Knock on Wood (1954)

Editor's Note With the exception of the brilliant THE COURT JESTER, KNOCK ON WOOD must rank as the best of Danny Kaye's movie vehicles. Capitalizing on the star's recent successful engagement in London, the film casts Kaye as a neurotic American ventriloquist performing in England and Europe. In a parody of the 1946 thriller DEAD OF NIGHT, Kaye is unable to control the words coming out of his dummy, resulting in a near-nervous breakdown. On the advice of his manager (David Burns), Kaye seeks out the help of a psychiatrist, who turns out to be beautiful Mai Zetterling. But first, he heads to a local repair shop to pick up one of his dummies. What Kaye doesn't know is that a set of stolen blueprints for a top-secret weapon have been secreted into his dummy's head. Before he knows what's happening, our hero is up to his ears in spies, counterspies, and corpses. Falsely accused of murder, Kaye spends the rest of the film adopting one disguise after another to elude both the authorities and the various enemy agents roaming about. Filled to overflowing with musical and comedy highlights, KNOCK ON WOOD includes the famous "under the table" bit wherein Kaye finds himself literally between two warring spy factions, and a climactic ballet sequence reminiscent of (and superior to) the comic-opera finale of Kaye's WONDER MAN (1945). And of course, the audience is treated to the tongue-twisting patter songs written for Kaye by his wife Sylvia Fine.

	David Burns
	Leon Askin
	Torin Thatcher
	Danny Kaye
	Mai Zetterling
	Paul England - Co-Star
	Helen Dickson - Co-Star
	Johnstone White - Co-Star
	Phil Tully - Co-Star
	Philip Van Zandt - Co-Star
	Otto Waldis - Co-Star
	Eric Wilton - Co-Star
	Abner Biberman - Co-Star
	Genevieve Aumont - Co-Star
	Henry Brandon - Co-Star
	Daniel L. Fapp - Director of Photography
	Helen Chapman - Co-Star
	Patricia Denise - Co-Star
	Noel Drayton - Co-Star
	Rex Evans - Co-Star
	Steven Geray - Co-Star
	Gavin Gordon - Co-Star
	Winifred Harris - Co-Star
	Kenneth Hunter - Co-Star
	Virginia Huston - Co-Star
	Donald Lawton - Co-Star
	Alphonse Martell - Co-Star
	Lewis Martin - Co-Star
	Carl Milletaire - Co-Star
	Christopher Olsen - Co-Star
	Melvin Frank - Screenwriter
	John Fulton - Special Effects
	Michael Kidd - Choreographer
	Norman Panama - Screenwriter
	Victor Young - Music Director
	Sylvia Fine - Composer
	Francisco Day - Assistant Director
	Diana Adams - Co-Star
	John Alderson - Co-Star
	Norman Panama - Director
	Melvin Frank - Director