El inspector general

I loved it as a kid and i love it even more now. This is a classic movie about mistaken identity, which inspired so many later movies. A tramp (Danny Kaye) is mistaken for the Inspector General by the corrupt mayor and his equally corrupt officials.

I find Danny Kaye one of the best performers of our times and he has given one of his best performances here. Look at him rolling like a dog (a scene so touching) or imitating a fish in the beginning or singing 'drink gypsy' later on. An institution in himself. The movie can be hilarious, very touching, delightful and thrilling at the same time. It's a treasure.

It is easy to see that this film was intended to be more of a vehicle for Danny Kaye's comedy antics than a fully developed and deep farce, but even so it is entertaining to watch, with some good tunes and a fair amount of funny moments to be had. It is awfully silly at times, with over-the-top jokes and various excesses, but it makes pretty good viewing in general. Well-used sound effects plus apt costumes and sets help enhance the experience too. It takes a while to warm up, and some of the time old elements are thrown in to not much avail, such as a typical love subplot, but if one is to take the film lightheartedly it is quite amusing, even if some of Kaye's skits go a bit overboard.

Hysterical. Danny Kaye is a comedy genius.

The Gypsy song was the best part of the film. (Zummm-shtok-shtok-hahaha) This is worth a look for this scene alone. It was fun watching the crowd get into it. I'd guess that scene was mostly ad-libbed. He clearly was in control. I bought the DVD (public domain) just for that scene.

The supporting cast did a great job too. Slezak nearly stole all of his scenes and Hale Sr. was perfect in support. And the costume designer deserved at least a nomination for the Oscar.

You can't take this one seriously. But then Danny Kaye lived to entertain. And few did it better.

A pleasant farce with a fine cast, "The Inspector General" gives Danny Kaye a chance to show off his many talents, and also tells a story that is quite humorous as long as you do not take it too seriously.

Kaye plays Georgi, an illiterate traveling huckster who helps his boss Yakov (Walter Slezak) sell useless medicines to gullible peasants. (The sequence where they try to sell their "elixir" is one of the movie's best scenes.) Georgi visits a small town, where through a series of coincidences, he is mistaken by the town's leaders for the Inspector General, an important official with sweeping powers to punish and reform. Half of the town fawns on him, while the other half panics over what he will discover in his "inspection". Kaye just wants to leave town before they figure out who he really is, but plenty of complications arise that keep things going for quite a while.

Kaye gets to sing, dance, and generally entertain the audience. The supporting cast is filled with fine character actors like Gene Lockhart, Elsa Lanchester, and Alan Hale, who add to the humor. Not a lot of big laughs, but a steady stream of good-natured comedy all the way through.

This is an enjoyable movie recommended for anyone who likes musical comedy.

Freely based on Nikolai Gogol's play , "The Inspector General" about a false Inspector who comes to examine a little corrupt town . It deals with an illiterate called Giorgi (Danny Kaye, able to tongue twist faster than anyone else) along with his boss (Walter Slezak) , both of whom are wandering and acting as medicine men into a provincial town wherein panic . Then Giorgi's detained for vagrancy charge but he's misidentified as a feared Inspector General who comes to check up on them and whom the corrupter town officers (the Mayor : Gene Lockhart married to Elsa Lanchaster and another officer played by Alan Hale) think is secretly moving in disguise . Later on , they make various bungled tryings to murder him . Meanwhile , Giorgi falls in love with a beautiful maid (Barbara Bates) who is serving to the Mayor.

The film is a Danny Kaye recital , he sings , dances , stooges , makes acrobatics , tongue twister and puts faces and grimaces . It's a pretty amusing farce suggested by a play by the Russian writer Gogol with the master comedy actor and it displays much choreography and musical numbers . Sylvia Fine , Kaye's wife , is the lyricist , composer , besides associate producer and dialogs writer , and responsible for many of the best known musical routines and songs for her husband . The best gags are developed on the Charles Chaplin imitations when Kaye is having lunch ; the events in the crowded room with several hosts that seem Marx brothers sketches ; in addition , the comic numbers in the military training headquarter . Support cast is frankly good , such as Elsa Lanchester , Barbara Bates , Gene Lockhart , Alan Hale , Néstor Paiva and Rhys Williams , among others . The motion picture was well directed by Henry Koster . Picture is a Kaye vehicle , and many consider his best comedy , he's an authentic comedian and real farceur . If you like Kaye's crazy interpretation , you will most definitely enjoy this one .