His first film success was in UP IN ARMS with Dinah Shore and Dana Andrews. But the first film that Danny Kaye made that has his real hallmarks is WONDER MAN. Kaye not only had the regular film plot to work with, but tackled cultural satire as well. From his performance of that tongue twisting tune "Tschaikowski" in LADY IN THE DARK, Kaye had done some spoof in his films and music about culture. In UP IN ARMS it was his musical number about the plot of a Hollywood film, but it was done quickly and had nothing to do with the rest of the film. In WONDER MAN it is the conclusion of the film, wherein Kaye has to pass a message about a missing key witness to a murder to the District Attorney without being arrested or killed, and does so by taking over center stage in a performance of an opera at the Metropolitan Opera. It is, after the mess done to Il Trovatore in A NIGHT AT THE OPERA, the destruction of an opera by Paul Douglas in EVERYBODY DOES IT, and the miss sung performance of Mae West in Samson and Delilah in GOING TO TOWN, the best spoof of an opera I know of in movie comedies. I don't know what is the opera supposed to be (I keep thinking it is from Verdi's SIMON BOCANEGRA, but I am not sure). The film is good, and was the first to show what to expect from Kaye. Soon would come THE SECRET LIFE OF WALTER MITTY, THE INSPECTOR GENERAL, and THE COURT JESTER. It did get better and better for a decade or so.
Review of Wonder Man
