Knock on Wood (1954)

Danny Kaye is at his zaniest and best in the 1954 comedy Knock on Wood. Knock on Wood stars Danny Kaye and Mai Zetterling. Other actors in the film include Torin Thatcher, David Burns, and Leon Askin. The film was written and directed by Melvin Frank and Norman Panama, with wonderful songs by Danny Kaye's wife, Sylvia Fine.

Jerry Morgan (Kaye) is a ventriloquist who is having trouble with his love life: just when his relationship with his girlfriend gets around to marriage, his dummy turns jealous and spoils everything. Jerry's manager is so distraught; that he threatens to quit unless Jerry sees a psychiatrist, Enter Ilse Nordstrom, played by Zetterling, who tries to help Kaye find the source of his problem. The chemistry between Kaye and Zetterling throughout the movie is wonderful. The two of them eventually fall in love.

At the same time, Jerry becomes unwittingly mixed up with international spies, danger and intrigue, while he runs from the police. In his escape, Kaye does a funny impersonation of a British car salesman, trying to demonstrate a new convertible loaded with lots of bells and whistles. Later on, he finds himself trapped on stage in the middle of the performance of an exotic ballet. This is Danny Kaye at his best!

Danny Kaye has always been a family favorite, and this movie is a gem. Storyline has been well covered, so I won't go there. We have had it in VHS recorded from AMC years ago (back when they were American Movie Classics) and it has seen plenty of use. We are thrilled to have it in DVD format, but wish it had been a studio release with better treatment. As mentioned in another review, it is in 1.85:1 aspect ratio and there are no extras here, not even closed captioning.

In spite of all that, I am glad that it was released at all as a regular DVD (not DVD-R, as so many classics are these days). Some have mentioned their concern that it may be a bad transfer, as they saw in "Inspector General". I had a bad copy of that once (remember that it was in the public domain and people could get away with releasing it in any form of garbage) and this is a much better quality than that was, though not as sharp and crisp as if it had been digitally remastered.

If Paramount wasn't prepared to do anything with it, then I am grateful Olive Films at least made it available to us. I'd rather have this classic than not, even if it isn't as good as it possibly could be. The movie gets 5 stars, the DVD gets 4, so if I could average the package I would give it 4 1/2 stars.

Buy Knock on Wood (1954) Now

Released before "The Court Jester", "Knock on Wood" ranks along with that aforementioned film as one of Danny Kaye's best movies. A classic which hasn't seen the light of day in ages, it is happily coming to DVD. As a ventriloquist caught up in intrigue with stunning Mai Zetterling (what a name!), fans can watch wide-eyed Danny try out funny dialects, double-talking dialogue and weasel in & out of danger as only Kaye could do it.

Those who've already seen all the classic comedy bits but have had to wait to see them again, rejoice; those who are being introduced to the film for the first time, you're in for a real treat!

Read Best Reviews of Knock on Wood (1954) Here

I saw the movie as a young man, and have watched for a video these many years. Mai Zetterling was the prototype of the perfect woman who never chose me. I'm delighted to have the film back and like it as much as I did when Mai was a possibility, but I'm adding a mild cavil in light of the Bob Hope spy comedies of the same period with which it bears comparison, granting that the Hopes tend to be black & white and comedy-weighted against the Kayes' Technicolor and songs. (I ordered "Knock on Wood" in a package with "My Favorite Spy.")

While Bob sings on occasion, and in character, it doesn't impede the flow of the action, whereas when Danny does so in this and other of his films (notably "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty"; "The Court Jester" is an exception since the songs are appropriately placed) things come to a halt for several minutes and we're reminded that we're watching a performance by Danny Kaye before the story resumes. The "ballet" sequence also seemed needlessly prolonged; Hope's work rarely lags.

The late Virginia Mayo suggested in a memoir that, for a young actress, Hope was a greater pleasure to work with than Kaye, which may have been because of the absolute control Sylvia Fine appears to have exercised over her husband's career. Whatever the case may be, I'm confident you'll enjoy "Knock on Wood" as much as I did and will again.

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I saw this movie when it was released in what seems a long time ago now. The song that Danny sang in the Tap Dancing scene stayed in my memory and the scene with him under the table had me hysterical when I first saw it. I bought the DVD as sort of nostalgia but my wife and I still had a good laugh when we watched it together. I always thought of it as one of Danny's classics.

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