Pros: Danny Kaye is brilliant, lots of humour and manic wordplay...
Cons: ... the songs didn't really do much for me...
The Bottom Line: A highly enjoyable comedy-musical. Is it the vessel with the pestle that contains the brew that is true, or is it the flagon with the dragon?
Court Jester is an entertaining 1955 film starring Danny Kaye as Hubert Hawkins, the entertainer to outcast "The Black Fox", fighting to put the rightful heir to the throne (complete with the purple pimpernel - the hereditary birthmark of the royal line). The right heir probably won't appreciate this noble endeavour for several years as he's not yet old enough to talk, but he probably wouldn't be quite so keen to have everyone looking at his birthmark if he was older, considering it's on his buttock. The entertainer longs for a chance to prove himself in battle, but unexpectedly gets his chance when a vacancy for a Court Jester appears - well, sort of... I won't say any more than that as it would spoil part of the film!
Anyway, once he's in the castle and in the thick of the action, he starts to feel that this action and adventure lark may not be all that good for the health... His mission is greatly compounded by several things - a case of mistaken identity, a witch who has him under control at the snap of her fingers to save her own skin, his comrade and lover (or at least she will be when the mission to get rid of the wrongful king is accomplished), an assassination plot, becoming a knight, and all sorts of other tomfoolery. It's all very light-hearted fun and contains a lot of silly and some rather clever wordplay.
Danny Kaye is excellent here (well, he seldom wasn't excellent though I haven't seen everything he's been in!) and whether he's hamming it up, acting pompous and imperious, or delivering darstardly tongue-twisting lines, he's a joy to watch. It's a challenging role but the masterful entertainer that Kaye was easily makes the most of it. The other cast members ably support him - his love Maid Jean (Glynis Johns) is good in her role and gets the chance to raise a few laughs when trying to make sure bad guy King Roderick (Cecil Parker) doesn't get his evil way with her. A young Angela Lansbury plays the haughty Princess Gwendolyn, Mildred Natwick plays the hag who has, as her father puts it, "filed her head full of fantasy and nonsense), and Basil Rathbone again plays a villainous sort, this time in the form of Sir Ravenhurst. Sir Ravenhurst also wants King Roderick off the throne, though not to put the true king on it of course...
There's plenty of confusion all around with Hubert's character changing frequently, advice getting mixed up and various wires being crossed. It's a riot from start to finish although I never quite felt it was 5-star material. It's a musical / comedy, and personally I found the comedy aspect worked rather better than the musical parts. The music itself was good and suitably medieval; however the songs I found to be rather variable. Some were good but about half could have been left out without the film losing anything. The action scenes were nicely done and contain a fair dollop of comedy in themselves - in particular, Keye and Rathbone's sword-fight near the end was very funny and well choreographed. (Choreography by James Starbuck, fight choreography [uncredited] by Ralph Faulkner.)
The costumes and sets are suitably lavish for this sort of extravaganza and it has a nice medieval musical score. There are a few songs of rather varying quality. There's voice-over at the start that tells the viewers what's been going on and it also pops up a couple of times after the introduction; this felt rather unnecessary an sometimes almost an insult to the viewer's intelligence, but wasn't a huge problem. It's rated U and there's really nothing in the movie that anyone could find offensive.
The DVD doesn't have any "bonus" features as such though it can be played in either English or German, and subtitles are available in English for the hearing impaired, English, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, French, German, Norwegian, and Swedish. It's presented in 1:78:1 anamorphic wide screen. Like many films from around that era, the colour just appears to be too vivid to appear real - not that it really detracts from the film, but you may want to have some sunglasses handy just in case!
Overall, though most of the songs didn't do much for me, I found Court Jester to be a thoroughly enjoyable film, largely thanks to the comic genius of Danny Kaye. Any fans of his will love this, and anyone who likes adventure comedies with a large helping of silliness will also very much enjoy it.
Other Details
Directors: Melvon Frank and Norman Panama
Runtime: 97 minutes
Released by Paramount
Quote and Oddments
Danny Kaye's daughter, Dena Kaye, said for the rest of his life, when people recognized Danny in a restaurant, they would walk up and spout the entire "brew that is true" speech.
Here it is:
Hawkins: I've got it! 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: Right. 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.
Another moment of insane wordplay is found when Hubert enters the castle in the guise of a famous Court Jester:
King Roderick: The Duke. What did the Duke do?
Hubert Hawkins: Eh... the Duke do?
King Roderick: Yes. And what about the Doge?
Hubert Hawkins: Oh, the Doge!
King Roderick: Eh. Well what did the Doge do?
Hubert Hawkins: The Doge do?
King Roderick: Yes, the Doge do.
Hubert Hawkins: Well, uh, the Doge did what the Doge does. Eh, uh, when the Doge does his duty to the Duke, that is.
King Roderick: What? What's that?
Hubert Hawkins: Oh, it's very simple, sire. When the Doge did his duty and the Duke didn't, that's when the Duchess did the dirt to the Duke with the Doge.
King Roderick: Who did what to what?
Hubert Hawkins: Oh, they all did, sire. There they were in the dark; the Duke with his dagger, the Doge with his dart, Duchess with her dirk.
King Roderick: Duchess with her dirk?
Hubert Hawkins: Yes! The Duchess dove at the Duke just when the Duke dove at the Doge. Now the Duke ducked, the Doge dodged, and the Duchess didn't. So the Duke got the Duchess, the Duchess got the Doge, and the Doge got the Duke!
King Roderick: Curious. I... I... hm? What? What's that? All I heard was that the Duchess had a siege of rheumatism. She's 83, you know.
Another very enjoyable 1955 comedy, which also featured Basil Rathbone as a meanie, was We're No Angels, starring Humphrey Bogart, Aldo Ray, and Peter Ustinov.
A 12th century court jester in England becomes involved with a desperate band of outlaws who are attempting to overthrow the king. A delightful comedy...More at Family Video
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