Bullets Over Broadway
Dianne Wiest said she really struggled with Helen Sinclair's signature line. She finally decided to lower her voice when she said "Don't speak!" The lower she said it, the funnier it became.,Helen mentions that she hasn't had a drink since New Year's Eve and clarifies that she means Chinese New Year. "Still," she says, "that's two days." The film begins at the end of September 1928. Chinese New Year was on January 22 of that year.,Rita: For me, love is very deep, sex only has to go a few inches.,Featured in Siskel & Ebert: Radioland Murders/I Like It Like That/Bullets Over Broadway/Imaginary Crimes/Clerks (1994),Toot, Toot, Tootsie (Goo' Bye!)
Written by Dan Russo, Ernie Erdman and Gus Kahn
Performed by Al Jolson with the Vitaphone Orchestra
Courtesy of Academy Sound and Vision Ltd.,In 1920's New York a young author, David, manages to get his play off the ground with funding from mobster Valenti. The money allows David to get actors of the caliber of Helen Sinclair and Warner Purcell, however there's a catch. Valenti wants his screechy girl friend Olive to play a key part. This problem is compounded by Olive's minder Cheech who has plenty of constructive criticism on how the play could be better. David tries to balance all these in the name of art.

It's rarely new ground that Woody Allen walks  but how come he manages to make it so damn sparkly and witty? Here he delivers wonderful spoof on theatre people and the assumptions we all make about characters based on what they do or how they talk. The writing is spot on, Allen delivers tonnes of great lines but also creates characters that he expands over the film. It is very watchable and it rarely suffers from the fate on some of Allen's recent comedies  feeling too light or whimsical for it's own good. Instead it is funny but has some points to make.

Of course it always helps if you have a great cast and this does. With people like Warden, Broadbent, Wiest, Tilly, Parker, Fierstein, Reiner, Falco and Palminteri it's hard not to have at least the majority of the cast giving good performances  Wiest, Tilly and Palminteri were my favourites. Cusack was good as the overpowered writer but the one thing I didn't like is the same with many actors who do the traditional Woody role  he gives a slight impression at times rather than cutting out the role as his own.

Overall Woody Allen may not be everyone's cup of tea  but for fans this is him at his whimsical best. Not a classic comedy but a warm Allen film that sparkles in nearly every scene.,