Danny Kaye: The Goldwyn Years

Danny Kaye made his feature film debut in "Up in Arms" (1944), as a hypochondriac Army draftee who starts feeling even worse when his girlfriend (Constance Dowling) stows aboard his Pacific-bound freighter. Lively service farce marked by "Theater Lobby Number," "Melody in 4-F" co-stars Dana Andrews, Dinah Shore. When a slick entertainer (Kaye) who saw a mob hit gets rubbed out by a gang boss (Steve Cochran), the showman's earthbound spirit decides to see justice done─by possessing the body of his nebbish librarian twin brother (Kaye, again). "Wonder Man" (1945) co-stars Virginia Mayo, Vera-Ellen. After a meek milkman (Kaye) fortuitously KOs the middleweight champ (Cochran), a calculating promoter (Walter Abel) starts building him up as the next big thing. "The Kid from Brooklyn" (1946), a do-over of "The Milky Way," co-stars Mayo, Vera-Ellen. A mild-mannered music professor (Kaye) gets in hot water when he gets a gun moll (Mayo) to help compile a "jazz encyclopedia" in "A Song Is Born" (1948). Howard Hawks' musical remake of his own "Ball of Fire" co-stars Benny Goodman, Louis Armstrong. 7 hrs. total on four discs. Standard; Soundtrack: English Dolby Digital mono.