The Court Jester
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| The Court Jester | |
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 The Court Jester DVD cover |
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| Directed by | Melvin Frank Norman Panama |
| Produced by | Melvin Frank Norman Panama |
| Written by | Melvin Frank Norman Panama |
| Starring | Danny Kaye Glynis Johns Basil Rathbone Angela Lansbury |
| Release date(s) | January 27, 1956 |
| Running time | 101 min. |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $4,000,000 US |
| IMDb profile | |
The Court Jester is a 1956 comedy film starring Danny Kaye, Glynis Johns, Basil Rathbone, and Angela Lansbury. The movie is co-written, co-directed, and co-produced by Melvin Frank and Norman Panama.
Danny Kaye received a Golden Globe nomination for Best Motion Picture Actor - Comedy/Musical.
The motion picture bombed at the box-office on its release. Made for a cost of $4 million in the fall of 1955, it only brought in $2.2 million in receipts the following winter and spring of 1956. Since then it has become a television matinee favorite. The film contains the famous repertoire: "The pellet with the poison's in the vessel with the pestle; the chalice from the palace has the brew that is true" (mainly with Kaye and Mildred Natwick as Griselda).
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[edit] Synopsis
Ostensibly set in medieval England, the plot nominally concerns the struggle to restore the rightful heir, a child, to the throne, the King and all his family having been murdered or otherwise disposed of. Kaye plays Hubert Hawkins, an ex-carnival entertainer ("a jester, unemployed, is nobody's fool"), who becomes minstrel to the Black Fox, a Robin Hood-type character (who actually makes only a few minor appearances in the film), played by Edward Ashley.
In the introductory scene—a musical song and dance—the audience is led to believe that Kaye is playing the part of the Black Fox, with his assistants, a band of dwarves, all in identical costumes. It is only after the end of this production that the real Black Fox appears, and suggests that Hawkins should stay out of his wardrobe, having been previously warned. Kaye responds that he is only trying to improve the morale of the troops.
Hawkins is given a serious task to perform; when the location of their camp becomes known to the King, he must escort the rightful heir to the throne, the baby that bears the royal birthmark—a purple pimpernel—and Maid Jean (Glynis Johns) to safety. To achieve this, he disguises himself as an asthmatic old man (supposedly the father of the maiden). After safely eluding the king's forces and bringing the infant king to a safe haven, a new development presents itself; the existence of a secret underground bunker leading from the forest to the castle. If it were opened, the Black Fox's forces could launch a surprise attack on the usurping King, but there's a problem: it only opens from the castle side.
Much hilarity ensues as Hawkins infiltrates the evil King Roderick's castle by impersonating the king's new talented and multilingual jester, Giacomo, "King of Jesters and Jester of Kings". In this guise, he contrives to worm his way into the King's confidence, get the key which opens the tunnel door, and pave the way for a daring invasion of the castle. However, the Princess (Angela Lansbury) has taken a fancy to the new jester. She commands her servant, the witch Griselda (Natwick) to hypnotize him with her evil eye. Once hypnotized, Hawkins can be brought in and out of a trance at will by a snap of the fingers, and Griselda sends him to court the Princess. While under this trance, he also takes on the role of assassin-for-hire to the evil Lord Ravenhurst and his henchmen.
When the King discovers that his daughter has fallen in love with the jester, Hawkins is swiftly promoted to Knight with the intent that he can be legitimately challenged to a joust by the Princess's suitor Sir Griswold of Mackalwane ("The Grim and Gruesome Grisly Griswold") and killed. The challenges of knighthood are made easy for him (he is given no chance not to succeed). He is warned of the plot, but while trying to escape, he finds himself walking into the ranks of knights marching to his own investiture. A slow, stately, time honored ritual, the knighting ritual is accelerated to breakneck speed in one of the more memorable scenes of the film.
