Main Cast: Mia Farrow, Jeff Daniels, Danny Aiello, Dianne Wiest, Van Johnson
Release Year: 1985
Country: US
Run Time: 82 minutes
MPAA Rating: PG
Plot
Woody Allen blurs the the boundaries between the real and unreal in this unique comic fantasy. The scene is a small town in the mid-1930s. Trapped in a dead-end job and an abusive marriage, Cecelia (Mia Farrow) regularly seeks refuge in the local movie house. She becomes so enraptured by the latest attraction, an RKO screwball comedy called The Purple Rose of Cairo, that she returns to the theatre day after day. During one of these visits, the film's main character Tom Baxter (Jeff Daniels), pauses in his dialogue, turns towards the audience, and says to Cecelia, "My God, how you must love this picture." Then he climbs out of the movie, much to the consternation of the rest of the audience and the other characters on screen. Liberated from his customary black-and-white environs, he accompanies Cecelia on a tour of the town, eventually falling in love with her. Meanwhile, the other Purple Rose characters, unable to proceed with the film, carry on a discussion with themselves. Desperately, the RKO executives seek out Gil Shepherd, the actor who played the hero of Purple Rose. Shepherd (also played by Daniels), is sent to Cecelia's hometown to see if he can repair the damage. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Review
In the Woody Allen canon, The Purple Rose of Cairo marked perhaps the pinnacle of his Mia Farrow era. This is a charming story about an abused, mousy woman (Farrow) who escapes from her alcoholic husband (Danny Aiello) by going to the movies and catching the attention of an on-screen film hero (played with wonderful knowingness by the under-appreciated Jeff Daniels). Allen reversed the effect of Buster Keaton's projectionist's entering a film in Sherlock Jr. by having Daniels's character come off the screen and into Farrow's life. One of several Allen pieces to exhibit his fascination with the entertainment culture of the earlier years of the 20th century (see also Radio Days, Broadway Danny Rose, Bullets over Broadway and Sweet and Lowdown), The Purple Rose of Cairo features a strong, straightforward script that is also not burdened by any actors trying to play Woody Allen. It is a perfect vehicle for Farrow, who is appealing and sympathetic, and the film dotes on her. The movie is redeemed not by a fairy-tale ending, but by an appreciation of the limits of escapism. It masterfully shows us why movies were so alluring during the Great Depression, and what function they served. ~ Michael Betzold, All Movie Guide
Zoe Caldwell - Countess; John Wood - Jason; Milo O'Shea - Father Donnelly; Deborah Rush - Rita; Irving Metzman - Theatre Manager; John Rothman - Mr. Hirsch's Lawyer; Stephanie Farrow - Cecilia's sister; Alexander H. Cohen - Raoul Hirsch; Camille Saviola - Olga; Karen Akers - Kitty Haynes; Michael Tucker - Gil's Agent; Annie Joe Edwards - Delilah; Peter McRobbie - Communist; Juliana Donald - Usherette; Edward Herrmann - Henry; David Kieserman - Diner boss; Eugene Anthony - Arturo; Ebb Miller - Bandleader; Edwin Bordo - Moviegoer; Maurice Brenner - Diner Patron; Ken Chapin - Reporter; Jeff Daniels - Gil Shepherd; Crystal Field - Movie Audience; Helen Hanft - Movie Audience; Glenne Headly - Hooker; Paul Herman - Penny Pitcher; Lela Ivey - Hooker; Gretchen MacLane - Moviegoer; George J. Manos - Press Agent; George Martin - Movie Audience; Helen Miller - Movie Audience; Rick Petrucelli - Penny Pitcher; Ray Serra - Hollywood Executive; Martha Sherrill - Moviegoer; Jean Shevlin - Moviegoer; Robert Trebor - Reporter; Mark Hammond - Diner Patron; David Weber - Photo Double; Mimi Weddell - Ticket Buyer; Wade Barnes - Diner Patron; Albert S. Bennett - Moviegoer; Sydney Blake - Variety Reporter; Peter Castellotti - Penny Pitcher; Tom Degidon - Ticket Taker; Joseph G. Graham - Diner Patron; Elaine Grollman - Diner Patron; George Hamlin - Movie Audience; Mary Hedahl - Popcorn Seller; Tom Kubiak - Policeman; Drinda La Lumia - Hooker; James Lynch - Maitre D'; Andrew Murphy - Policeman; Leo Postrel - Movie Audience; Don Quigley - Diner Patron; Benjamin Rayson - Moviegoer; Milton Seaman - Ticket Buyer; David Tice - Waiter; Willie Tjan - Hooker; Loretta Tupper - Music Store Owner; Peter Von Berg - Drugstore Customer; Victoria Zussin - Diner Patron; Juliet Taylor; Margaret Thompson - Movie Audience
