Olive Films have added four more titles to their August slate: Melvin Frank and Norman Panama's
Knock on Wood (1953), Melville Shavelson's
On the Double (1961), Norman Z. McLeod's
My Favorite Spy (1951), and George Marshall's
Off Limits (1953).
Knock on Wood
The film casts Danny Kaye as a neurotic American ventriloquist performing in 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. His manager and best friend (Burns) orders him to see a famous psychiatrist in Zurich. What follows is a zany adventure involving secret weapons, international spies and the beautiful Mai Zetterling. This classic Danny Kaye comedy was written, produced and directed by the great team of Norman Panama and Melvin Frank (
The Court Jester). Starring Danny Kaye, Mai Zetterling, Torin Thatcher, and David Burns.
Off Limits
Off Limits is the first and only teaming of comedy legends Bob Hope and Mickey Rooney. Bob Hope plays a boxing trainer who loses his one and only champion to the draft and decides to enlist, so he could keep an eye on his prized fighter. He is left holding the laces when his boxer is discharged – until enlisted private and amateur boxer Herbert Tuttle ( Rooney) asks Bob to train him. Bob is more interested in Tuttle's aunt (Maxwell) than actually training the young contender. Starring Bob Hope, Mickey Rooney, and Marilyn Maxwell.
My Favorite Spy
While on his way to Tangier to purchase a microfilm containing important war secrets, foreign spy Eric Augustine (Hope) is wounded and captured by the authorities. Burlesque comedian Peanuts White (also Hope); a dead ringer for Augustine is recruited by the government to take over Augustine's mission. He's briefed in the role of the suave and romantic Augustine, dressed to look exactly like him and is thrust into the world of espionage and international intrigue. In Tangiers, he meets Lily Dalbray (Lamarr), Augustine's sweetheart, a beautiful spy working with Karl Brubaker (Sullivan) mastermind of the spy ring. All of Bob Hope's
My Favorite films (
My Favorite Blonde, My Favorite Brunette, My Favorite Spy) were parodies of classic genre films. Starring Bob Hope, Hedy Lamarr, and Francis L. Sullivan.
On the Double
Danny Kaye (
Knock on Wood) headlines this wacky WWII comed. He plays a timid American soldier who bears a striking resemblance to a famous British Colonel. The Military Intelligence decides to use the poor chap as a pawn and recruit the naive soldier to impersonate the legendary Colonel, who's highly targeted by the Nazi assassins. Co-starring Dana Wynter as the Colonel's suspicious wife, Diana Dors as the Colonel's personal driver and mistress and Wilfrid Hyde White as the Colonel overseeing the mission. This zany action-comedy with classic Danny Kaye routines was directed by Melville Shavelson (
The Five Pennies).