''Knock on Wood'' is a 1954 American

comedy film A comedy film is a category of film which emphasizes humor. These films are designed to make the audience laugh through amusement. Films in this style traditionally have a happy ending (black comedy being an exception). Comedy is one of the ol ...

starring Danny Kaye and

Mai Zetterling Mai Elisabeth Zetterling (; 24 May 1925 – 17 March 1994) was a Swedish film director, novelist and actor. Early life Zetterling was born in Västerås, Sweden to a working class family. She started her career as an actor at the age of 17 at D ...

. Other actors in the film include

Torin Thatcher Torin Herbert Erskine Thatcher (15 January 1905 – 4 March 1981) was a British actor who was noted for his flashy portrayals of screen villains. Personal life Thatcher was born in Bombay, British India, to British parents, Torin James Blair T ...

, David Burns, and

Leon Askin Leon Askin (; born Leon Aschkenasy, 18 September 1907 – 3 June 2005) was an Austrian Jewish actor best known in North America for portraying the character General Burkhalter on the TV situation comedy ''Hogan's Heroes''. Life and career ...

. The film was written and directed by

Melvin Frank Melvin Frank (13 August 1913 – 13 October 1988) was an American screenwriter, film producer and film director. He is known for his partnership with Norman Panama and their work on films such as '' Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House'' (1948), ...

and Norman Panama, with songs by Kaye's wife, Sylvia Fine.

Plot

Jerry Morgan (Kaye) is a

ventriloquist Ventriloquism, or ventriloquy, is a performance act of stagecraft in which a person (a ventriloquist) creates the illusion that their voice is coming from elsewhere, usually a puppeteered prop known as a "dummy". The act of ventriloquism is ve ...

who is having trouble with love: just when his relationship with a woman gets around to marriage, his dummy turns jealous and spoils everything. Jerry's manager Marty threatens to quit unless Jerry sees a psychiatrist, Ilse Nordstrom (Zetterling), who tries to discover the source of his problem. The two of them eventually fall in love. At the same time, Jerry becomes unwittingly intertwined with spies and has to run from the police. In his escape, he finds himself impersonating a British car salesman, trying to demonstrate a new convertible with loads of bells and whistles. Later on, he finds himself on stage in the middle of the performance of an exotic ballet.

Cast

Production notes

The film features dialogue with linguistic play (particularly the names of the dummies "Clarence" and "Terrence" and the Slavic names of the spies) which would also be a feature of Kaye's later film ''

The Court Jester ''The Court Jester'' is a 1955 musical-comedy, medieval romance, costume drama film starring Danny Kaye, Glynis Johns, Basil Rathbone, Angela Lansbury and Cecil Parker. The movie was written, produced, and directed by Melvin Frank and Norma ...

'' (likewise written and directed by Frank and Panama). The title song "Knock on Wood" should not be confused with "Everybody Thinks I'm Crazy" from the 1941 cartoon entitled ''Woody Woodpecker'', starring the character of the same name; or the song "Knock on Wood" from the 1942 film, '' Casablanca'' (with music by M.K. Jerome and lyrics by Jack Scholl). Kaye performed renditions of both the title song from ''Knock on Wood'' and "The Woody Woodpecker Song," which are found on the album ''The Best of Danny Kaye'' pectrum, 2000

DVD release

''Knock on Wood'' was issued as a region 2 DVD in March 2009.

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Knock On Wood 1954 films American spy comedy films Cold War spy films 1950s English-language films Films about psychiatry Films directed by Norman Panama Films directed by Melvin Frank Paramount Pictures films 1950s spy comedy films Ventriloquism Films shot in Los Angeles 1950s psychological films Films set in Paris Films set in London 1954 comedy films 1950s American films