In "Wonder Man", Danny Kaye plays two characters--identical twins. While this sort of trickery with the camera is pretty old stuff, you must commend the director and cinematographer for making it look so realistic. Nowadays, such tricks are a lot easier given our computer technology--here, it still looks seamless. Unfortunately, while the tricks are really nice, I was less bowled over than the other reviewers when it came to Kaye and the script. To put it bluntly, at times Kaye way overdoes it--and the film is anything but subtle! If they'd toned it down a bit, I think the film would have worked better.
I was surprised by the casting in this one. Immediately before seeing "Wonder Man", I saw "A Song is Born" and found that so much of the cast in both these Goldwyn productions overlapped--with Danny Kaye, Virginia Mayo and Steve Cochran appearing in both films. This made it feel almost like deja-vu watching the two movies! Kaye plays two brothers--one a very outgoing nightclub comic and the other a bookish intellectual. When the nightclub performing brother is killed, his ghost sends off weird psychic vibes that force the other to come to the spot where he's buried. There he meets the ghost and is sent by the dead brother back to the nightclub to get the goods on the killer. And, at times, the ghost would inhabit his brother's body--with interesting results.
This plot, which is very similar to the Steve Martin/Lily Tomlin film "All of Me", wasn't a bad idea for a fantasy. However, at times, I cringed at Kaye's mugging. I am sure it was pretty popular at the time--now he just comes off as a bit obnoxious and in need to some restraint. Now I am not saying he was terrible--but he did need to tone it down a bit. Someone trying THIS hard to be funny is NOT funny. My wife thought the problem was a lot worse, as his shtick made her want to turn off the film. I even recall her saying "why do you watch stuff like this?!" a couple times during the movie! His singing it was the worst of this--and this came AFTER she left the room to let me finish the movie alone.
After looking at the reviews on IMDb, it's obvious that I am in the minority on this one. My assumption is that Kaye fans will seek out his movies and these are probably his more hard-core fans. As for me, I adore old Hollywood films but found this one too much...just way too much.
By the way, I mentioned "A Song is Born" above and in it, Kaye's performance is so very, very different. If anything, he underplayed this part! Odd.
I was surprised by the casting in this one. Immediately before seeing "Wonder Man", I saw "A Song is Born" and found that so much of the cast in both these Goldwyn productions overlapped--with Danny Kaye, Virginia Mayo and Steve Cochran appearing in both films. This made it feel almost like deja-vu watching the two movies! Kaye plays two brothers--one a very outgoing nightclub comic and the other a bookish intellectual. When the nightclub performing brother is killed, his ghost sends off weird psychic vibes that force the other to come to the spot where he's buried. There he meets the ghost and is sent by the dead brother back to the nightclub to get the goods on the killer. And, at times, the ghost would inhabit his brother's body--with interesting results.
This plot, which is very similar to the Steve Martin/Lily Tomlin film "All of Me", wasn't a bad idea for a fantasy. However, at times, I cringed at Kaye's mugging. I am sure it was pretty popular at the time--now he just comes off as a bit obnoxious and in need to some restraint. Now I am not saying he was terrible--but he did need to tone it down a bit. Someone trying THIS hard to be funny is NOT funny. My wife thought the problem was a lot worse, as his shtick made her want to turn off the film. I even recall her saying "why do you watch stuff like this?!" a couple times during the movie! His singing it was the worst of this--and this came AFTER she left the room to let me finish the movie alone.
After looking at the reviews on IMDb, it's obvious that I am in the minority on this one. My assumption is that Kaye fans will seek out his movies and these are probably his more hard-core fans. As for me, I adore old Hollywood films but found this one too much...just way too much.
By the way, I mentioned "A Song is Born" above and in it, Kaye's performance is so very, very different. If anything, he underplayed this part! Odd.