Woody Allen has trouble explaining his gesture to Mia Farrow in BROADWAY DANNY ROSE
BROADWAY DANNY ROSE (Woody Allen, 1984)
Landmark Sunshine Cinema
143 East Houston St. between First & Second Aves.
Friday, July 20, and Saturday, July 21, 12 midnight
212-330-8182
www.landmarktheatres.com
We don’t mean to be facetious or didactic, but Broadway Danny Rose is one of Woody Allen’s most consistently entertaining movies, and we say that with all due respect. In the hysterically frantic mob comedy, a group of old-time Borscht Belt comedians, including Sandy Baron, Corbett Monica, Jackie Gayle, Morty Gunty, Will Jordan, and Howard Storm (in addition to longtime Allen producer Jack Rollins), have gathered at the Carnegie Deli and are sharing legendary stories about Danny (Allen), with Baron claiming to have the best one of all, which is then told in flashback. Rose, a small-time New York talent agent who represents such minor-league acts as the Impresario of the Musical Glasses (Gloria Parker) and hapless ventriloquist Barney Dunn (Herb Reynolds), gets involved with local gangsters when one of his clients, has-been nightclub singer Lou Canova (Nick Apollo Forte), asks him to serve as a beard for his girlfriend, Tina Vitale (Mia Farrow), a gum-chewing, tough-talking moll whose former beau is a very jealous mobster. Danny and Tina are soon on the run, at one point finding themselves in a warehouse filled with Thanksgiving Day parade balloons, leading to one of the funniest laugh-out-loud scenes of Allen’s career. A character-driven comedy with a marvelous blend of slapstick and romance, Broadway Danny Rose is Allen at his very best, as actor, writer, and director. And if we might interject a concept at this juncture, just remember: star, smile, strong!