Knock on Wood

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.

Director: Melvin Frank
Director: Norman Panama
Producer: Melvin Frank
Producer: Norman Panama
Actor: Danny Kaye
Actor: Mai Zetterling
Actor: Torin Thatcher
Actor: David Burns
Actor: Leon Askin
Actor: Diana Adams
Actor: Paul England
Actor: Abner Biberman
Actor: Gavin Gordon
Actor: Otto Waldis
Actor: Steven Geray
Actor: Patricia Denise
Actor: Virginia Huston
Actor: Johnstone White
Actor: Henry Brandon
Actor: Lewis Martin
Actor: Philip Van Zandt
Actor: Winifred Harris
Actor: Kenneth Hunter
Actor: Carl Milletaire
Actor: Noel Drayton
Actor: Phil Tully
Actor: Rex Evans
Actor: Donald Lawton
Actor: Genevieve Aumont
Actor: Alec Harford
Actor: Tony Christian
Actor: Pat Aherne
Actor: John Alderson
Actor: Eric Wilton
Actor: Patrick Whyte
Actor: Robert Hale
Actor: Manuel Paris
Actor: Alphonse Martell
Actor: William Nind
Actor: Robert Stephenson
Actor: Larry Arnold
Actor: Helen Dickson
Actor: Allan Douglas
Actor: Helen Chapman
Actor: Christopher Olsen