Sorry, this movie sucks

A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

The film may be flawed, but its message is not.

In Me And The Colonel Danny Kaye's career took a dramatic turn as he stars in the movie version of the play Jacobowsky And The Colonel which was an autobiographical work of refugee writer Franz Werfel. It was also Werfel's last work as he died in 1945 as the play was running on Broadway. Werfel when fleeing France and the onrushing Nazi occupation traveled the same route from Paris to southern France and I'm sure his real life experiences verbatim would make an interesting story.The play starred another refugee Oscar Karlweis as the philosophical Jewish refugee Jacobowsky and Louis Calhern as the stiff necked Polish colonel who among other things is anti-Semitic, so typical of his class in those days. On screen the colonel is played by CurtJurgens and he has a mission, to get to the United Kingdom and give the new Polish in exile government a list of contacts. Naturally the Nazis want to get their hands on him and the list. The colonel wants to also get his French wife Nicole Maurey out of France as well and his orderly Akim Tamiroff.The film is their journey through France along the same path Werfel took to get out of Europe. In Jurgens mind Kaye is annoying Jew, but he gradually learns to both respect Kaye's resourcefulness and see a Jewish person as a human being. All too human as Maurey also starts to develop feelings for him.For this role Kaye dropped a whole lot of his usual shtick and his performance is simple and restrained. The humor and there is a bit there is of the whimsical and ironical kind. He does it well. Two other performances of note are that of Alexander Scourby as the Nazi colonel who also has designs on Maurey and Martita Hunt as a helpful, make that very helpful Mother Superior of a convent.For a different and refreshing Danny Kaye I highly recommend Me And The Colonel.

I must say, Danny Kaye delivers a very skilful and thoughtful performance as Jacobowsky, and Curt Jurgens is hilarious in his over-the-top display of pompous honor as the military Colonel. In the dangerous and harrowing era of the war it's surprising that any degree of humor could be found in stark situations, but this story does so, and does it well. At times it's downright funny, other times it's delightfully witty, turning life's awkward moments into amusing vignettes. Yet shining throughout is the quality of Kaye's sympathetic character who draws on the inherited wisdom of his people to help him meet one difficulty after another. An excellent story indeed. Thank goodness human nature can still find humor even in life's most dire moments.

Not your typical Danny Kaye movie, this brooding character study walks a tightrope among three genres and succeeds in being movie without being cloying. Curt Jurgens is marvelous as the Colonel. And, Danny Kaye gives one of his most distinctive performances. Well worth seeing.

Me and the Colonel was a different movie for Danny Kaye, it was drama rather than a musical, he was very good in it. I especially liked the parts where he conned he way through situations. All in all I really enjoyed the movie.