The Inspector General, starring Danny Kaye

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The Inspector General (1949) starring Danny Kaye, Walter Slezak, Barbara Bates

"The Inspector General, generally he inspects."

I'm a longtime fan of Danny Kaye -- one of the screen's greatest clowns, he has room to truly strut his stuff in this wonderful film. The movie begins as Georgi (played by Danny Kaye) is working with his partner Yakov (played wonderfully by Walter Slezak), as a pair of traveling snake oil salesmen -- Georgi of course feels quite bad about selling the bogus goods to innocent peasants, and nearly gets the pair hung. The stage is set with the two main characters -- Georgi the nice, sweet, simple, illiterate, dumb-as-a-stump, lovable waif at large in the world, and Yakov, his only friend, who would gladly sell him down the river in a moment. Frankly, Yakov is the finest example of this type of character I've ever seen -- he's simultaneously likable and despicable, and a joy to watch.

The pair soon separates, and Georgi stumbles into a town, where he's first imprisoned as a vagrant, then (incorrectly) assumed to be the corruption-overthrowing Inspector General, who's supposedly traveling in disguise. The mistaken identity is played to the hilt by Yakov, who returns to take advantage of the situation, and to milk the town's corrupt officials.

The corrupt officials make several attempts to kill Georgi, all of which fail -- after all, how menacing can Alan Hale (the Skipper from Gilligan's Island fame) be, after all -- in humorous ways. The obligatory love interest is provided (upright young peasant girl, who knows that the Inspector General will set everything right). Eventually, the real Inspector General appears, and after a few moments of tense drama, all is set right.

In this film, Danny Kaye does it all, and does it all well. He sings & dances, inducing bouts of hysterical laughter along the way. He plays the lovable innocent, whom everybody roots for. He plays comic foil to Yakov and the corrupt townspeople. He plays the romantic. He does the right thing, knowing it will put his neck in the noose, time and again. In a nutshell, it's one of the finest comedies I've ever seen, and I recommend it highly. Clowns are well advised to watch it twice -- once for pure enjoyment, and the second time with a notebook, to learn how well character-derived comedy works.

I rate it 4 clowns on a 5-clown scale.

Other movies starring Danny Kaye include:

Funny movie quotes from The Inspector General (1949), starring Danny Kaye

Kovatch: Oh, I love my family, but I’d give my six kids to get rid of my wife.

Georgi (Danny Kaye): [singing] Drink to me only wi-ith thine eye-eyes / And I will drink with my nose!

The Mayor: Your Excellency—he took bribes, he drank all my wine, he-he-he yelled out the windows, he even made love to my wife! How could I doubt that he was an Inspector General?

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About the Author

Tom Raymond, aka. Raynbow the Clown, is a professional clown working out of Madison, Wisconsin, and is available for ministry events, conventions and conferences.

Posted by Tom Raymond, aka Raynbow on 10/17 at 10:19 PM
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