I watched The Inspector General for the first time today. While it wasn’t as great as The Kid from Brooklyn or The Court Jester, the latter my favourite Danny Kaye film, it was still good, and almost entirely due to his presence.
I mean, seriously. The guy acts, dances, sings, does verbal comedy, does physical comedy, and does it all while looking like some guy off the street that accidentally walked onto a movie set and didn’t realize it wasn’t for real.
Look at the scene in The Inspector General, where the entire gag is that he can’t get his sword out of his sheath. That’s what he has to work with, and he makes it funny. Brilliant. Check out his facial expressions.
I grew up watching his weekly variety show on TV during the 1960s. Loved the guy. He also used to introduce The Wizard of Oz on TV, and appeared on other TV shows.
I think the only movies of his I’ve seen were White Christmas and Hans Christian Andersen. I really need to plug that gap in my cultural education, and see The Court Jester, at the very least.
I was astonished to find that he couldn’t read music, yet composed the music for the Broadway show “Two by Two”, and gave musical instruction performances. I’m also amazed that they excerpte two of his woerks circa 1960 in MAD. One of these days I have to hear a recording of his routine that Tom Lehrer used as a basis for “Lobachevsky”.
And apparently he was the inspiration for a dog in some Warner Brothers cartoons, in his “Russian” guise.
Yes he is a genius and Yes another fan. “The Vessel with the Pestle …” is one of the greatest movie gags this side of Who’s on First and the Marx Brother’s overcrowded stateroom.
He also did a lot of work for the UN and hosted children’s programs at the opera. He couldn’t sit down at a restaurant without someone coming up to tell him about the flagon with the dragon etc.
He did a lot of great comedy songs, many of which, I believe were written by his wife. But my favorite song by him is “Ballin’ the Jack” from On the Riviera.
I remember seeing The Court Jester on it’s first run–in a real movie theater. He made many TV appearances & his show was a favorite with the whole family. (I remember him playing an insufferable airline passenger. Braining his poor seatmate while stowing his sample case overhead was bad enought–he sold Concrete Blocks. Then, he had to find a place for his Bowling Ball Collection…)
Mr Kaye had a long marriage & his wife collaborated on some of his best routines. But, after his death, a rumor came out that he’d had an affair with Laurence Olivier. My rather conservative mother thought about this. Then she said that, considering the sadness that the very troubled Vivian Leigh caused Olivier, she hoped that Danny Kaye had made him happy.
I haven’t seen a movie of his for years but I used to hang out for them on Sunday afternoons when I was a teen - a plateful of grilled cheese on toast and a DK movie was heaven.
I love Danny Kaye. The court jester is my favorite, of course, and I have educated my children properly so that they love to watch it too. The man was just an amazing genius, and I never expect to see anyone like him again.
I absolutely love Danny Kaye, The Court Jester and The Inspector General are two of my favorite movies. But, as with most things that I like, it seems that no one in my generation has even heard of Danny Kaye. It is a sad state of affairs.
He was an amazing talent. I have to admit that I never liked his movies, except “Hans Christian Andersen” and the thing he did late in life about the nazis marching in Skokie (the guy could do serious, too). But he had a TV special in the 60s that I blundered into watching, and I thought I’d hurt myself from laughing so hard.
The Secret Life of Walter Mitty is one of my all time favorites. I could watch it every day and not get tired of his performance, especially the scenes as the women’s hat designer and the as the pilot.
I have heard that some dimwits in Hollyweird want to produce a remake of this great movie! How dare they!
A good friend of mine who was timpanist in a number of the big North American orchestras told me once his favorite conductor was Danny Kaye. Thats a huge complement from someone who worked with Seji Ozawa, Lenny Bernstein, Andrew Davis, Bernard Haitink etc!! Look for him conducting “Fiddle Faddle” with the NYP on youtube
I thought he suffered from Jerry Lewis disease. He was very talented and could do great things but needed a little control. They repeated and went over the top too often. A good powerful director would have helped them both.
The man was just an amazing genius, and I never expect to see anyone like him again.