On the Double

Having recently attempted straight roles in 'Me and the Colonel' and 'The Five Pennies', Danny Kaye's film career was taking a back seat to his activities on stage and TV by the time he returned to comedy to make this, set back in 1944 when he had made his own film debut in the services comedy 'Up in Arms'. Paramount continued to lavish top notch production values (and two Oscar-winning cameramen) and an impressive supporting cast on this as they had on their Bob Hope films. (It also marks one of Diana Dors' last glamorous bad girl roles in Hollywood as a second world war Mata Hari.) But like most Kaye vehicles it does go on.

More farcical than most Kaye fare, the basic plot dates back at least as far as 'Folies Bergere' in 1935 (and probably the silent era), and Kaye himself had already made a version himself ten years before this as 'On the Riviera'. Other comedians ranging from Will Hay to Jerry Lewis have also played their doppelgängers for laughs. The war gave a new lease of life to this situation, with even real life getting in on the act with 'I Was Monty's Double'.

Danny Kaye has to be one of the greatest of the giggle creators of all time. With instinct that is uncanny, he can unleash a torrent of laughter on either side of the ocean. Using that amazing voice, and unique body language all of his own, Danny Kaye becomes whomever he desires to be, in any language. He knew how to create, without the need of crudity, and it remains a beautiful fashion, forty years after the fact. Seldom lacking that twinkle in his eye, anything could and usually did happen in his films, especially On the Double. It has always made me wonder how ofter might this have happened, for it is said that each of us has a direct mirror opposite wandering about on this planet. The list of possibilities is endless. Hopefully, each will have the same bad eye, so that the patch which covers it will be permitted to remain in place, and not confuse family members. Beware to all our beloved Aunts. This is one in the top 5 list I have for Danny Kaye, and it needs to be up and out there on VIDIO if not DVD.

The tempo is unusually fast here for a Danny Kaye film, as you had learned to take it more easy with his films like "Me and the Colonel" and the very serious "Five Pennies", but apparently he agreed to return to professional hilarious farce again and with a vengeance. It's all British although there are a few Americans in it as well, but the relief of the film and what saves it is the lovely Dana Wynter, wife of the monstrous general he has to impersonate, who hated her husband and came back home just to divorce him, but found Danny Kasye instead as something of her husband's better alter ego. They both appear together in the beginning of the film in the first of many hilarious scenes, but he is never heard of again, while the fake conquers the scene. The top hilarious scene is when he gets kidnapped to Germany and has to go through all kinds of ordeals, turning them to great slapstick fun, until he faces his own assassins. Actually, you miss the serious Danny Kaye here from his two previous films, to which genre he never returned. He was funniest as a clown but he proved his artistic worth best in those two changeling films.

Danny Kaye is loose again – this time in a 1961 farce about espionage in World War II. The film is set in England and Berlin, and Kaye has another double role. All of his films are very good, and he may have made more movies than any other actor in which the lead actor plays two characters. His "Wonder Man" of 1945, "On the Riviera" of 1951, and "Knock on Wood" of 1954 were excellent movies. "On the Double" isn't quite at the level of those films, but it's a very good movie as well.

Kaye plays Pfc. Ernie Williams, and doubles as General Lord MacKenzie-Smith, the fictitious planner of the D-Day invasion. Dana Wynter is very good as Lady Margaret, the general's wife. Wilfrid Hyde-White is very good, and very funny, as Colonel Somerset, the head of British intelligence. The rest of the cast are very good as well. Margaret Rutherford is hilarious as Lady Vivian, and Diana Dors excels as Sgt. Bridget Stanhope.

"On the Double" is another showcase for the multi-talented Kaye. But Danny doesn't use as many of his talents in this film. He doesn't sing or dance. He doesn't do any tongue twisters (no one could do them better), nor did he have any acrobatic antics. He does a song impersonation of a female singer, but mostly we see him with some impersonations and numerous disguise attempts with costume changes. His attempts to speak German while in various disguises are hilarious. One can only guess what a German would think when confronted by Kaye with his Deutsch mumbo-jumbo.

Kaye was 50 years old when he made this film, and he clearly was slowing down with some of his acrobatic routines and dancing. No doubt his talented wife, Sylvia Fine, was scaling back the routines and numbers she wrote and coordinated for him. Two years after this film, Danny had his own TV variety show on CBS. He did more than 120 live shows from the fall of 1963 to the spring of 1967.

After his TV show, Kaye made only one more major film, "Skokie" in 1981 that was a serious drama. He did some voices for animated films, appeared on other TV programs, and made a Broadway musical in 1970. But, he essentially retired from acting by age 60. Some film buffs regarded his bowing out due to lack of appeal. Well, when one nears age 60, one slows down and can no longer do the things that were part of a career of song and dance and fast-paced comedy and acrobatic performances. But, Kaye didn't stop performing. He became "the" ambassador for UNICEF, the United Nations Children's Fund. He traveled around the world for UNICEF and often wound up entertaining groups of children in some way. Kaye was a special guest of UNICEF when it received the 1965 Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo, Norway. And, he starred in a theatrical event with Norwegian performers to raise funds to match the Nobel Prize money. That was 50 years ago when UNICEF and the United Nations thought "investing in children is investing in peace and a better future."

"On the Double" is a film that the whole family can enjoy.

I was 14 and saw On The Double when it first came out and was impressed then by the regal beauty of Dana Wynter who was always playing Lady this or Mrs. that and always in the upper class of the United Kingdom. I also thought Danny Kaye was pretty funny.

On The Double gives Kaye his usual stage for patter and mimicry. The mimicry is most important because Kaye is asked to impersonate a one eyed British general who he bares a resemblance to. Kaye does other imitations like Churchill and Hitler. I'll bet could have come up with a mean FDR had he the occasion to.

The one he doesn't fool is the general's wife played by Dana Wynter who has put up with his frequent infidelities. Something about Kaye does touch her. It's always that we with movie comedians who play nebbishes, but funny nebbishes whether it's Bob Hope, Jerry Lewis or Danny Kaye.

Wynter gets into the spirit of things and at a very posh society party in an incident precipitated by Margaret Rutherford turns into an old fashioned food fight that John Belushi couldn't have handled better.

Britain's Marilyn Monroe, Diana Dors is also on hand as the shapely sergeant that the general is having his current fling with.

On The Double is not the best of Danny Kaye films, yet his legion of fans will find it suits their taste admirably.