Woody Allen is Danny Rose, the fervent yet hapless manager of a bunch of desperate veterans artists who try to make their 'Broadway' in the cruel world of entertainment. There is a lousy ventriloquist with a stammer who can't even grab the attention of kids during birthday parties, one is such an expert in hypnosis that he can't even awaken his victims, there is also a balloon-toddler, a glass player , piano-playing birds, and Lou Canova, a has-been Italian lounge singer who sings an unbearably catchy tarantella called "Agita". These artists are so lousy that the premise of "Broadway Danny Rose" is already funny by itself and it does provide some of the best jokes of the film but as we get deeper in the film, we can see that Woody Allen doesn't make these jokes for pure comedic sake. There is a little heart beating within the story of Danny Rose, a tale about a man who, more than anyone, loves his job and even more, loves the people he happens to manage.
"Broadway Danny Rose" carries the same charm as Tim Burton's "Ed Wood", the film about the worst director of all time who fulfilled his passion of making films and loved it. This is the core of Danny Rose's story, told in flashback by a group of comedians eating in Carnegie's Deli. And the more we get into it, the better we understand their enthusiasm and their fondness toward the man. They do tell funny stories but we know they don't laugh at him, but at the crazy situations provoked by his total dedication to his job. In fact, they all respect both the artist and the man. And the 'greatest story' about Danny Rose is simply the tribute to a man who took his job so personally that he gave letters of nobility to the notion of 'personal manager', maybe the only profession where you can't hide behind the eternal "it's not personal" alibi, his business is strictly personal, and his devotion to reconcile Lou Canova (Nick Apollo Forte) to his mistress Tina Vitale (Mia Farrow), forces the admiration. Danny never abandons his artist, in fact, he doesn't even consider 'abandoning' as an option.
But I make the film sound too serious while I was just praising its most underrated value. Overall, the film is purely and simply Woody Allen's comedic talent back on the road. After the depressing "Interiors", the dreadful "Stardust Memories" and the perplexing "A Midsummer's Night Sex Comedy", hardly are the highlights of Allen's career, "Broadway Danny Rose" seals the rebirth of a comical treasure and the starting of his greatest cinematic streak. Followed by "The Purple Rose of Cairo", "Hannah and Her Sisters" and "Radio Days", the 80's are marked by a Woody Allen at the top of his game, able to mix between comedy, romance and life introspections with an extraordinary combination of wit and creativity. And it all starts with the adventure of Danny Rose, the man who'd struggle to be 'the beard', in agents' jargon's, to pretend to be the boyfriend of Tina, Mia Farrow barely recognizable as the typical Italian mob girl. The situation worsens when Danny fails to explain to a jealous Italian gangster in love with Tina that he's only 'the beard', which gets him in a cat-and-mouse chase with the Italian mob. Danny Rose's adventure with Tina occupies three quarters of the film, where every single Allen's line is pure comedic gold, so perfectly written it never even distract from the narrative.
One of the most famous exchanges occurs when he quotes his Rabbi who used to say that "we're all guilty in the eyes of God." Tina asks him "Do you believe in God?" to which Rose retorts: "No, no. But I'm guilty over it." The line is not only hilarious but it's totally fitting the discussion about guilt, and the fact that Tina could never feel guilty, foreshadows the emotional pay-off at the ending when she would realize that 'she did something wrong'. Without having the depth of a character study, "Broadway Danny Rose" features a series of jokes that work whether you take them in or out of their context. At one part, he asks if a man who was shot in the eyes went blind, before realizing that the bullet "had to come through", this is not just hilarious, but it also highlights in a very smart way his total anti-violent nature and inoffensiveness, comparing a field of reeds to "Vietnam", or himself to "Moses" and refusing to go on the water because he's a "landlocked Hebrew". You'll have a hard time to figure if it's the adventure that carry the gags or vice-versa, and it's as impossible as thinking of the comedic effect of a shootout in a helium factory without smiling.
Gangsters, streetwise Italian 'broad', tarantellas, Family, there is a strong Italian feel in the film as if Allen decided to parody the archetypes of Italian to better highlight the bizarreness of his 'Jewishness' in an ethnic mess, and it marvelously works because Woody Allen has an incredible talent to use ethnic humor every time with a lighthearted wit and the appealing wisdom of self-derision. The whole film is an exaggeration of cultural traits and stereotypes, but is it surprising when the main character is a man with an exaggerated passion for his job and a more curious exaggerated faith in his artists' talent, no matter how bad they are. Danny Rose is the last rampart to resist Broadway's unflappable money-oriented policy, an independent worker, maybe an embodiment of Woody Allen's vision of himself in the world of Cinema. And after his experimental takes on Fellini, Bergman or Shakespeare, we realize that Woody Allen is never as great as when he's being himself, a true author in the field of comedy, wit and creativity. And "Broadway Danny Rose" is one of his best.
