Danny Kaye was one of the best movie comedians ever. His works were wonderful, and he had the added genius of a decent voice (as he showed more than once, such as White Christmas and Hans Christian Anderson). I have loved The Court Jester since I was a child, had it on VCR and now on DVD. Gotta admit Glynis Johns was pretty attractive and seeing Angela Lansbury as a thin beauty is quite the eye-opener. The flagon/vessel/chalice scenes are hilarious, as was his song “Maladjusted Jester.” But there were also his scenes where he gets snapped in and snapped out of his rakish hypnotized self.
One movie not mentioned yet is A Song is Born, where he is Professor Hobart Frisbee. Yes, it’s a remake of a more classic film, Ball of Fire, but the Kaye version has several quite well known musicians, including Tommy Dorsey, Louis Armstrong and Benny Goodman. Another staple of Saturday TV matinees.
He should be required watching for anyone who loves comedy that doesn’t use the word “fuck” every five seconds. Only Robin Williams as a comedic actor has been even close in my mind.
the fencing coach for The Court Jester and Basil Rathbone both agreed that, despite no training whatsoever, he was such a gifted mimic that by the end of shooting he was a fine swordsman.
Danny Kaye truly was a freakin’ genius. The Secret Life of Walter Mitty is one of my favourite films, and one of my earliest memories is watching it on TV.
“Lobachevsky” was inspired by Danny Kaye’s “Stanislavsky” (written by the incomparable Sylvia Fine, Danny’s wife). It’s on the soundtrack album of The Kid from Brooklyn. You can listen to a brief clip of “Stanislavsky” here.
Okay folks. You talked me into it. I’ll be raiding the Danny Kaye section on Netflix this month.
My Danny Kaye story, BTW: one of my relatives was the kind of vicarious hypochondriac who asserts confidently – based on evidence of the most paltry sort imaginable – that child X will grow up to be afflicted by disorder Y or Z (and will thus lead a miserable life) unless instant corrective measures are taken. She watched my infant daughter drinking from her bottle, and somehow came to the conclusion that the manner in which it was done would inevitably lead to her speaking in a profound labiodental lisp, thereby destroying any possibility of her achieving the slightest degree of social acceptability yadda yadda yadda.
So as Kizarvexilla learned to speak, I subjected her constantly to the repetition of tongue-twisters, particularly those that would vex Biggus Dickus or Winthrop Peroo to a near-fatal degree (fans of the immortal Mr. K will be nodding knowingly by this point in my overblown narrative) At the tender age of two years, my daughter could rattle off “Now Sheila’s not sure what she should be selling / Should Sheila sell seashells or should she sell shoes?” with great aplomb. Though it had taken months of effort, the look of shock on my mother’s – I mean, the aforementioned overreactive relative’s – face upon hearing an impromptu recital was profoundly satisfying.
Daffy Duck also did the Russian Danny Kaye in the Clampett cartoon Book Revue. “Nothing could be feener than to be in Caroleener in the MOOOOOOOOOOOOORnink!”
I haven’t seen a Danny Kaye film since I was a little kid catching them on TV, but one thing about him has always stuck with me: He seemed not only to be a warm person, but to greatly enjoy whatever it was he was doing on screen. Unlike a lot of actors, who seem to resemble Jon Lovitz’s Master Thespian character, Kaye let just a little bit of himself show in the roles he played.
Danny Kaye also had a knowledge of medicine that rivaled some doctors. Besides observing surgeries, he once diagnosed his own inflamed appendix and landed his plane (he was a private pilot) at the nearest airport to the Mayo Clinic to get it attended to.
He would have made a hell of a doper.
