fails to hold our interest. Fortunately, Woody made a return to form with his next two films, "The Purple Rose of Cairo" and "Hannah and her Sisters", both ranking among his best. 6/10
Danny is generally regarded in the entertainment world as a big joke, largely because most of the performers he represents are totally lacking in talent. The one partial exception is an Italian-American singer named Lou Canova whose once-successful career has gone into a decline, but is hoping to make a comeback. Lou is married but is having an affair, and persuades Danny to masquerade as the boyfriend of his mistress, Tina, in order to divert attention from the affair. Unfortunately, Tina turns out to be the former girlfriend of a gangster, who gets jealous at the idea that she might be romantically involved with another man. Danny suddenly finds that he is in danger from the Mob.
The film is sometimes quoted in support of the contention that Allen has a wider range as an actor than that with which he is normally credited, but to my mind Danny Rose, a neurotic Jewish New Yorker, is not all that different from the average Woody character, although less intellectual and more working-class. (Woody was to widen his range more successfully in some other films, such as "Small Time Crooks"). Actually, Woody is pretty good here, and gives a performance which is well up to his normal standards, making Danny a lovable loser who remains convinced, in spite of all the evidence to the contrary, that he might just one day be a winner. The script also contains some classic Woodyisms such as "You know what my philosophy of life is? That it's important to have some laughs, but you gotta suffer a little too, because otherwise you miss the whole point to life".
And yet "Broadway Danny Rose" has never been my favourite Woody Allen film. Woody, apparently, felt that Mia Farrow was not really right for the part of Tina, a "tough Italian broad", so she wears dark glasses virtually throughout the film in an attempt to make her look tougher. Mia never looks comfortable as Tina, and it would have been easier to have cast another actress in the role and dispensed with the sunglasses, but Woody seems to have felt himself honour-bound, in both his "Diane" and his "Mia" periods, to cast his current lady-love in a leading role in every film he made. (Thank goodness Soon-Yi has not taken up an acting career).
Like a number of Woody's other films, this one is shot in black and white, although the cinematography is never as distinctive as it is in his great black-and-white masterpiece, "Manhattan". The main reason, however, why the film is not my favourite is that story is not a very involving one. In films like "Annie Hall", Manhattan" and "Hannah and her Sisters", Woody is able to combine humour with a deep understanding of the psychology of human relationships and with characters one can care about. All he serves up in "Broadway Danny Rose" is a familiar tale about mobsters, revolving around the normal Hollywood clichés about Italian-Americans which form the basis of most American films about organised crime. Danny may be a lovable schmuck, but there is nothing lovable, or even likable, about most of the other characters, which means that the story fails to hold our interest. Fortunately, Woody made a return to form with his next two films, "The Purple Rose of Cairo" and "Hannah and her Sisters", both ranking among his best. 6/10