A brash nightclub comic (Danny Kaye) is killed by gangsters because he is about to testify before the District Attorney (Otto Kruger) about witnessing a mobster (Steve Cochran) murdering a woman. So he returns as a ghost and possesses the body of his prim and nerdy brother (Danny Kaye) to get his revenge. One of Kaye's funniest films! Kaye seems to alienate a lot of film lovers but comedy being subjective and all that, I usually find him a laugh riot. Only once is the film marred by Kaye's excesses, when he does one of his "look at me!" show offish tongue twisting Russian numbers which stops the movie cold. The film gets its laughs easily enough. Mainly by the tried and sure method of having Kaye talk to his brother's ghost, who no one else can see, and the frustrated and confused reaction of the person who thinks Kaye is talking to them. That scene stealer S.Z. Sakall comes pretty close to upstaging Kaye in their scenes together, not an easy feat. Directed by H. Bruce Humberstone (
I WAKE UP SCREAMING) and John Wray did the choreography. With Virginia Mayo, Vera-Ellen, Donald Woods, Natalie Schafer, Allen Jenkins and Edward Brophy.
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