Having lost yet another girlfriend, a professional ventriloquist with some mental issues is urged to visit a specialist. On his way to Zurich he gets embroiled in dangerous intrigue, since a doll repairman has hidden parts of a top secret document in both of his dummies. Soon the ventriloquist will find himself having to outrun the police, being unjustly accused of murder...
I really like Danny Kaye comedies. "Knock on Wood" is certainly watchable and entertaining ; however, I would not classify it among his best. Kaye is charming but the intrigue could have used an extra layer of plotting, for instance with regard to various people trying to steal or identify the right dummy.
Still, "Knock on Wood" includes a number of funny scenes and quotable lines. At one point the psychiatrist asks the ventriloquist (Kaye, of course !) about his childhood experiences, which will turn out to have been relatively unhappy. His parents quarrelled all the time, but then they had to, because they were married... The latter half of the movie contains a remarkable sequence in which the unlucky ventriloquist tries hiding within a ballet company. Within minutes he finds himself on a stage, supposed to execute a number of hideously difficult steps.
In other words, the viewer gets one of the time-honoured staples of comedy and farce, to wit a royally messed-up ballet or opera performance. What is it that so inflames the comical imagination ? Is it some kind of class-related anger, along the lines of "I've got to slave in an office, while a bunch of skinny people earn good money by pretending they're swans and by poncing about in silly clothes ?"
As I already suggested in an earlier review : lovers of comedy may want to organize a pop quiz around this theme. ("Name various movies in which a ballet performance is disturbed by interlopers".) This movie here qualifies, as do "The intelligence men", "Make mine a million" and "Hellzapoppin", but the list must be long and varied... By the way, if you'd like more spoofs of the espionage genre, you may want to take a look at "The intelligence men", with Morecambe & Wise. It's not an immortal masterwork but it's got its moments.
I really like Danny Kaye comedies. "Knock on Wood" is certainly watchable and entertaining ; however, I would not classify it among his best. Kaye is charming but the intrigue could have used an extra layer of plotting, for instance with regard to various people trying to steal or identify the right dummy.
Still, "Knock on Wood" includes a number of funny scenes and quotable lines. At one point the psychiatrist asks the ventriloquist (Kaye, of course !) about his childhood experiences, which will turn out to have been relatively unhappy. His parents quarrelled all the time, but then they had to, because they were married... The latter half of the movie contains a remarkable sequence in which the unlucky ventriloquist tries hiding within a ballet company. Within minutes he finds himself on a stage, supposed to execute a number of hideously difficult steps.
In other words, the viewer gets one of the time-honoured staples of comedy and farce, to wit a royally messed-up ballet or opera performance. What is it that so inflames the comical imagination ? Is it some kind of class-related anger, along the lines of "I've got to slave in an office, while a bunch of skinny people earn good money by pretending they're swans and by poncing about in silly clothes ?"
As I already suggested in an earlier review : lovers of comedy may want to organize a pop quiz around this theme. ("Name various movies in which a ballet performance is disturbed by interlopers".) This movie here qualifies, as do "The intelligence men", "Make mine a million" and "Hellzapoppin", but the list must be long and varied... By the way, if you'd like more spoofs of the espionage genre, you may want to take a look at "The intelligence men", with Morecambe & Wise. It's not an immortal masterwork but it's got its moments.