Danny Kaye: 3 Film Collection

Knock on Wood (1954)

When his fiancée leaves him, ventriloquist Jerry Morgan (Danny Kaye) alarms his manager, Marty (David Burns), with a violent outburst directed at his two dummies. After promising Marty to see a psychiatrist over his behavior, Jerry takes his broken dummies to a shop — where, unknown to him, the repairman is a spy who plants vital secret blueprints in the wooden dolls. Jerry then becomes the target of several determined spies, as well as a stunning psychiatrist (Mai Zetterling).

The Five Pennies (1959)

Danny Kaye cuts loose with his trademark musical clowning. Louis “Satchmo” Armstrong plays his horn and croons in that famed gargling – granite voice. Big band icons Bob Crosby, Ray Anthony and Shelly Manne join the fun. Barbara Bel Geddes and debuting teen Tuesday Weld add to the excellent performances in The Five Pennies, the success-tempered-with-tears biopic of jazz great Loring “Red” Nichols (portrayed by Kaye).

On the Double (1961)

A musical comedy starring Danny Kaye as Ernie Williams, a G.I. with weak eyes, a weak stomach and weak nerves but an uncanny resemblance to British Colonel MacKenzie. Williams is asked to impersonate the Colonel, allowing him to make a secret trip East – but what Williams is not told is that the Colonel has recently been a target of Nazi assassins.