उपयोगकर्ता समीक्षाएं

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.

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.

Danny Kaye vehicles (the word was chosen with care) are typically strings connecting sequences designed exhibit Mr. Kaye's peculiar talents. In that respect, this is the ideal Kaye movie.

The story, as if it mattered: Kaye is a ventriloquist who doesn't know secret papers are hidden in his dummies. He's pursued by two groups of spies. The End.

Some of Mr. Kaye's specialty sequences work well, particularly those involving an Irish song and a new car. A ballet seemingly based on "The Rite of Spring" runs too long. It may have inspired the climax of Bill Murray's "The Man Who Knew Too Little."

Song "Knock on Wood" (not the one from Casablanca") is a highlight.

"Knock on Wood" will never make the list of the greatest movies ever made but Danny Kaye movies were geared for his fans. They'll love it.

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).

With Fred Astaire and Gene Kelly dominating this genre, it's easy to forget that Danny Kaye was actually quite an accomplished dancer and singer - and he demonstrates that quite charismatically in this rather daft spy caper. Here he also reminds us of just how popular ventriloquists were as his "Jerry" character finds himself embroiled in an international espionage ring that involves some top secret blueprints, his dummy's brand new head and the dastardly British industrialist "Langston" (Torin Thatcher). It's this latter man who turns out to want to acquire and sell on the plans - but there is no absence of competitors who are trying to entrap our hapless entertainer. Meantime, he begins to fall for the sceptical "Dr. Ilse" (Mai Zetterling) and she - slightly uncertain as to whether he's a bit screwy or not - soon finds herself equally involved in the increasingly farcical goings on in a fine Zurich hotel. It's all fairly predicable, borderline slapstick, fayre but there's a fair degree of agreeable chemistry between Kaye and Zetterling with both being quite adept on the dance floor and him delivering a couple of cheery, if not entirely memorable, numbers from Sylvia Fine. The production quality lets it down a bit if you happen to know anything about actually living in London, but there's still some humour in the writing that Kaye delivers quite engagingly as we build to a denouement straight out of "Sherlock Holmes" that takes a few pings at the international jet-set en route.

The sequence in this film where Danny Kaye lands on the stage of an balletic opera in progress has got to rank up there with the funniest single scenes in motion picture history. The spoof is as spot-on as the "Fantasia" spoof of opera in the "Dance of the Hours" sequence. It's hard to explain how the previous reviewer thought the new-car-with-gadgets scene was the funniest; actually, it's the most dated, and "Knock on Wood" would be better off without it. The story is a wicked satire on espionage agents, with Danny caught up unawares in the center of an international spy ring. There's also a love story reminiscent of "Walter Mitty", but this is the funnier film of the two. Danny Kaye is one of the most underrated actors of all time. His facial expressions--conveying what he thinks, which is often opposite to what he or the other characters are saying--is like a second voice carrying the humor line. It's so well done that it seems mundane to people who are not on the lookout for it. Only Sid Caesar, of all the comics in American history, including Chaplin and the other silent greats, used his facial expressions to the supreme comic effect that Danny Kaye achieved. I might even rank Caesar above Kay, but unfortunately Caesar did not get any good movie roles. (Mel Brooks wanted him for "The Producers," and it would have become THE best comedy of all time if he had landed him, but some busybody associate producer hated Caesar and so he nixed the deal. How sad.) If I were pressed to choose among Danny Kaye's films, I guess I would choose "The Court Jester" above "Knock on Wood," in terms of all-round satisfaction. Yet the ballet spoof in "Knock on Wood" surpasses any single scene in "The Court Jester." If you never see it, you'll never know how funny a thing can be.

Danny Kaye plays a ventriloquist caught up in mayhem in Melvin Frank's Academy Award-nominated "Knock on Wood". Admittedly, some of the material (i.e., the gender relations) is a little outdated, but the humor is as lovable as ever. Kaye does a number of his verbal puns, there are some zany gags with a car, and then there's one of the funniest ballet scenes ever. It goes to show why Kaye was one of the best comedians ever (although he did also have a serious side, appearing as a Holocaust survivor in a TV movie about a Nazi rally in Skokie).

Not one of the best comedies of all time, but enjoyable enough for its short run.

Was Mai Zetterling a babe or what?

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.

This, in my opinion, is one of Kaye's funniest performances, showcasing his comedic, singing, and dancing talents to the fullest. Not to be missed is the movie's finale, where Kaye finds himself on the stage of a London ballet as the leading dancer while simultaneously trying to escape from the baddies.

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.

There is a scene in KNOCK ON WOOD in which Danny Kaye, trying to escape from the London police, finds himself backstage during an overly dramatic Russian ballet, and soon enough, is onstage, heavy-footedly trying to blend into the scene without being spotted by the police in the audience. The result is the single best spoof of ballet the live side of animation (with "Dance of the Hours" in FANTASIA being its cartoon match). I actually saw Danny Kaye do this routine onstage at the Palace Theatre in New York where, great though it was, the closeups provided by the movie camera make the film version even more hilarious. Kaye is one of the most underrated actors of all time. This movie shows his brilliance and range. His facial expressions are as brilliantly comic as Sid Caesar's, and the two of them leave the rest of the pack far behind. (Is Robin Williams a distant third?)

KNOCK ON WOOD is uneven. It's not the most perfectly realized Kaye film--that honor goes either to SECRET LIFE OF WALTER MITTY or COURT JESTER. The latter, being a musical, maybe is the best. COURT JESTER is overall funnier than KNOCK ON WOOD, but no scene in it comes close to the ballet spoof.

He also gets mixed up with two dummies, which he now and then gets into arguments with ending by his smashing them to pieces, so his doll fixer in Paris, Monsieur Papinek, gets very busy with Danny Kaye's doll destructions while at the same time he gets mixed up with some serious spying business, which eventually also involves the totally innocent Danny Kaye, since his dummies are used for smuggling state secrets. That's the beginning of the mess. Danny Kaye in almost all his films excels in getting immersed in unfathomably deep trouble, but somehow he always manages to extricate himself out of it as well, no matter how complicated the mess of circumstances gets. Here it starts in Paris, continues in Zürich and then ends up in London and even at a theatre with a tremendous ballet performance which almost brings the conductor to a nervous breakdown. There are many crooks here, and they are difficult to keep track of, while they gradually one by one are sorted out by constantly accumulating murders. I am afraid anyone could laugh himself to death by this film. It must be one of Danny Kaye's funniest if not the very funniest, and the virtuoso action will never keep you relaxed for a moment. Mai Zetterling though, with her wonderful blue eyes that Danny Kaye instantly falls in love with, seems to be the only one keeping rather cool, while ultimately even she is brought to some smiling by Danny Kaye's indefatigable desperation.