Bullets over Broadway movie storyline. 1920s Broadway. Playwright David Shayne considers himself an artist, and surrounds himself with like minded people, most struggling financially as they create art for themselves, not the masses. David, however, believes the failure of his first two plays was because he gave up creative control to other people who didn’t understand the material.
As such, he wants to direct his just completed third play, “God of Our Fathers”, insider scuttlebutt being that it may very well make David the toast of Broadway. With David having no directing history, David’s regular producer, Julian Marx, can’t find any investors,… until a single investor who will finance the entire production comes onto the scene. He is Nick Valenti, a big time mobster, with the catch being that his dimwitted girlfriend, non-actress Olive Neal, get the lead role.
A hesitant David and Julian, who are able to talk Nick into them giving Olive one of the two female supporting roles instead, go along with the scheme hoping that the three other actors hired will be able to make up for any deficiencies posed by Olive. What makes Olive’s situation worse for David is that Nick has placed a bodyguard named Cheech – a typical thug who kills if need be – on Olive, he a constant presence at the theater during rehearsals. David is unaware or mindfully ignorant of issues concerning the other actors. Helen Sinclair, who has the lead, is a diva of an actress, who hasn’t had a hit in years.
Regardless, she is slyly manipulating David to make the role more glamorous befitting her real life persona than the frigid character he has written. Gossip is that Warner Purcell, the only male among the cast, has a roller coaster of a weight problem. Currently on a low, Warner tends to eat and eat and eat when when he gets stressed. And Eden Brent, a happy-go-lucky actress, has a constant companion in her pet chihuahua, Mr. Woofulls, whose presence is a constant thorn in Helen’s side.
With one problem after another during rehearsals, one event seems to have the potential to turn the production around on a permanent upswing,… that is if David goes along with it, he resisting if only because it would mean that his artistic vision was wrong. Regardless, there is still the potential for something to go violently wrong with Nick solely looking out for Olive’s interest, and Cheech a constant presence, he seeing and hearing everything that is happening.
Bullets over Broadway is a 1994 American black comedy-crime film directed by Woody Allen, written by Allen and Douglas McGrath and starring an ensemble cast including John Cusack, Dianne Wiest, Chazz Palminteri and Jennifer Tilly.
The film was nominated for seven Academy Awards, including Allen and co-writer Douglas McGrath for Original Screenplay, Allen for Director and Tilly and Palminteri for Supporting Actress and Actor, respectively. Wiest won Best Supporting Actress for her performance, the second time Allen directed her to an Academy Award.
The film’s locales include the duplex co-op on the 22nd floor of 5 Tudor City Place in Manhattan. The film’s title may have been an homage to a lengthy sketch of the same title from the 1950s television show Caesar’s Hour; one of Allen’s first jobs in television was writing for Sid Caesar specials after the initial run of the show. The film featured the last screen appearance of Benay Venuta. Allen cast her in a cameo role as a well-wishing wealthy theatre patron. She died of lung cancer months after the film opened.
Bullets over Broadway (1994)
Directed by: Woody Allen
Starring: Jim Broadbent, John Cusack, Harvey Fierstein, Chazz Palminteri, Mary-Louise Parker, Rob Reiner, Jennifer Tilly, Tracey Ullman, Dianne Wiest, Malgorzata Zajaczkowska
Screenplay by: Woody Allen, Douglas McGrath
Production Design by: Santo Loquasto
Cinematography by: Carlo Di Palma
Film Editing by: Susan E. Morse
Costume Design by: Jeffrey Kurland
Set Decoration by: Susan Bode, Amy Marshall
Art Direction by: Tom Warren
MPAA Rating: R for some languag.
Distributed by: Miramax Films
Release Date: October 14, 1994
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