Danny Kaye is an American private in 1943 who is pressed into posing as a British General in order to deceive the Nazis about a coming invasion. Kaye struts about in his British uniform, slapping his swagger stick on the furniture, getting mixed up about which eye his patch should cover, being captured by the Germans, escaping after a frenzied chase through a German night club, and winds up with Dana Wynter, the lovely widow of the real British General, in his arms.
It's a kind of farcical version of a real historical incident, shown in the feature film "I Was Monty's Double," but although it's fast, although it's zany, it's not much of a laugh riot. Rather more of a smile demonstration.
The film is a pleasant enough diversion, and Dana Wynter is a knockout, but Kaye's nonsensical gibberish isn't too well folded into the plot and the impersonations of Marlene Dietrich and others have a slapdash quality, as if they were written into the plot because the writers figured the audience expected them to be written into the plot.
Nothing to be avoided. Nothing to write home about either.
It's a kind of farcical version of a real historical incident, shown in the feature film "I Was Monty's Double," but although it's fast, although it's zany, it's not much of a laugh riot. Rather more of a smile demonstration.
The film is a pleasant enough diversion, and Dana Wynter is a knockout, but Kaye's nonsensical gibberish isn't too well folded into the plot and the impersonations of Marlene Dietrich and others have a slapdash quality, as if they were written into the plot because the writers figured the audience expected them to be written into the plot.
Nothing to be avoided. Nothing to write home about either.