Wonder Man is a 1945 fantasy musical comedy film directed by H. Bruce Humberstone. The film stars Danny Kaye, Virginia Mayo, and Vera-Ellen.
Director: H. Bruce Humberstone
Production Company: Samuel Goldwyn Productions
Distributor: RKO Radio Pictures
Cast: Danny Kaye, Virginia Mayo, Vera-Ellen, Donald Woods, S.Z. Sakall, Otto Kruger
US Box Office: $7,500,000 ($198,200,000 adjusted for inflation)
Film Format: Technicolor
Genre: Fantasy, Comedy, Musical
Release Date: June 8, 1945
Plot Summary: Outgoing stage performer Buster “Buzzy Bellows” Dingle (Danny Kaye) is killed by men working for gangster “Ten Grand Jackson” (Steve Cochran) because Buster witnessed Jackson commit a murder. The ghost of Buster rises from the dead to convince his shy and bookish identical twin brother Edwin (Danny Kaye) to bring his killers to justice. Edwin is thrown into a world of danger, and is occasionally possessed by Buster’s ghost, leading to many goofy situations as Edwin confuses everyone around him including Ellen Shanley (Virginia Mayo), a librarian who Edwin is in love with, and Buster’s fiancé Midge Mallon (Vera-Ellen).
Production: In late 1943, Producer Samuel Goldwyn began working on a fantasy comedy film that was initially titled Wonder Boy. The film was about a stage performer who is murdered, and comes back as a ghost in order to help his identical twin brother bring the killers to justice. The script was written by a group of writers led by Jack Jevne and Eddie Moran and it was based on a short story by comedy screenwriter Arthur Sheekman. Goldwyn hired H. Bruce Humberstone to direct the film. Humberstone directed films from a variety of different genres and had recently directed the comedy Pin Up Girl (1944) and the musical Hello, Frisco, Hello (1943). During production, the film’s title was changed to Wonder Man. During this time, Goldwyn usually produced his film independently and distributed them through RKO Radio Pictures.
Goldwyn cast comedy actor Danny Kaye in the title role as twins Buster and Edwin Dingle. Kaye had previously been a stage actor, and appeared in several Broadway comedies including Lady in the Dark and Let’s Face It! Kaye signed a film contract with Goldwyn and recently starred in the musical comedy Up in Arms (1944), which was his first feature-length film. Virginia Mayo was cast as Ellen, Edwin’s love interest. Mayo had also recently appeared in Up in Arms, where she had a bit part as one of the nurses in the film. She recently had a leading role in The Princess and the Pirate, a comedy film produced by Goldwyn. Dancer and Broadway actress Vera-Ellen was cast as Midge, Buster’s fiancé. Wonder Man was her first film.
Wonder Man was mostly shot on set at Samuel Goldwyn Studios in Hollywood. Filming on Wonder Man initially began on July 12, 1944, but was halted a week into production because Danny Kaye injured his leg while filming one of the dance sequences. At the time Karl Struss was the cinematographer, David Rose was the musical director and Perry Ferguson was the art director. After Kaye recovered, filming resumed in early August and wrapped up in September. During the shooting break Goldwyn replaced Struss, Rose, and Ferguson with Victor Milner and William E. Snyder (cinematographers), Louis Forbes (musical director), and Ernest Fegté (art director). Director Humberstone used double exposure and other film editing techniques for the scenes where twins Bruce and Edwin interact with each other.
Fun Facts and Trivia: Danny Kaye and Vera-Ellen later starred together in two more films: The Kid from Brooklyn (1946) and White Christmas (1954). Wonder Man was the second film that Steve Cochran (Ten Grand Jackson) appeared in. To create the effect used to represent Buster’s Spirit rising from the water in Prospect Park, Humberstone superimposed footage of an electric floor fan and projected it onto footage of the set. The giant vases seen in the Pelican Club were a last minute addition to the film set. Art director Ernst Fegté had originally commissioned sculptor Tony Duquette to create large prop statues for the set. Producer Samuel Goldwyn had approved Fegté’s concept sketches for the statues, but didn’t like the finished product, so Fegté quickly replaced them with the vases seen in the final film.
Reception: Wonder Man was released on June 5, 1945 in the United States. The film was a success at the box office and it made a profit for Goldwyn. The film’s financial success convinced Goldwyn to pair Danny Kaye and Virginia Mayo together for three more films: The Kid from Brooklyn (1946), The Secret Life of Walter Mitty (1947), and A Song is Born (1948). On March 25, 1946 Kaye and Mayo reprised their roles in 60 minute radio adaptation of Wonder Man broadcast by Lux Radio Theater.
Wonder Man received positive reviews from critics when it was first released. Walcott Gibbs of The New Yorker gave the film a positive review. He praised Danny Kaye’s performance and described Kaye as being “one of the most versatile and generally satisfactory” comedic film actors of the time. TIME magazine film critic James Agee also gave the film a positive review. He thought that Wonder Man did a good job of displaying both Kaye’s comedic antics and his serious acting talent. Although it is not well known today, Wonder Man still receives generally positive reviews. Carol Cling of the Los Vegas Review-Journal gave the film a 4/5 star review. James Sanford of the Kalamazoo Gazette gave Wonder Man a positive review and he described Kaye’s performance as being “delightful.” Nell Minow of “Movie Mom” and Dennis Schwartz also gave the film positive reviews.
Oscars: Wonder Man was nominated for four Oscars at the 18th Academy Awards: Best Musical Score (Lou Forbes and Ray Heindorf), Best Original Song (“So in Love,” music by David Rose, lyrics by Leo Robin), Best Sound Recording (Gordon E. Sawyer), and Best Special Effects (photographic effects by John P. Fulton, sound effects by Arthur Johns). Wonder Man only received one Oscar, which Fulton and Johns won for Best Special Effects.
Why You Should See It: Wonder Man is good comedy film. Danny Kaye is very funny in the film. Wonder Man gives him plenty of hilarious moments, as well as the chance to genuinely test his acting skills (as it can be difficult to believably play multiple roles in a film). Some of Wonder Man‘s highlight moments include the scene at Prospect Park where Edwin meets Buster’s ghost for the first time (and confuses all the poor bystanders), the scenes where Edwin confuses butcher shop owner Schmitt (S.Z. Sakall) with his and Buster’s antics, and the opera scene near the end of the film. The interactions between Kaye and Virginia Mayo, especially near the start of the film, are cute and charming. I personally thought that the film’s ending was too abrupt, but I do understand that as a comedy film Wonder Man‘s goal was to prioritize humor, even if it meant sacrificing satisfying story elements as a result.