Knock on Wood (film)

This article is about the 1954 American comedy. For the 1981 French comedy, see La Chèvre.

Knock on Wood
Promotional poster
Directed by	Melvin Frank Norman Panama
Written by	Melvin Frank Norman Panama
Produced by	Melvin Frank Norman Panama
Starring	Danny Kaye Mai Zetterling Torin Thatcher David Burns Leon Askin
Cinematography	Daniel L. Fapp
Edited by	Alma Macrorie
Music by	Sylvia Fine Victor Young
Production company	Dena Productions
Distributed by	Paramount Pictures
Release date	April 14, 1954 (1954-04-14)
Running time	103 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Box office	$3.5 million (US)

Knock on Wood is a 1954 American comedy thriller film starring Danny Kaye and Mai Zetterling. Other actors in the film include Torin Thatcher, David Burns, and Leon Askin. The film was written and directed by Melvin Frank and Norman Panama, with songs by Kaye's wife, Sylvia Fine. Location shooting in England took place around London as well as Maidenhead and Marlow.

Plot

Jerry Morgan (Kaye) is a ventriloquist 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

• Danny Kaye as Jerry Morgan/Jerry's father
• Mai Zetterling as Doctor Ilse Nordstrom
• Torin Thatcher as Godfrey Langston, the film's villain
• David Burns as Marty Brown, Jerry's manager
• Leon Askin as Lazlo Gromek, a spy
• Abner Biberman as Maurice Papinek, a spy
• Otto Waldis as Brodnik, a spy
• Gavin Gordon as Car Salesman
• Steven Geray as Doctor Krüger
• Diana Adams as Princess Maya
• Patricia Denise as Jerry's Mother
• Virginia Huston as Audrey Greene
• Paul England as Chief Inspector Wilton
• Johnstone White as Langstons Secretary
• Henry Brandon as Man with a Trenchcoat
• Lewis Martin as Inspector Crawford

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 (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 [Spectrum, 2000].

Home media

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

Banned Ripoff

Begunah(transl. "innocent") is a 1957 Indian family entertainment romance film produced by Anupchand Shah and Mahipatray Shah. The film directed by Narendra Suri in hindi language under the Rup Kamal Chitra company. The film was released on 8 March 1957.

The film was banned 10 days after its release because it was a plagiarized version of Knock on Wood. The producers of Knock on the Wood filed a copyright lawsuit in India. They won the case and the judge ordered all prints of Begunah to be destroyed. Therefore, no known prints of this film exist anymore. However, the songs especially Mukesh number "Aye Pyase dil Bezuban" picturized on music director Jaikishan became quite popular and is still heard today. Two other songs worth a mention are the Kishore Kumar “Aaj Na Jane Pagal Manwa Kahe Ghabraye” and the Manna Dey and Lata Mangeshkar duet “Dil Albela Pyar Ka Mausam”

Bibliography

• Gehring, Wes D. Movie Comedians of the 1950s: Defining a New Era of Big Screen Comedy. McFarland, 2016.

External links

• Knock on Wood at IMDb
• Knock on Wood at Rotten Tomatoes