cult film freak: WOODY ALLEN AND MIA FARROW IN 'BROADWAY DANNY ROSE'

Written by James M. Tate / 6/06/2024 / No comments / comedy , eighties , mia farrow , nick appolo forte , paul greco , race against time , woody allen

WOODY ALLEN AND MIA FARROW IN 'BROADWAY DANNY ROSE'

6/06/2024 | No comment

Mia Farrow and Woody Allen in Broadway Danny Rose Year: 1984 Rating: ****1/2

Not only one of Woody Allen’s best and most stylish films, but his performance goes outside the box: While the hardworking but low-rent New York talent agent Danny Rose... whose quirky clients range from a lady playing music on wine glasses to a blind xylophone player to a parrot pecking songs on a piano... embodies the usual Woody Allen nervousness and quick release of one-liners, they don't seem meant as punchlines...

And there’s a kindhearted, fervently optimistic side you won't see in other Allen protagonists: He really cares about humanity; especially the ones in his stable of industry rejects.

Woody Allen and Nick Apollo Forte in Broadway Danny Rose

Among the bouquet of bottom-barrel acts, he has one client who might have a future: Hefty lounge singer Lou Canova spent his fifteen-minutes long ago, yet the nostalgia craze reignites possible interest...

Danny, who will do anything to make sure the extremely superstitious Lou doesn't screw up this strategically important gig, picks up his feisty good luck charm, Tina, an experienced former gangster's moll wonderfully played in true character-actress form by Mia Farrow, for that night's show...

Mia Farrow in Broadway Danny Rose

But she ain't happy: the married crooner's got another "other woman" beside Tina. So Danny joins Tina in a party full of mobsters where he, mistaken as her lover by a jealous Italian, becomes a marked man...

The best scenes have Danny and Tina pursued by bloodthirsty goons, venturing through ghostly reeds and then, back in the city, captured within a giant warehouse harboring parade floats. The gorgeous black & white cinematography is richly enhanced by various insert shots of people’s reactions...

Nick Apollo Forte in Broadway Danny Rose

From lounge audiences to party goers to mobsters. And the entire story's told by Sandy Baron at a Delicatessen to his contemporaries, providing a documentary-style legitimacy: making Rose an underdog folk hero, legendary to only those in-the-know...

So while Farrow plays the guiltless moll with perfection, and this being Danny and Tina’s race-against-time adventure, Nick Apollo Forte’s genuinely cozy charm as the singing/songwriting Lou Canova ultimately steals the show. As the kind of flaky womanizer Allen's characters usually detest, this guy has heart... or does he?