Broadway Danny Rose

Admittedly slighter than its immediate predecessor Zelig, this is still a delightful comedy that sees Allen as a no-hope theatrical agent (his clients include balloon twisters, wine-glass players and bird trainers, who all leave him when the Big Time beckons) who acts as beard for an adulterous, unmusical crooner on his books, and gets involved with a brassy Mafia widow (Farrow, unrecognisable). The jokes are firmly embedded in plot and characterisation, and the film, shot by Gordon Willis in harsh black-and-white, looks terrific; but what makes it work so well is the unsentimental warmth pervading every frame.