Danny Kaye: Goldwyn Years

These are good, classic, clean movies that the whole family can watch. I had seen three of them before, Wonder Man, The Kid from Brooklyn, and A Song is Born, and they were still fun to watch. Up in Arms was a fun new movie to watch, but perhaps not of as great quality as the other three. A Song is Born not only is very entertaining as a musical version of an earlier-made movie, but it also provides my generation and future generations with a great musical education of those musicians and songs of the mid-Twentieth century as it showcases many of those famous musicians--Louis Armstrong, Benny Goodman, Tommy Dorsey, Mel Powell, and others I hadn't even heard of before. Wonder Man is a comic and sometimes tense movie based on the fantastic idea of a man's twin ghost haunting him until he helps him catch his kill and put him behind bars. The Kid from Brooklyn is a comical story of a clumsy milkman who no one takes seriously until he is mistaken to have knocked out a boxing champ. What's fun about these three movies is that they all pair Danny Kaye and Virginia Mayo together, and the pair make a great comic team (not to mention their apparent chemistry together).

Loved Danny Kaye movies since I was a kid. Was happy to find this DVD that had 4 movies together. I have watched only one so farbut it was excellent. I expect the rest to be the same. Today's comedy is not like those done earlier. The comedies today rely on offcolor jokes. A lot of them are rude and vulgar. But the ones made years ago had to have talent to make people laugh. Made everyonelaugh. Didn't matter who you were or where you came from. How could you not laugh at Danny Kaye and his silly laugh.

I'm a huge Danny Kaye fan and have been waiting for years for "Up In Arms" to come out on DVD. (I would have been happy to see it on VHS if had been available during that era.)All four movies are good "clean" fun. "Up In Arms", a bit of an Army spoof, was Mr. Kaye's first movie and it is a delight to see Dinah Shore performing as well. "A Song is Born", while entertaining, doesn't have any of the performances featuring Mr. Kaye's unique style and panache. It is great fun to see many of the big band heroes from the 1940s like Benny Goodman, Luis Armstrong and others while Professor Frisbee (Kaye) and the professors are writing a history of music. "Wonder Man" is a favorite. Seeing Mr. Kaye playing twin brothers with quite opposite personalities is entertaining. “The Kid From Brooklyn” is a fun boxing show with night club performances thrown in for good measure. Vera Ellen is spectacular as always.One thing to note about all of these movies is that they are from the 1940s and this is reflected in the films. However, even if unversed on the era, you can enjoy all of these movies.

We purchased this DVD set of Danny Kaye movies especially to get the ones that co-star Vera-Ellen, as we are fans of her along with Danny Kaye. The clarity of the DVD transfers are good, and the production values of these MGM movies were high for their day. We will enjoy owning these DVDs for years to come.

For Danny Kaye fans the two best in this collection remain Wonder Man and The Kid from Brooklyn. The transfers of Up in Arms and Wonder Man were not of the same quality as those of The Kid from Brooklyn and A Song is Born, the last being of the highest quality in the set. All four films are in color. Danny Kaye had not quite reached his comic peak (1950s) in any of these Goldwyn films of the 1940s, but this set is invaluable for fans of Danny Kaye. Up in Arms is clearly dated as a film, but contains Danny Kaye's first notable singing/dancing solo routine in the "lobby number". Wonder Man begins his forte of playing double roles, while the Kid from Brooklyn gives Virginia Mayo increased screen time with Kaye while allowing his comic persona to develop in material ranging from loyal company milkman to unwilling boxer. If you are a fan of jazz music, A Song is Born records Benny Goodman, Louis Armstrong, Tommy Dorsey, Charlie Barnet, Lionel Hampton, Mel Powell and others making music with Danny Kaye in color! One such scene is almost as swinging and joyous as Danny Kaye and Louis Armstrong singing duet and scatting "When the Saints Go Marching In" in Danny Kaye's movie of The Five Pennies (1959). A Song is Born becomes a document of these great musicians looking and sounding wonderful in post World War II America. A Song is Born is a musical remake of the classic comedy Ball of Fire with Gary Cooper and Barbara Stanwyck and gives Kaye a chance to show his versatility as an actor as well as a comic. A highly recommend set of 4 individual DVDs in the Warner Archive Collection that reduces the cost of collecting Danny Kaye comedies.

The reason this product didn't get 5 stars is that I didn't know I was buying a DVD-R... and after going through the small print on the package with a magnifying glass there's nothing to claim that "this is a DVD-R."So far I've seen two of the four movies (Kid From Brooklyn and A Song is Born) and both look good. The audio was (mostly) good to Ok... but I would not have made this purchase if I'd known in advance that... "this is a DVD-R."Were the disks switched? The plastic wrapping was a bit loose, which I somehow ignored.I'm not sure if I will keep this.

Love Danny Kaye and love most of his movies. He was truly a gifted actor, dancer and singer. This is a good quality production overall with some minor glitches probably from the age of the movies themselves. High quality family entertainment.

A little expensive but contains 4 of Danny's classical movies. Well worth the price and I will enjoy watching over and over since "Up in Arms" is a rare find.

Top dvd

Could not watch 'The Secret Life of Walter Mitty as there was a problem with the dvd which kept the image constantly breaking up into a mess of distorted pixels! Would not work no matter the number of times I tried. Always at the same point in the movie, about 20 minutes in, I would encounter this problem. It was even more exasperating, because I purchased this collection; specifically for that film!! Boy, was I disappointed!!

I don't know how to describe it but I was disappointed in the stories. They seem to be " jumbled up".

Something of a mixed bag - in my opinion, Wonder Man is very good but A Song is Born is a very pale remake of Ball of Fire (the story is identical apart from the addition of some great jazz musicians whose talents like Kay's, are totally underused) Up in Arms has a silly story with little to redeem it apart from one of Danny Kay's classic comedy songs which just underscores how poorly Kay is served by the script and the direction. At almost 2 hours The Kid from Brooklyn rather outstays its welcome; the fight scenes in particular needing to be trimmed back. Sadly the best of his films for Goldwyn, The Secret Life of Walter Mitty, is not included here.Technically, the transfers are fine - they obviously haven't been especially restored but they come from good clean prints. No extras apart from the trailers.

Excellent collection. Danny Kaye is always great entertainment. Thoroughly enjoyed watching.