Agárrame si puedes

The story of the ventriloquist's dummy who develops a personality all its own has been used any number of times. Two times when it was used seriously the ventriloquists were Cliff Robertson on the Twilight Zone and Michael Redgrave in Dead Of Night. But Danny Kaye managed to use it for laughs in Knock On Wood.

Every time Kaye gets close to a girl to start talking seriously of marriage, his second persona through the dummy takes over and cooks the deal for good. Kaye's agent David Burns suggests some consultation with a psychiatrist Steven Geray. And then Geray consults a consultant and the consultant psychiatrist turns out to be Mai Zetterling.

That's how romances start with comics, especially movie comics. But even Zetterling is ready to commit him when all kind of strange things happen. Two parts of the design of a secret weapon get hidden both of Kaye's dummies Clarence and Terrence. And two different sets of spies get a hold of the parts. One is held by Leon Askin and the second held by international man of mystery Torin Thatcher.

Things start happening around Kaye that he and no one else can explain so it's not unnatural for mental health professionals to think he's off his rocker. But so does law enforcement in several countries.

Knock On Wood is not as good as so many of Kaye's films, still his fans should like it. Best is the ballet sequences where in trying to elude the police who want him for a homicide and the spies who just want him dead, Danny fouls up a ballet that his former girlfriend is starring in. What a way to put a coda on a breakup.

Of course Danny was to reach the height of his career with his next two films White Christmas and The Court Jester. Knock On Wood is good, but just an interlude in Danny's career.

This film is very special to me because when I left home to live in London in 1958, I saw this on my first evening in the city and, as I walked to the cinema, I realised I had not had to ask anyone if I could go or tell anyone where I was going! It was a moment of pure joy - I was free! Other reviewers have carped at the automatic sports car scene but I love this for two reasons: it is very well-constructed, very brief and only a great clown could have carried off. Secondly, Kaye uses his ability as a mimic to produce an impeccable English accent, something which very few Americans can manage (e.g. Dick Van Dyke in Mary Poppins).

There is plenty of fun to be had in this uneven Danny Kaye entry, the sequence where he gives an excruciatingly complicated explanation of the espionage activities of a group of mittel-European spies with very similar names is a hoot, but it is the ballet parody of "The Polovstian Dances" that takes this film to the heights of film comedy.

I believe this sequence to be one of the three funniest sequences in cinema, along with the first half hour of Chaplin's "Modern Times" and "Daphne's", (Jack Lemmon's), engagement sequence from "Some Like It Hot". The fact that it is unavailable on DVD is as inexplicable as it is regrettable.

This isn't quite in the class of The Court Jester, but it's better by far than most comedies. Kaye's character is one of those who gets caught up in intrigue without fully understanding just what's going on.

Spoilers follow: One really funny scene has Kaye's character hiding under a table, where those who are hunting him decide to sit down. One of them puts his hand on Kaye's knee, so he immediately puts his hand on that man's, so he'll think he's resting his hand on his own knee. Then the other (third) guy does the same thing with Kaye's other knee, and Kaye responds identically. Then, as the men talk, they start drumming their fingers on Kaye's knees, and he has to mimic their actions! Incredible work that probably involved a lot of retakes.

There's one wonderful running gag where Kaye and his girlfriend are trying to escape pursuit by cutting through a car caught in a traffic jam. Later, they do the same, and happen to crawl through the same car, with the same couple in it. This leads to a great last line toward the close of the picture.

You could do far worse than this one and still see a pretty good picture.

This ranks right up there with Danny Kayes "The Court Jester" when it comes to funny. You really need to pay attention to the dialog, because there are so many neat little jokes to hear. Such as when Danny Kaye tries to talk to his agent on whether or not he is crazy or peculiar. I won't tell you how it goes but it's very cool the way his agent lets him know. Then there are so many little things going on in this movie that even though I've watched the movie a numerous amount of times it still seems to be a longer movie than it really is. There is just so much going on in the movie. This is a really good family movie where everyone will enjoy it.