OVP: Wonder Man (1945)

Film: Wonder Man (1945)
Stars: Danny Kaye, Virginia Mayo, Vera-Ellen
Director: H. Bruce Humberstone
Oscar History: 4 nominations/1 win (Best Special Effects*, Sound Recording, Scoring, Original Song-"So in Love")
Snap Judgment Ranking: 1/5 stars

We move on in our week-long look at Oscar-nominated movies that were cited for their music with Wonder Man, a movie where I have to lead off with a confession: I don't like Danny Kaye.  Like, in almost any movie.  This is weird because I enjoyed White Christmas growing up, like many Midwestern gay boys who were obsessed with the "Sisters" number; my brother can attest that I will randomly start singing "doing choreography" without any prompt.  But Kaye's schtick gets old fast, and it's almost always surrounded by a movie that's basically just a vehicle for his brand of self-involvement.

(Spoilers Ahead) Which makes a movie like Wonder Man all the more frustrating for someone like me because there's twice as much Kaye.  You'll notice that this film won a nomination for Best Special Effects in 1945, and that's because the film's main gimmick is around Kaye playing two characters at once, oftentimes in the same frame.  Kaye's characters are Buster, a loud vaudeville performer and Edwin, a bookish historian; they are identical brothers who have not seen each other for many years.  When Buster is killed after witnessing a murder, though, Edwin must pretend to be Buster to take his place and bring the mobsters to justice.

Hijinks, of course, ensue, particularly since both Buster and Edwin had girlfriends: Virginia Mayo's Ellen and Vera-Ellen's Midge.  However, the film gets lost in the shuffle.  It's pretty clear how it will turn out the second that Buster dies, and while the effects are intriguing (particularly getting Kaye into solid objects, which was remarkable at the time), the entire film is flat.  Kaye doesn't have chemistry with either leading woman, and none of the musical numbers are all that memorable.

The film won four Oscar nominations, but the only one I'm entertaining as remotely worthy is the special effects.  They're definitely technically impressive, although they don't really make the movie any better (for modern movies, I tend to make that a criteria, so I feel like I should for past films).  The Sound is merely okay-the musical numbers aren't impressive, and they don't add much to the effects.  Overall, while this is a musical and a film that thus fits our theme like a glove this week, it's also a movie with nothing compelling in its score.  I'm shocked that they even remembered a song long enough to distinguish it in Best Original Song.