Danny Kaye made only 17 big screen movies and six TV movies in his 50-year career. He was surely in demand to do more. But like other many-talented physical performers (i.e., Fred Astaire),Kaye took time to perfect his often complicated routines. And, his films were mostly in his first 30 years. He had his own highly popular TV series that ran over five years, 1963-1967, and he made guest appearances on other shows.

Kaye was one of the few multi-talented performers on stage and the silver screen; and I think he was one of the best. He was primarily known as a comedian. But he was an excellent dancer and singer as well. He was a first-rate mimic. He had a versatile voice and could imitate various ethnic voices. And, he was the singular master of tongue-twisters. His rapid-fire, tongue-twister monologues and songs were marvelous to see and hear.

About the middle of his career, Kaye made "Knock on Wood." He plays a ventriloquist, Jerry Morgan, who unwittingly gets involved in an espionage caper between Paris and London. Kaye sings, dances, tongue-twists, and ruses his way through many a scrape in this delightful comedy. He has his usual slapstick situations, and is riotous in a ballet sequence. When three bodies turn up in his hotel rooms, he becomes known in London as the "red-headed ripper." Two of the most hilarious escapades are his posing as an English gentleman and then as an Irishman at a Sons of Hibernia convention. His tongue-twister song in brogue is over the top funny.

Danny Kaye played a couple of serious roles in films, but mostly was an entertainer who relished making people laugh. Kaye never won an Oscar but was given an honorary Academy Award for his exceptional talents and service to filmdom and America. He was just 44 when he received that award in 1955. He did win two Golden Globes - for "On the Riviera" in 1952 and "Me and the Colonel" in 1958. And, he won an Emmy for his TV comedy series. In 1982, he received another award from the Hollywood academy - the Jean Herscholt Humanitarian Award. For many years, Kaye was ambassador at large for the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF),and the organization asked him to accept the 1955 Nobel Peace Prize it was awarded.

Kaye is probably most known today for his co-starring role with Bing Crosby in "White Christmas." In 1955, he was near the end of his roles with much physical activity, and he focused more on music. He played Red Nichols in that music man's 1959 biopic, "The Five Pennies." Kaye toured with Bob Hope shows for American service men overseas. Hope said Kaye was his favorite comedian.

Whatever Danny Kaye was in was worth watching. Kaye said that he was born to entertain people. All of his comedy films are among the best of the genre. The inimitable Danny Kaye shines in this wonderful comedy, as he does in all the others. It's pure joyful and fun entertainment for the whole family.

When "Knock on Wood" begins, Jerry (Danny Kaye) is performing his ventriloquism act. However, when he mentions to the audience that he's engaged, something strange comes over him...he begins making bitter and disparaging remarks about his intended...through his dummy. It's as if the dummy is his alter-ego and something about Jerry hates this woman or the idea of marrying. It's apparently a recurring problem and Jerry's agent has had enough and insists that Jerry get therapy. So he takes him to Switzerland to see a top psychoanalyst. But what Jerry and his agent don't realize is that when Jerry's dummies were repaired, a spy stuck plans for a top secret airplane into each of them!

Jerry is expected back in London and the analyst does something odd--he assigns a lady therapist to work with him and she accompanies him to London. Once there, and before all the spy nonsense begins, he begins therapy and is 100% inappropriate with the therapist--spending his time analyzing her and acting very creepy towards her. And, as a therapist would do only in a movie, she eventually falls for this and begins talking out her issues regarding her dead fiance. Then, they begins to behave romantically towards each other! As a trained therapist, this REALLY bothered me...as everything about this 'therapy' was inappropriate and wrong. It also seemed to have little to do with the rest of the film.

Then, inexplicably, the story completely changes direction. Several spies sneak into Jerry's room to retrieve the secret plans and two of them are murdered! Soon, Jerry arrives and finds the bodies and screams for the police. When the police arrive, he acts very suspiciously and the police assume he is the killer. Soon everyone is trying to catch him...the police AND two rival groups of spies.

This is a very high energy film and at times it's pretty entertaining. But it also portrays a completely inappropriate relationship with Jerry and his lady therapist that is pretty grotesque AND at times a little of Kaye's shtick goes a long way. Subtle, he is not! Devoted fans of Kaye will probably love it...I just found it a bit tiresome after a while and wish the film had slowed down and spent more time on making the script less frenetic and more logical. There is a basic idea here that's interesting...but the film has too many flat moments and distractions to leave most viewers satisfied.

I've come to the belief that Danny Kaye is an acquired taste, his early films quite funny yet some of the themes going way overboard to be over the heads of adolescents. His pairing with wife Sylvia Fine was a teaming of one of the great satirist writers and portrayer of those type of parts. In this very upscale comedy spoof of spy movies, he shows his meddle as he goes back into the territory of his early 1940's Broadway hit, "Lady in the Dark", as he goes into therapy to discover the reasons why he has allowed his romantic pairings to be destroyed by his ventriloquist dummy. Psycho analyst Mai Zetterling seems to have ulterior motives for taking his case, possibly being involved in the spy ring that hid secret documents in his dummy.

A serious atmosphere takes this way above the typical Bob Hope spy vehicle. There's no time for nonsense, and other than the occasional patter song, this is more plot oriented than normal, making it frequently suspenseful as well as ironic in its underplayed humor. Kaye provides a variety of accents, making it obvious as to why he was one of the most popular comics among adults and children who would have to see this again on T.V. later on to further understand it.

Ironically released the same year as Hus big Paramount musical "White Christmas" opposite Bing Crosby, he had the honor of sharing with Bing two quite different performances other than that overrated Christmas perennial. Bing, nominated for an Oscar for "The Country Girl", is equally matched by Danny in this. The intelligent story got an Oscar nomination, and Kaye certainly ranks as among the best performances of 1954.