With his gang of insurrectionists, trouble brews, causing great dismay to the usurper and his right-hand man Sir Ravenhurst (Basil Rathbone). But rumor has it that the rightful heir, an infant, has been secreted away into the forest under the care of the renowned outlaw, the Black Fox. Ing Roderick the Tyrant (Cecil Parker) seized the throne through a massacre of the entire royal family.
Release Date: January 27th, 1956 MPAA Rating: Not Ratedĭirector: Melvin Frank, Norman Panama Actors: Danny Kaye, Glynis Johns, Basil Rathbone, Angela Lansbury, Cecil Parker, Mildred Natwick, Robert Middleton, Michael Pate, John Carradine, Edward Ashley, Alan Napier K NOTE: The preciousness of this tale is very similar to what’s found in the musical ‘Once Upon a Mattress’ – and its silliness rests on a similar level.Genre: Adventure and Comedy Running Time: 1 hr. A real treat and kudos to all! “Life could not better be!” indeed! That and the subsequent finger-snappings that send him reeling from courageous to cowardly never fail to slay me.) What makes the cast shine even brighter is the expert timing in every detail. With the sterling aid of Lansbury, Rathbone and Natwick, the entire cast is at the top of their game – but who wouldn’t be with a script this good? (My favorite of Kaye’s routines has to be when he is hypnotized by Natwick. We also get Basil Rathbone’s name tossed back in again and again, making it humorously clear who the villain will be.
I’m always tickled by how Fine’s lyrics here comment on the opening credits. It is simply a refreshing potion (if you will) of ingenious comedic set-ups – madcap mayhem at its finest!Īnd the laughs start from the get-go, with Kaye’s opening number.
This is a movie I tend to see at least once a year, and love it every time. The marvelously intricate farce script by directors Melvin Frank and Norman Panama (as the opening theme song tells us, “…plot we’ve got, quite a lot”) – combined with the fiendishly clever lyrics by Sylvia Fine, mostly set to music by Sammy Cahn – makes for just about non-stop glee. It’s one of those magical movies in which everyone clearly seems to be on the same page – and is having quite a delicious time being there. However, I don’t see this primarily as a Danny Kaye movie, even if he is front and center.Įach time I see this film, I’m taken with what an ensemble piece it is – not speaking only of the cast, but the writers and crew as well. It’s been awhile since I’ve seen that other DK biggie ‘Walter Mitty’ (so I’ll have to see how that strikes me once I revisit) – and I’m not an overwhelming fan of Kaye’s. So I suppose I veer from the assessment to a noticeable degree. While The Secret Life of Walter Mitty remains my favorite Kaye film, The Court Jester is beloved by many, and should be seen at least once by all film fanatics.Ī delightful must – as entertaining as it is timeless! The amusing final swashbuckling encounter between Kaye and Rathbone.The justifiably famous “pestle in the vessel” sequence.Watch for Angela Lansbury, Basil Rathbone, Mildred Natwick, and John Carradine (among others) in nicely turned supporting roles. So the Duke got the Duchess, the Duchess got the Doge, and the Doge got the Duke! Now the Duke ducked, the Doge dodged, and the Duchess didn’t. The Duchess dove at the Duke just when the Duke dove at the Doge. This lively scene is indicative of the film’s overall infectious sense of wordplay - as in the following exchange (Kaye’s tongue is limber indeed!): I find the film on the whole not all that amusing or particularly inventive, but there are some enjoyable sequences - most memorably, of course, Kaye’s confusion over a “vessel with a pestle” and a “chalice from the palace”, one of which is poisonous and the other of which contains “brew that is true”. As in most of his other films, Kaye is cast here as a mild-mannered nebbish who is suddenly thrust into a world of excitement and danger, and must call upon inner resources to help save the day (all while tentatively romancing a beautiful leading lady - in this case, Glynis Johns). Get it?”Ī lowly performer (Danny Kaye) helps a revolutionary maiden (Glynis Johns) restore the rightful heir - a baby with a purple pimpernel birth mark - to the throne of England by going undercover as a court jester.Īlong with his title roles in The Secret Life of Walter Mitty (1947) and Hans Christian Andersen (1952), Danny Kaye is probably best known for his performance in this spoof of Robin Hood-era swashbucklers. “I’d like to get in, get on with it, get it over with, and get out.