On the Double (1961)

After the success of his dramatic turn in "The Five Pennies", Danny Kaye returned to comedy at the tail end of his film career. Fortunately, "On The Double" is probably his last great film, a jaunty WWII intrigue-filled farce about a timid American soldier (Kaye) tapped by the military to serve as a decoy for a famous British Colonel (who's targeted for death by the Nazis) after it's discovered he's a dead ringer for the man. From there, poor Kaye fumbles through his role as the stakes get higher, involving himself in the Colonel's personal entanglements with his lovely but underappreciated wife (Dana Wynter) and amorous chauffeur (Diana Dors). As with Kaye's best films, this one relies on his special gifts for dialect, wordplay & rubber-faced timing. Just watch Kaye as he does his stuff in such hilarious comedy pieces as a military innoculation ceremony; a "dignified" ballroom complete with lost contact lenses, a wild Scottish dance, and food fight; and a climactic gag marathon of switching disguises to escape Germany.

Deftly helmed by notable director Mel Shavelson, its songs are supplied by Kaye's wife Sylvia Fine, and rounded out by a fine supporting cast (Wilfred Hyde-White and Jesse "Lonely Maytag Repairman" White). As with "Knock On Wood", Olive Films did a fine job of presenting this rare Kaye vehicle; the print is in good condition, and the colors vibrant.

Thanks for finally bringing this long-unseen movie to DVD!

On The Double, Wonderman and Court Jester are my 3 top favorites for Danny Kaye's hilarious comedy. I had a VHS taped version of On The Double from the television that was about 20 years old (low quality and full of commercials and cutoff about halfway) so I am very pleased to get the DVD version. The only things that would make the DVD release better is special features but I'm not complaining. Danny Kaye at his best! Look into his other films such as Five Pennies and White Christmas. Great, clean entertainment for the whole family.

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On The Double

Danny Kaye had a long and varied career as an actor, singer, and dancer with stops on the Broadway stage (Lady In The Dark, Let's Face It), radio and television circuit, and Hollywood film (The Secret Life of Walter Mitty, The Court Jester). At one point, he had his own TV show, The Danny Kaye show, airing on CBS from 1963 to 1967 that won both Emmy and Peabody awards. He could perform songs with tongue twisting lyrics, many of which were written by his wife; his movie roles often contained plots featuring body doubles and cases of mistaken identity that induce gut busting laughter. The film under review, On The Double, is one of these.

Kaye plays an enlisted military man with such a gift for impersonation, he's entered into a secret program to impersonate General Laurence McKenzie Smith, who we're told is busy planning the D-Day invasion. Part of Kaye's comedy is his ability to deliver long lines in one breath: "How many times have I told you I'm on a sorb free fat free high protein low calorie low cholesterol diet, now what's so difficult about that?" Other times, in a pantomime routine he becomes, by turn, a German spy, a fighter pilot, a high society matriarch, and a Marlene Dietrich impersonator.

With his ranting, blathering, blustering, and knee jerk idiocy on display in this film, many people with time on their hands are likely to re-discover how good Danny Kaye was at providing slapdash entertainment. As Cary Grant once said: "Dying is easy, comedy is hard."

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So glad to be able to add this fun Danny Kaye to our film collection! Wonder where the rest of his classics are such as "Up In Arms", The Kid From Brooklyn", etc.... Please, please release them on dvd. We enjoyed "On the Double" very much as we had never seen it before it was a fun adventure. Subtitles/ captions would be, at the very least, a great addition to these newly released dvds for the price. Otherwise we enjoyed it very much.

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Rather silly premise of just 2 American soldiers posted to a British unit. (The British soldiers were clearly American.) Danny Kaye's character was over-the -top. Still, there were some funny moments, like the impossibly quick costume changes as Kaye's character tried to escape from the German soldiers, none of whom seemed able to catch or shoot him. This type of slapstick comedy would have looked better in the 1920s.

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