Quartile rating: 7.5/10 · 1 rating
A hapless talent manager named Danny Rose, by helping a client, gets dragged into a love triangle involving the mob. His story is told in flashback, an anecdote shared amongst a group of comedians over lunch at New York's Carnegie Deli. Rose's one-man talent agency represents countless incompetent entertainers, including a one-legged tap dancer, and one slightly talented one: washed-up lounge singer Lou Canova, whose career is on the rebound.
Broadway Danny Rose is one of Woody Allen's most charming and distinctive comedies. Mia Farrow's transformation into the sunglasses-wearing, gravelly-voiced Tina Vitale is a remarkable acting achievement, and Allen himself delivers one of his most genuinely sympathetic performances as the hapless, endlessly optimistic Danny Rose. The framing device — comedians swapping stories at Carnegie Deli — gives the film a wonderfully oral, folkloric quality that sets it apart, and Gordon Willis's gorgeous black-and-white photography lends a nostalgic, fable-like texture. The plot, while light, is propulsive enough and peppered with genuinely funny setpieces (the mistaken-identity mob chase is a highlight). Novelty is high because the film has a completely singular voice — no one else would or could have made this particular film in this particular way. The ending, a bittersweet redemption grace note, is touching if somewhat predictable. Cinematography is competent and evocative but not groundbreaking beyond the committed black-and-white aesthetic.