Immediately upon being knighted, Hawkins is challenged to a duel to the death by Griswold. Help is given to him in the form of a poisonous potion made by Griselda, but Sir Griswold is also told of it by a courtier who overhears of the plot. In a scene full of tongue twisting English, both combatants approach the King, each trying desperately to remember which cup contains the poison, with the result that the potion spills when the two men try to avoid drinking it. The king decides to abandon the ritual of drinking a toast before the joust and gets straight on to the fight, but a storm is rising, and Hawkins' armor, struck by lightning, has become magnetized. Griswold is pulled from his horse by a mace which sticks to Hubert's armor, and Hubert wins the joust. Later, when Hubert must defeat the villainous Ravenhurst at swordplay, he is again entranced by the witch into thinking that he is a great swordsman. As the usurpers of the throne are defeated by the Black Fox and his army of dwarves, the rightful King is finally revealed by his distinctive birthmark and acknowledged by good and bad alike.
The switch with the poisoned drink builds to the following dialogue exchange:
- Hawkins: I've got it! The pellet with the poison's in the vessel with the pestle; the chalice from the palace has the brew that is true! Right?
- Griselda: ...but there's been a change: they broke the chalice from the palace...
- Hawkins: They broke the chalice from the palace?
- Griselda: ...and replaced it. With a flagon.
- Hawkins: A flagon?
- Griselda: With the figure of a dragon.
- Hawkins: Flagon with a dragon.
- Griselda: Right.
- Hawkins: ...but did you put the pellet with the poison in the vessel with the pestle?
- Griselda: No! The pellet with the poison's in the flagon with the dragon! The vessel with the pestle has the brew that is true!
- Hawkins: The pellet with the poison's in the flagon with the dragon, the vessel with the pestle has the brew that is true.
- Griselda: Just remember that!
Other famous scenes include Hubert's rapid promotion to knight in preparation for a joust against a champion, the joust itself, and the final duel in which Hubert has been hypnotised into feeling brave, only to revert to his normal cowardly state every time anyone snaps their fingers.
Kaye's boundless energy and wit make this movie a classic.
[edit] Songs
- "I Live to Love" (words by Sammy Cahn, music by Sylvia Fine)
- "Life Could Not Better Be" (words and music by Sammy Cahn & Sylvia Fine)
- "Maladjusted Jester" (words and music by Sylvia Fine)
- "My Heart Knows a Lovely Song" (words and music by Sammy Cahn & Sylvia Fine)
- "(You'll Never) Outfox the Fox" (words by Sammy Cahn, music by Sylvia Fine)
- "Pass the Basket" (words by Sammy Cahn, music by Sylvia Fine)
- "Where Walks My True Love?" (words by Sammy Cahn, music by Sylvia Fine)
Note: Sylvia Fine was Danny Kaye's wife.
[edit] Trivia
- A world-class fencer called the best in Hollywood, Basil Rathbone said that Danny Kaye, who had never fenced before, was as good as he was with only three weeks of practice; Kaye was a natural. "With his quick reflexes and his extraordinary sense of mime, which enabled him to imitate easily anything seen once, Kaye could outfence Rathbone after a few weeks of instruction." [1]
- Angela Lansbury turned 31 years old during the making of this film.
- According to Danny Kaye's daughter Dena, when people spotted Danny in public, they would often approach him and recite the "Pellet with the poison" speech.
- The "purple pimpernel" is a reference to the classic story and film The Scarlet Pimpernel.
- The film contains so many similarities to The Adventures of Robin Hood to the extent that it can be considered a parody (if not at times a remake) of that film. Similarities include the casting of Basil Rathbone (playing a part almost identical to Sir Guy of Gisbourne) and Mildred Natwick, who bears a striking resemblance to Una O'Connor. Sets and costumes also evoke the 1938 production as do some of the fight scenes (Danny Kaye overturns a table and later duels with Rathbone across the castle).
- In the science fiction series Star Trek: Enterprise, The Court Jester is among the 50,000 films found in the movie database aboard the starship Enterprise. ("Doctor's Orders")
