The Inspector General

An illiterate stooge in a traveling medicine show wanders into a strange town and is picked up on a vagrancy charge. The town's corrupt officials mistake him for the inspector general whom they think is traveling in disguise. Fearing he will discover they've been pocketing tax money, they make several bungled attempts to kill him.

Unfortunately, this film is in the public domain and that means that Alpha Video seems to be the primary supplier. Maybe another version exists, but I saw the Alpha one. While it's not as bad as many public domain films, it has clearly aged and a new transfer would benefit the film greatly.

This film stands out as being a wonderful showcase for Danny Kaye. His best-known films (like "White Christmas") seem to have him more often as the sidekick. This film proves he can be a leading man in his own right, with plenty of humorous acting and some incredible singing. Kaye should be recognized as a bigger star than Bing Crosby.

Freely based on Nikolai Gogol's play , "The Inspector General" about a false Inspector who comes to examine a little corrupt town . It deals with an illiterate called Giorgi (Danny Kaye, able to tongue twist faster than anyone else) along with his boss (Walter Slezak) , both of whom are wandering and acting as medicine men into a provincial town wherein panic . Then Giorgi's detained for vagrancy charge but he's misidentified as a feared Inspector General who comes to check up on them and whom the corrupter town officers (the Mayor : Gene Lockhart married to Elsa Lanchaster and another officer played by Alan Hale) think is secretly moving in disguise . Later on , they make various bungled tryings to murder him . Meanwhile , Giorgi falls in love with a beautiful maid (Barbara Bates) who is serving to the Mayor.

The film is a Danny Kaye recital , he sings , dances , stooges , makes acrobatics , tongue twister and puts faces and grimaces . It's a pretty amusing farce suggested by a play by the Russian writer Gogol with the master comedy actor and it displays much choreography and musical numbers . Sylvia Fine , Kaye's wife , is the lyricist , composer , besides associate producer and dialogs writer , and responsible for many of the best known musical routines and songs for her husband . The best gags are developed on the Charles Chaplin imitations when Kaye is having lunch ; the events in the crowded room with several hosts that seem Marx brothers sketches ; in addition , the comic numbers in the military training headquarter . Support cast is frankly good , such as Elsa Lanchester , Barbara Bates , Gene Lockhart , Alan Hale , Néstor Paiva and Rhys Williams , among others . The motion picture was well directed by Henry Koster . Picture is a Kaye vehicle , and many consider his best comedy , he's an authentic comedian and real farceur . If you like Kaye's crazy interpretation , you will most definitely enjoy this one .

Watching this was enjoyable. The movie started off somewhat slowly, and took its time picking up the pace. However, the pace quickly picked up speed when Danny Kaye came on screen. This is partly because his partner shows up at the same time. Walter Slezak does a fantastic job of contrasting Kaye throughout the movie, but more of that later.

Danny Kaye's performance here is not quite as seamless as many. He does not seem to have the same audacity he displays in later movies, such as The Secret Life of Walter Mitty and The Court Jester. It is also different in that, although it includes the usual confusion, plot twists, and multiplicity of plans going on at once, these elements are not executed as beautifully as in, for example, The Court Jester. Thus these scenes become comedic background, still enjoyable to watch, but not the masterpiece one may have become accustomed to. However, the movie was far from terrible. There were moments which, as I watched them, made me think, "That's so Danny Kaye." He has many of the same mannerisms and little twitches that make him so much fun to watch, along with an array of songs that would tie a normal tongue in knots. He looks quite dashing in his military uniform, and his character's innocence is just so much fun to see in Danny Kaye's brilliant blue eyes.

His character (Georgi) is also contrasted masterfully with Slezak's (Yakov), making this movie a success. Yakov is so mean to poor Georgi (as well as everyone else) that the viewer simply must fall in love with the poor boy. Kaye plays a young man, very nearly a boy, while Yakov is so jaded and immoral. It is Yakov's cruelty to Georgi that endears Kaye's character to the viewer.

To sum up, The Inspector General is a lighthearted movie involving superb writing, excellent juxtaposition, and a wonderful star and supporting villain.

A pleasant farce with a fine cast, "The Inspector General" gives Danny Kaye a chance to show off his many talents, and also tells a story that is quite humorous as long as you do not take it too seriously.

Kaye plays Georgi, an illiterate traveling huckster who helps his boss Yakov (Walter Slezak) sell useless medicines to gullible peasants. (The sequence where they try to sell their "elixir" is one of the movie's best scenes.) Georgi visits a small town, where through a series of coincidences, he is mistaken by the town's leaders for the Inspector General, an important official with sweeping powers to punish and reform. Half of the town fawns on him, while the other half panics over what he will discover in his "inspection". Kaye just wants to leave town before they figure out who he really is, but plenty of complications arise that keep things going for quite a while.

Kaye gets to sing, dance, and generally entertain the audience. The supporting cast is filled with fine character actors like Gene Lockhart, Elsa Lanchester, and Alan Hale, who add to the humor. Not a lot of big laughs, but a steady stream of good-natured comedy all the way through.

This is an enjoyable movie recommended for anyone who likes musical comedy.

Hysterical. Danny Kaye is a comedy genius.

The Gypsy song was the best part of the film. (Zummm-shtok-shtok-hahaha) This is worth a look for this scene alone. It was fun watching the crowd get into it. I'd guess that scene was mostly ad-libbed. He clearly was in control. I bought the DVD (public domain) just for that scene.

The supporting cast did a great job too. Slezak nearly stole all of his scenes and Hale Sr. was perfect in support. And the costume designer deserved at least a nomination for the Oscar.

You can't take this one seriously. But then Danny Kaye lived to entertain. And few did it better.