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Broadway Danny Rose
Danny Rose was famous for his commitment. As remembered by the veteran comics convening at The Carnegie Deli, talent agent Danny Rose (Woody Allen) was one of the good ones. Sure, he was a complete failure, but he cared. He took on the most pitiful acts, the ones no one else would touch, like the blind xylophone player, or the singing parrots. But he had one client with promise: Lou Canova (Nick Apollo Forte). Canova was this aging Italian crooner, a complete has-been, a total boozer, but Danny coddled him and preened him, and after years of dedication it looked like it was finally going to pay off when there was a sudden wave of nostalgic interest in the singers of the Golden Age. So Danny, broke and desperate, gets Canova a shot at performing for the bookers of an upcoming TV special, but there's a catch: Lou wants his mistress in the audience, too, a real doozy and former mob doll, Tina Vitale (Mia Farrow), and Danny has to deliver her… Broadway Danny Rose is as close as Allen's mature work (1977-1992, RIP) gets to his early comedies, with some inspired slapstick and cheap gags, but still grounded in the bittersweet human comedy that defines his best films. Parts of Danny are uneven, particularly in transition from madcap caper to its serious turn at the end, but the material is still very fresh and involving, and Danny's huckster mannerisms give Allen a different spin off which to play his usual neuroses. Presented in a fine, though by no means meticulous, 1.85:1 anamorphic transfer with audio in Dolby Digital mono (Allen's preferred format). Trailer, keep-case.
—Gregory P. Dorr
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