Review: Broadway Danny Rose

Woody Allen plays the titular agent of a variety of showbiz acts of rather minor talent. His better acts tend to leave him the moment they hit the big-time. At the present time, his biggest act is probably veteran lounge singer Lou Canova (played by real-life singer and musician Nick Apollo Forte, in his only movie acting gig), but his best days are long behind him. Nonetheless, Danny stays loyal to Lou, even agreeing to help him hide his extra marital affair with Tina (Mia Farrow) from his wife. The problem for Danny is that Tina appears to be popular with not just Lou, but with another  guy who has mob connections. And those mob connections don’t much like Danny getting in the way of what they see as true love. Legendary comedians Sandy Baron (TV’s Jack Klompus on “Seinfeld”), Milton Berle, and TV host Joe Franklin play themselves.

 

I’m not really a Woody Allen fan, but funny is funny, and this 1984 effort from the writer-director-star is often funny. It’s also short enough not to overstay its welcome, which is always a plus. It starts off well with the wraparound of a bunch of old comedians (Sandy Baron and Jackie Gayle among them) sitting around swapping funny stories, including an amusing James Mason impersonation. Woody (who earned Oscar nominations for direction and screenplay here) himself fires off some nice zingers early on, too. In particular, I loved him telling a balloon animal act that he could see them playing the college circuit. Hilarious. The later shootout at the balloon factory is even funnier. It’s genuinely funny stuff and Woody was born to play the manager/agent for people of questionable talent. Also, the character of Barney Dunn is a hoot, for reasons you’ll have to see the film for. My favourite line in the entire film was the very WTF ‘I don’t travel by water, it’s against my religion’. I mean, what? I normally find Woody’s verbal diarrhoea annoying, but here it’s amusing. It’s one of Woody’s best-ever roles, though I did do a bit of retroactive cringing at him asking a 12 year-old girl if she’s married. That one’s really hard to excuse, especially nowadays.

 

The film didn’t have to be shot in B&W, but I can see why it was, given its rather nostalgic bent. We even get appearances by Joe Franklin and the inimitable Milton Berle. Things take a bit of a turn for the worse once a miscast Mia Farrow turns up wearing dark sunglasses, a wig, and giving off a completely phony, Candy Clark imitation. She’s the film’s one weak link, I simply never bought her in the role, and she isn’t remotely funny, either. It’s a shame, because the rest of the film absolutely works, and she’s a pretty big part of the film. Apparently Woody cast her thinking she could pull the role off despite not being a natural for the ‘Brooklynite broad’ character. He was wrong. She isn’t believable, therefore the whole relationship with Woody’s character fails to work for me. If it weren’t for her, this would be an even better film than “Annie Hall”, if not quite “Deconstructing Harry”, my favourite Woody Allen film (Unless “The Front”, which he didn’t write or direct, counts as a Woody Allen film. I don’t think it does). As is, it’s on about the same level as “Manhattan”.

 

One bad element prevents this film from being even better than it is. If it weren’t for the miscasting of Mia Farrow in a fairly important role, this film would be so damn good instead of just…pretty good. A real shame, but it’s still worth seeing for all of the zingers and clever ideas.

 

Rating: B-