Professor Popinjay's Compendium of Perspicacity

A Non-review by Prof. Popinjay

I like Danny Kaye’s films. I like the segments where Danny Kaye is allowed to be Danny Kaye for an extended period of time. Sometimes I wish these two things weren’t combined though. The plots of his films are humorous and enjoyable but the segments where Danny Kaye just does his schtick for ten minutes often feels tacked on and they slow the story down considerably. Yet, I would gladly watch a compilation of those segments apart from the films.

Sometimes it even feels like Danny would insert himself into scenes he wasn’t originally supposed to be in and they just filmed some flimsy pretext to put him there. I don’t know if this is true but it feels like it sometimes; like in the Court Jester when he was put under a spell to explain why he snuck into a woman’s bedchamber and did Danny Kaye stuff around her. That had to be the result of Danny or someone  trying to add funny to the film where there weren’t none but it was just awkward. Again, I don’t know for certain.

In The Kid From Brooklyn he starts out a humble milk man who gets into boxing and then gets too big for his britches so to speak. His Danny Kaye Antics Scene (DKAS) is preceded by everyone in the film being fed up with him which really spoils his performance in my opinion. It’s too bad too as it’s one of his best. Taken out of the context of the movie his whole spiel is impressive. I just want to like a character when they’re being funny. This film started out good but just got more and more frustrating without any redeeming qualities at the end.