Inspector General with Danny Kaye: DVD Cover
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Inspector General
a.k.a. Happy Times Director: Henry Koster Cast: Danny Kaye, Walter Slezak, Barbara Bates, Elsa Lanchester

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  • DVD Release Date: 10/07/2003
  • Original Release: 1949
  • Rating: Not Rated
  • Sales Rank: 1,582

Viewer Rating: (1 ratings)

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Scenes

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Scene Index

Side #1 --
1. Chapter 1 [18:17]
2. Chapter 2 [20:03]
3. Chapter 3 [13:58]
4. Chapter 4 [19:45]
5. Chapter 5 [16:29]
6. Chapter 6 [13:06]

Scene Index

Editorial Reviews

The satirical bite of Gogol's play The Government Inspector is dispensed with in favor of traditional Danny Kaye buffoonery in The Inspector General. Kaye plays the illiterate stooge of two-bit medicine-show- entrepreneur Walter Slezak. Abandoned by Slezak, the starving Kaye wanders into a corruption-ridden Russian village, which is all geared up for a visit from the Inspector General. Mistaking Kaye for that selfsame royal inspector, the townsfolk fawn on the confused Kaye, granting him his every whim and plying him with all sorts of bribes. In the original Gogol play, the boorish phony inspector takes advantage of the villagers' error by laying waste to the town and seducing a few local maidens; in the film, Kaye is as pure as the driven borscht, as is his true love (Barbara Bates), the only honest person in town. The treachery is in the hands of Slezak, who fakes Kaye's death and tries to blackmail the crooked local officials. The deus-ex-machina arrival of the real Inspector General foils the crooks and places the nonplused Kaye in the job of town mayor. Those of you who read the play in college may remember it ends with everyone frozen in horror when the genuine inspector shows up, with Gogol's stage directions insisting that the actors hold their fearful poses for a full sixty seconds. Be assured that in the film version of Inspector General, nothing stands still--least of all Danny Kaye, who cuts quite a swath through several Sylvia Fine/Johnny Mercer specialty songs. Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Customer Reviews

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Danny Kaye's Second Greatest Filmby Anonymous

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April 15, 2007: After Hans Christian Anderson, which is hands down Danny Kaye's best film, The Inspector General comes in a close second. Filled with his mastery of slap-stickery, Danny Kaye plays off everything in this picture. But the classic scene is when he sings "Dance Gypsy, Sing Gypsy" a scene so memorable it inspired a Daffy Duck spoof.

This review was written about the DVD edition.