Danny Kaye "On The Double"

[OC Richard]

I remember seeing this movie when I was little. I recall a hilarious scene where Danny Kaye pretends to be an officer in a Highland regiment and has to do the Sword Dance in the Officers Mess.

It took a bit of Googling to find out that the movie was On The Double, from 1961.

Anyhow here are two "lobby cards" from that movie, one showing the Sword Dance scene:

[Galician]

Oh, I look the look with the eye patch! Anyone able to tell the tartan he's wearing? Gordon?

[Arizona Scot]

Ya looks like Gordon to me also, but hard to tell.

[auld argonian]

Wasn't the plot of that one sort of a comic take-off on the "I Was Monty's Double" flick...the one about the fella who impersonated Field Marshall Montgomery to throw the Germans off during WWII....?

Best

AA

[12stones]

Danny Kaye was one of my favorite comedic actors when I was young. I didn't remember this movie until I saw this picture. It's been about 20 years since I've seen it. Good stuff.

[OC Richard]

Here's the scene, on YouTube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xm0m2-iPMmA&NR=1

From the standpoint of Highland Dress, it's interesting that this movie was made during the period the Highland regiments were wearing the Archer Green No1 Dress coatee (introduced in 1953). The other officers are wearing interesting black sporrans with three white tassels with various antique cantles, while for some reason Kaye himself is wearing an off-the-shelf piper's sporran. This situation is similar to the one in Tunes of Glory, where the scene showing the regimental pipe band shows members of the London Scottish wearing their grey horsehair sporrans with unique cantles, while the scene at the start of the movie, with two actors portraying pipers playing at the officers' mess, has them wearing the same off-the-shelf sporran style Kaye is wearing.