Broadway Danny Rose (1984)

After playing with our expectations, this turns out to be a very different sort of film.

There is, somehow, an interesting story here, as well as some good acting. There are also some good scenes

The storyline feels a little thin and moth-eaten in parts but this sequel is plenty of fun.

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

This is one of Woody Allen's best films. It's very funny and has a poignant ending. It also offers terrific performances by Allen and Mia Farrow as Tina.Bookended by a group of comics telling showbiz stories, Sandy Baron tells the tale of Danny Rose (Allen), a famously unsuccessful comic and theatrical talent manager. He manages a one-time pop singer (Nick Apollo Forte) who's making a comeback because of a nostalgia craze. He's also having an affair with Tina Vitale (Farrow), a no-talent interior decorator connected to the mob. The singer asks Allen to act as a "beard" and bring her to a big show he's doing as a nitery.But of course everything goes wrong. Allen and Farrow end up at a party in New Jersey where a dopey suitor is scorned by Farrow. The family thinks Allen is the new boyfriend and sets out to avenge his honor, with the old mother (Gina DeAngeles) screaming "Vendetta!" from a balcony.What ensues is a comedy romp with Allen and Farrow trying to outrun the two brothers with baseball bats. In the meantime, Forte's singer is finding new success and also a new manager.This is a near-perfect film. Woody Allen and Mia Farrow (almost unrecognizable) are great. Nick Apollo Forte is happily oily (and wrote two of the film's big songs). Milton Berle has no lines but shows up in a few scenes. Then there is the collection of hilariously bad acts Allen managers, from the blind xylophone player to the one-legged tap dancer.The ending is poignant and simple, set on a rainy day in New York City. Wonderful film.

Danny finds himself in a series of complications, due to his willingness to help a friend. He (Woody) is suddenly thrust into a tussle with the mob when a lounge singer enlists him in helping him get his mistress (Mia Farrow) to attend his big night. Danny, with the girl, is making people jealous and becomes the object of a mob hit. I love that the little guy with the glasses makes people jealous. Sort of Chaplainesque in a way. Things change and people escape all kinds of trouble, but Danny remains true-blue and is very heroic in his role. He takes the high road and ends up where he started. He does get a sandwich named after him, however. Not bad. This is a delightful movie with Allen allowing himself great flexibility as an actor. The supporting cast and a whole lot of comedians make it a worthwhile couple of hours.

For most other directors / writers / actors, "Broadway Danny Rose" would be a considerable (triple) achievement: there is terrific music, arty b & w photography, Woody (as an actor) at his most ingratiating, Mia Farrow (almost unrecognizable) at her loosest, solid supporting players, and a beautiful closing shot. However, by Woody Allen's own standards, this is a minor work in the grand total of his filmography; the main reason for that is that the story is too slight, and goes on a little too long (even though the movie is relatively short at 80 minutes). And the comedy produces smiles rather than belly laughs. Maybe it would have been more memorable if the role of Lou Canova had gone to the person that Allen, according to IMDb trivia, offered it to first: Sylvester Stallone! **1/2 out of 4.

This was an absolute delight, no way around it. Simple, hilarious and ultimately beautiful. I love the interesting ways that he structures his films and this one has one of the best techniques yet; the story is told as a story, told by a group of comics just hanging out at a restaurant shooting the breeze. It's a great way into the narrative and gives the film a very loose, vintage feeling. It truly does feel like a story that a veteran comic is telling around a table of friends. The black and white shooting helps even more in this interesting tone that he established, it all comes together beautifully.Usually Woody Allen's films benefit from their large casts of great scene-stealers but here he relies almost entirely on the chemistry between him and Mia Farrow and it was such a wise move. What we get is this delightful little adventure movie with the two of them constantly bantering with classic Woody dialogue, "I don't wanna badmouth the kid, but he's a horrible, dishonest, immoral louse. And I say that with all due respect." I feel like Allen is underrated as an actor because people feel he always "plays himself", but I think he's great and always manages to add layers to his characters. Yes, there's the neurotic cynicism in everything he does, but there's always something more (and honestly even if there wasn't I would be fine watching him ramble on forever). In Deconstructing Harry there was the brutally sad undertones of a man who had spent his life trying to find happiness only to find himself alone and lost in his work, but here was a man who had spent his life trying to find happiness for others only to find himself used and abused. As wildly fun as a film like this is, there's also an aspect of it that absolutely breaks my heart.The final act was surprisingly solemn and depressing (although there's the classic smile of an ending), but the film shined brightest when Farrow and Allen were just being wild and bouncing off each other. Farrow was unrecognizable here, for a while I wasn't even sure it was her. Behind large sunglasses and a wild wig, she totally disappears and it's the most fun I've had watching a performance in a while. She is so in control and absorbed in this character, it's a riot. The two of them are tremendous in a wickedly entertaining film that in the end has a lot of heart and something important to say about the industry. Another work of Woody genius.