"Broadway Danny Rose" carries the same charm as Tim Burton's "Ed Wood", the film about the worst director of all time who fulfilled his passion of making films and loved it. This is the core of Danny Rose's story, told in flashback by a group of comedians eating in Carnegie's Deli. And the more we get into it, the better we understand their enthusiasm and their fondness toward the man. They do tell funny stories but we know they don't laugh at him, but at the crazy situations provoked by his total dedication to his job. In fact, they all respect both the artist and the man. And the 'greatest story' about Danny Rose is simply the tribute to a man who took his job so personally that he gave letters of nobility to the notion of 'personal manager', maybe the only profession where you can't hide behind the eternal "it's not personal" alibi, his business is strictly personal, and his devotion to reconcile Lou Canova (Nick Apollo Forte) to his mistress Tina Vitale (Mia Farrow), forces the admiration. Danny never abandons his artist, in fact, he doesn't even consider 'abandoning' as an option.
But I make the film sound too serious while I was just praising its most underrated value. Overall, the film is purely and simply Woody Allen's comedic talent back on the road. After the depressing "Interiors", the dreadful "Stardust Memories" and the perplexing "A Midsummer's Night Sex Comedy", hardly are the highlights of Allen's career, "Broadway Danny Rose" seals the rebirth of a comical treasure and the starting of his greatest cinematic streak. Followed by "The Purple Rose of Cairo", "Hannah and Her Sisters" and "Radio Days", the 80's are marked by a Woody Allen at the top of his game, able to mix between comedy, romance and life introspections with an extraordinary combination of wit and creativity. And it all starts with the adventure of Danny Rose, the man who'd struggle to be 'the beard', in agents' jargon's, to pretend to be the boyfriend of Tina, Mia Farrow barely recognizable as the typical Italian mob girl. The situation worsens when Danny fails to explain to a jealous Italian gangster in love with Tina that he's only 'the beard', which gets him in a cat-and-mouse chase with the Italian mob. Danny Rose's adventure with Tina occupies three quarters of the film, where every single Allen's line is pure comedic gold, so perfectly written it never even distract from the narrative.
One of the most famous exchanges occurs when he quotes his Rabbi who used to say that "we're all guilty in the eyes of God." Tina asks him "Do you believe in God?" to which Rose retorts: "No, no. But I'm guilty over it." The line is not only hilarious but it's totally fitting the discussion about guilt, and the fact that Tina could never feel guilty, foreshadows the emotional pay-off at the ending when she would realize that 'she did something wrong'. Without having the depth of a character study, "Broadway Danny Rose" features a series of jokes that work whether you take them in or out of their context. At one part, he asks if a man who was shot in the eyes went blind, before realizing that the bullet "had to come through", this is not just hilarious, but it also highlights in a very smart way his total anti-violent nature and inoffensiveness, comparing a field of reeds to "Vietnam", or himself to "Moses" and refusing to go on the water because he's a "landlocked Hebrew". You'll have a hard time to figure if it's the adventure that carry the gags or vice-versa, and it's as impossible as thinking of the comedic effect of a shootout in a helium factory without smiling.
Gangsters, streetwise Italian 'broad', tarantellas, Family, there is a strong Italian feel in the film as if Allen decided to parody the archetypes of Italian to better highlight the bizarreness of his 'Jewishness' in an ethnic mess, and it marvelously works because Woody Allen has an incredible talent to use ethnic humor every time with a lighthearted wit and the appealing wisdom of self-derision. The whole film is an exaggeration of cultural traits and stereotypes, but is it surprising when the main character is a man with an exaggerated passion for his job and a more curious exaggerated faith in his artists' talent, no matter how bad they are. Danny Rose is the last rampart to resist Broadway's unflappable money-oriented policy, an independent worker, maybe an embodiment of Woody Allen's vision of himself in the world of Cinema. And after his experimental takes on Fellini, Bergman or Shakespeare, we realize that Woody Allen is never as great as when he's being himself, a true author in the field of comedy, wit and creativity. And "Broadway Danny Rose" is one of his best.