Credit
Edward Pisoni - Art Director, W. Steven Graham - Art Director, Michael Peyser - Associate Producer, Juliet Taylor - Casting, Jeffrey Kurland - Costume Designer, Woody Allen - Director, Susan E. Morse - Editor, Charles H. Joffe - Executive Producer, Jack Rollins - Executive Producer, Dick Hyman - Composer (Music Score), Fern Buchner - Makeup, John Kasarda - Production Designer, Stuart Wurtzel - Production Designer, Gordon Willis - Cinematographer, Michael Peyser - Production Manager, Robert Greenhut - Producer, Carol Joffe - Set Designer, Justin Scoppa - Set Designer, James J. Sabat - Sound/Sound Designer, Woody Allen - Screenwriter
The Purple Rose of Cairo is the name of a film-within-the-film, with Jeff Daniels playing the dual roles of Tom, a character in the film-within-the-film, and Gil, the actor who portrays Tom. Tom literally breaks the fourth wall, emerging from the black-and-white into the colorful real world on the other side of the cinema's screen. He is drawn out by Cecilia (played by Mia Farrow), a filmgoer who uses the pastime to escape her bleak Great Depression life and loveless marriage to Monk (Danny Aiello), who she has attempted to leave on numerous occasions. The producer of the film learns that Tom has left the film, and he and Gil fly cross-country to the New Jersey theater where this has happened. This sets up an unusual love triangle involving Tom, Gil and Cecilia. The downbeat ending has Cecilia give up the chance to return with Tom to his world, choosing to stay with Gil and have a 'real' life. Gil then abandons her and is seen quietly racked with guilt on his flight back to Hollywood. Having been left without a lover, job or home (but most likely to return to her abusive husband), Cecilia ends up sitting in a theater watching Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers dancing to "Cheek-to-Cheek" in the film Top Hat, forgetting her dire situation and losing herself in the film.
Filming locations
A number of the scenes featuring Tom and Cecilia are set at the Bertrand Island Amusement Park, which closed just prior to the film's production. It was also filmed at the Raritan Diner in South Amboy, New Jersey.
In a rare public appearance at the National Film Theatre in 2001, Allen listed The Purple Rose of Cairo as one of only a few of his films that ended up being "fairly close to what I wanted to do" when he set out to write it.[1] Allen provided more detail about the film's origins in a comment he made a year earlier, during a press junket for Small Time Crooks:
“
Purple Rose was a film that I just locked myself in a room [to write].... I wrote it and halfway through it didn't go anywhere and I put it aside. I didn't know what to do. I toyed around with other ideas. Only when the idea hit me, a long time later, that the real actor comes to town and she has to choose between the [screen] actor and the real actor and she chooses the real actor and he dumps her, that was the time it became a real movie. Before that it wasn't. But the whole thing was manufactured.[2]
”
Box office
The Purple Rose of Cairo opened in North America on March 1, 1985 in 3 theaters, where it grossed an exceptional $114,095 ($38,031 per screen) in its opening weekend. Box office settled down upon further expansions, and its total gross of $10,631,333 was in line with most Woody Allen films of the period.[3]
