“Danny Kaye Likes Excitement Of ‘First’ Experiences”
Lodi News-
NEW YORK—“I can’t be a madcap in every picture . . . I’m not one at heart.”
That’s how funny man Danny Kaye explains his decision to “play it straight” in the
next film, “The Five Pennies.” In an exclusive, behind-
Commenting on his new role as “Red” Nichols, popular jazz musician of the ‘twenties, Danny points out that it is not the first time he has played a serious role, as Jacobowsky in “Me and the Colonel,” had that special excitement that belongs only to “firsts,” he reports.
A great believer in the importance of “firsts,” in fact, he says that “People think ‘Up in Arms’ was the best picture I ever made . . . It wasn’t the best – it was the first. There’s no getting away from the initial excitement and impact of . . . the honeymoon. The first movie. The first time I played in London. The crowds have been bigger, the money has been greater, but nothing ever can equal that first thrill.”
Danny’s role as “Red” Nichols is a “first,” however – the first time he has portrayed a real person. Pointing out that this part is not as alien to those he usually plays as it may seem, he remarks: “Comedy underlines tragedy, tragedy underlines comedy. Several years ago, I wouldn’t have tampered with my comedy formula. But ambitions and standards change.”
Danny is not completely giving up his career as a comedian for a new one as a serious actor. He reveals that his next film “The Bamboo Kid,” “should make a crazy, lunatic comedy, just like the ones I used to do.”