After being murdered by gangsters, an exuberant nightclub entertainer returns as a ghost to persuade his meek twin brother to help bring his killers to justice.Approved | 1h 38min | Comedy, Fantasy, Musical | 8 June 1945
Director: H. Bruce Humberstone (as Bruce Humberstone)
Stars: Danny Kaye, Virginia Mayo, Vera-Ellen.
John Wray ... dances
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0038260/
In the Tap! Appendix for Vera-Ellen, Danny Kaye. First film credit for VE (b. 1921, films '45-'57). Her 2 musical numbers are the reason to watch this film. She dances in ch3 (Bali Boogie) and ch11 (So in Love).
DK (b. 1911) actually looks quite good half-dressed as VE's partner (plus the Goldwyn Girls) in the Bali Boogie (ch3). Nice chest, good shoulders. When he dances, is he pretending to be a dancer, or is he dancing? Somehow I feel like he's pretending, but he looks great doing it.
When he's "hidden" himself onstage during the opera (ch19), he sings his testimony to the D.A. in the audience. I want to compare it to the Marx Bros disrupting the performance in A Night at the Opera ('35). Both were evading bad guys. But MB were not trying to perform opera; they tried to blend in with the extras and Harpo ended up climbing around in the backdrops. Here DK chose to co-opt the costume of a principal performer (alone vocalizing in his dressing room.) So when he went out on stage he would have to perform in a very visible way. Not sure if DK's character in the film understood his choice and intended to relay his testimony that way; his facial expression seemed more like he decided to seize the opportunity at the moment. But the script writers are being much more disrespectful of opera than MB was. And why does the soprano embrace DK right away when he arrives onstage? But it's kinda cute, and he looks good in tights.
DK's repeatedly and insistently calling out to his twin's ghost in desperation is very tiresome, especially in the flat of SZ Sakall. Even Cuddles can't upstage this mania.
Goldwyn, distr. RKO, dir. Humberstone; 6
