The Man from the Diners' Club

1963 film by Frank Tashlin

April 17, 1963 (1963-04-17)

Running time

96 minCountryUnited StatesLanguageEnglish

The Man from the Diners' Club is a 1963 comedy film starring Danny Kaye and directed by Frank Tashlin.^[1] It was made by Ampersand and Dena Productions and released by Columbia Pictures.

Plot

Foots Pulardos is a mobster who intends to flee to Mexico with his moll Sugar Pye. In the meantime, he applies for a Diners Club charge card that is mistakenly approved by a meek clerk named Ernie Klenk, who is told to retrieve it from Foots.

Ernie arrives at Foots' gym that Foots uses as a front for his racketeering operations. Foots finds out that they share a unique physical similarity, which gives him an idea: he will burn down the gym, with Ernie in it, and change identities to fool the law.

Complications ensue, and the more involved that Ernie gets with Sugar, the more jealous his girlfriend Lucy becomes. And when Foots and Sugar head for the airport, Ernie must stop them.

Cast

Danny Kaye as Ernest Klenk
Cara Williams as Sugar Pye
Martha Hyer as Lucy
Telly Savalas as Foots Pulardos
Everett Sloane as Martindale
Kaye Stevens as Bea
George Kennedy as George
Ann Morgan Guilbert as Ella Trask
Harry Dean Stanton as a Beatnik (uncredited)

Production

The film was produced by William Bloom from a screenplay by William Peter Blatty and John Fenton Murray. The music score was conducted by Stu Phillips and the cinematographer was Hal Mohr.