Knock on Wood (film)

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Knock on Wood
Knock on Wood (1954 movie poster).jpg
Promotional poster
Directed by Melvin Frank
Norman Panama
Written byMelvin Frank
Norman Panama
Produced byMelvin 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
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Box office$3.5 million (US) [1]

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.

Contents

Plot

Jerry Morgan 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, 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

Home media

Knock on Wood was issued as a region 2 DVD in March 2009.[ citation needed ] A remastered version was released on DVD on September 28, 2010. [2]

Reception

Clyde Gilmour of Maclean's wrote, "Danny Kaye returns to his top form as a bewildered ventriloquist who tangles hilariously with spies, Scotland Yard, Irish tenors, a Russian ballet troupe and a shapely psychiatrist in various European capitals. Highly recommended." [3]

Banned ripoff

Begunah (transl. "innocent") is a 1957 Indian 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. [4] [5]

References

  1. ↑ 'The Top Box-Office Hits of 1954', Variety Weekly, January 5, 1955
  2. ↑ Weber, Bill (October 12, 2010). "Review: Melvin Frank and Norman Panama's Knock on Wood on Olive Films DVD". Slant Magazine . Retrieved February 12, 2025.
  3. ↑ Gilmour, Clyde (August 1, 1954). "Maclean's Movies". Maclean's . Toronto, Ontario. Archived from the original on August 10, 2021. Retrieved 12 February 2025.
  4. ↑ "INDIAN FILM BARRED; Bombay Court Rules It Copy of a Paramount Picture" . The New York Times . Bombay, India. November 13, 1957. p. 43. Archived from the original on March 10, 2018. Retrieved February 12, 2025.
  5. ↑ Phukan, Vikram (October 14, 2017). "Lessons not learnt" . The Hindu . Archived from the original on May 28, 2024. Retrieved February 12, 2025.

Bibliography

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