Broadway Danny Rose, starring, written and directed by Woody Allen

Broadway Danny Rose, starring, written and directed by Woody Allen

In the age of MeToo and Time’s Up, Woody Allen will probably experience a backlash and his movies will be much less appreciated, if not dismissed altogether and scrutinized for signs of misconduct.

Influenced by the women’s movement that has gained so much momentum in recent months, at the Academy Awards that too place the other night, golden globes and other events, in mass media and online, this cinephile looked again at Broadway Danny rose and some moments are seen in a different light.

For instance, Woody Allen, who plays the hero, Danny Rose, is addressing a child in the house of his client, Lou Canova, as they sit at the table and the agent tries to be nice and sociable, as is his manner, with the question:

                How old are you sweetheart? Ten? Are you married?

Evidently, the way to take this is not by exploding and becoming outraged, dismissing the obvious satirical intention and the notion that this is a personage meant to be often ridiculous, helpless, retrograde and challenged in so many ways.

Danny Rose is an agent who addresses the women he meets in his early career as a comic with the –today- repulsive darling or sweetheart, as he performs in homes for the elderly and makes jokes like: “how old are you darling? Eighty…well, you do not look a day over eighty…

The film unfolds in an interesting, less encountered manner, with comedians having conversations at a table, where they speak about people they know, until one decides to tell the others the story of Danny Rose, who is both dramatic and amusing at the same time, since it has artists and gangsters involved.

The Fates have been hard on Danny, for he works hard to promote, pamper, befriend, listen to, accompany, fight for, suffer with his clients, only to watch them depart and abandon him, once they get a shimmer of light.

He now has in his stable a man who is good with birds, but there is a crisis there, caused by a cat who kills the main bird, a couple of older people who are good at making figurines from balloons, albeit they have different strategies of opening, one wants to start with the Great Dane and the other disagrees.

Lou Canova is the sort of prima donna, albeit a man, who is causing many headaches, indeed, comes close to getting his manager killed, because he is a philanderer and makes Danny play the role of the front man, to cover his relationship with Tina Vitale aka Mia Farrow from his wife and any others who might compromise his position.

Danny Rose pays the price for his exaggerated involvement with his clients, his gullibility, presumptuousness and his lack of Social Intelligence, determination to stand up to and refuse inappropriate requests.

Tina Vitale is an intriguing, paradoxical combination of Perseverance, Determination and Confusion, for she is the mistress of Canova, but she flirts with other men, would even date a man she meets in a swamp, in a surreal moment wherein she runs with Danny and they encounter an actor shooting for an ad in the middle of nowhere.

In order to fulfill his clients every whim, Danny runs with the rebel Tina as she speeds to a family reunion, in a large mansion where Italian stereotypes are used for some laughs and added drama, as they encounter a former lover, who is a depressed poet, still infatuated with Tina and willing to suffer for her.

This destitute poet had hired a detective to follow her and wants her back desperately, when she refuses, he takes something that panics his mother, they cry from the balcony, the crowd gathered in the courtyard is upset and in solidarity, they move to help, while Danny makes amends and leaves the gathering in a hurry.

The mother calls for revenge, called Vendetta and two of the relatives, dangerous mobsters apparently, take baseball bats and start following Danny, whom they mistake for the lover of Tina, they even catch them at one point and the front man sends them on the wrong path, pretending a comedian is the real lover.

He thought that the comic was out of the country, for they had met and Danny learnt about the itinerary for the tour in the Caribbean, then Puerto Rico and thought it is safer to send the hoodlums on this false premises than to name Lou Canova, the real culprit, or even worse, have the hatchet men torture him and Tina.

There seemed to be a romance in the offing, given that Tina Vitale had expressed her preference for the Intellectual type of man and not the muscle, brutish kind, but the progress is in doubt, especially since their adventure show a very unattractive side of Broadway Danny Rose, who is at times acting cowardly, then unmanly, becomes sick as soon as they get on a boat on the river, not the ocean…

A nadir is reached when Lou Canova, whose status has improved dramatically with the new fashion for his outdated songs, announces that he wants some changes in his personal life, which imply telling his wife about his mistress and maybe move out of the house, and in his career, he wants to…change management…

This is not Macbeth or another quintessential tragedy, but this is nevertheless horrific to watch as the ignoble, ungrateful Canova kicks the devoted, credulous agent who came so close to being killed because he pretended to be the paramour, just as he climbs into society, achieves more fame that he also owes to Danny.

In conclusion, there are points to like in this comedy, but it is hard to forget elements from the life of Woody Allen that can affect the overall impression…