The Court Jester (1956) is a superlative, priceless treasure of the 20th Century. This classic tale combines several grand legends such as Robin Hood, Giacomo Casanova, and Dartagnan's Daughter with the baser nobility of a little baby's royal birthmark. (Once seen, it is impossible to forget the repetitive flipping scene used to obtain more converts.)
Everyone should by now know the plot: once the hapless carnival entertainer Hubert Hawkins (Danny Kaye) assumes the identity of the new court jester Giacomo (who happens to well deserve his reputation as a skillful assassin), Hawkins is thrown into one court intrigue after another, each beyond his control or understanding.
As the socially powerless court jester, Hawkins has to survive not only accidents and royal petulance, but deliberate attempts at his execution as part of court intrigue.
So I won't waste time recapping all that.
Instead, I'd like to mention the still potent generation gap politics and gender politics that routinely consumed the weakest of medieval society, sometimes court jesters, or often just women.
King Roderick has a rather cynical and self-possessed daughter in Princess Gwendolyn (a shockingly young and beautiful Angela Lansbury), whom he nastily views as more a threat than a loved one, and their war of wills is hilarious. But he needs her alive because he has no male heir, so Gwendolyn habitually threatens suicide whenever she doesn't want to do something: "Harm one hair on her head, and I throw myself from the highest turret", she declares when her father tries to get rid of Gwendolyn's nanny ("the witch").
King Roderick schemes to get his daughter out of the castle by marrying her off "way up North" to the "grim and grizzly, gruesome Griswold". Of course, she has no intention of going.
"I am the King. If it pleases me, you will marry Griswold!", he tries to command her. " --If it pleases you so much, you marry Griswold!" retorts his witty daughter.
Gwendolyn has a nanny/personal confidant in Grizelda (Mildred Natwick), the "witch", who has raised the Princess to believe in more girlish romance, partly to soften up Gwendolyn's belligerent cynicism. Unfortunately, with such a brutal horse-trade as her proposed marriage to Sir Griswold of Macklewein, girlish fancies of romance are starting to fly out the window of Gwendolyn's heart and she matter-of-factly threatens Grizelda with a dirk (a small dagger) if Grizelda can't arrange something better.
Desperate to save both their lives, Grizelda (look, she ain't no witch. She has pills and potions. That makes her a chemist) pulls out every trick in the book. She first proffers the court jester as a romantic alternative to the princess, and then mesmerizes him to make sure he courts the princess as ardently as the princess wants. Grizelda's hypnosis of "Giacomo" imbues him with super-confidence, so he can fight for his life as well as Gwendolyn's hand.
Mildred Natwick obviously had a terrific time pretend-hypnotizing Danny Kaye. "Master, you can snap me in and snap me out", he drools at her. Later, Kaye's impeccable talents at physical comedy have him jerking to every unconscious snap of everyone's fingers.
However, Hawkins is already in love with the only woman from their guerilla group back in the forest, Capt. Jean aka Maid Jean (Glynis Johns), who is, of course, beautiful and smart, and could whip his narrow butt in a heartbeat, if only she didn't LIKE him so much. Before they both arrived through different routes at King Roderick's castle, they had one romantic night together in an emergency hut as they sheltered the true heir to the throne. As they talk of politics and regret about the loss of the throne in the hut, she ends up seducing herself (nice to see how that works) as she reflects that "my father made me everything I am". To his credit, Hawkins reassures her that her father "does beautiful work", in a very satisfying gender role reversal for 1956. Sadly there is not enough chemistry between them, and there should've been, because the rest of the scene is very honest.
The homage scenes to The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938), the Errol Flynn classic with the much younger Basil Rathbone, are real gifts. They include the procession of robed monks secreting reinforcements, and Rathbone doing himself in the earlier role.
But my personal favourite is the spoof scene of Errol Flynn accidentally cutting through one humungous candle in the 1938 film. In The Court Jester (1956), Danny Kaye, fencing *far too well* against Rathbone in his hypnosis-fortified guise, deliberately cuts a swath through an entire row of candles without any apparent effect-until he breathes on the candles, and they all drop off their candlesticks on cue. This Court Jester scene has stuck in my mind from childhood.
The entire supporting cast is terrific. Cecil Parker's King Roderick eventually becomes quite personable as he relaxes into his regal position and quips with "Giacomo", and he's very funny with Maid Jean as a lecherous royal repelled by her clever claim to having an STD! WOW, very contemporary for 1956!
I really love all the musical numbers as well. They are so organic (well integrated) that they provide a deeper understanding of the plot. Kaye's incredible, once-in-a-lifetime-find wordsmith-wife Sylvia Fine crafted all his tongue-twisters, including these songs. Kaye just flips them off as if they were nothing.
It's a shame we don't see more jester's hard knocks to establish the jester milieu. Nevertheless, I always get blown away by the final lyrics of The Maladjusted Jester: "...For a jester's chief employment is to kill himself for your enjoyment/ And a jester unemployed is nobody's fool!"
There is a lot of political commentary in this alleged piece of fluff.
Addictively quotable. No more quibbling: 10/10.
Everyone should by now know the plot: once the hapless carnival entertainer Hubert Hawkins (Danny Kaye) assumes the identity of the new court jester Giacomo (who happens to well deserve his reputation as a skillful assassin), Hawkins is thrown into one court intrigue after another, each beyond his control or understanding.
As the socially powerless court jester, Hawkins has to survive not only accidents and royal petulance, but deliberate attempts at his execution as part of court intrigue.
So I won't waste time recapping all that.
Instead, I'd like to mention the still potent generation gap politics and gender politics that routinely consumed the weakest of medieval society, sometimes court jesters, or often just women.
King Roderick has a rather cynical and self-possessed daughter in Princess Gwendolyn (a shockingly young and beautiful Angela Lansbury), whom he nastily views as more a threat than a loved one, and their war of wills is hilarious. But he needs her alive because he has no male heir, so Gwendolyn habitually threatens suicide whenever she doesn't want to do something: "Harm one hair on her head, and I throw myself from the highest turret", she declares when her father tries to get rid of Gwendolyn's nanny ("the witch").
King Roderick schemes to get his daughter out of the castle by marrying her off "way up North" to the "grim and grizzly, gruesome Griswold". Of course, she has no intention of going.
"I am the King. If it pleases me, you will marry Griswold!", he tries to command her. " --If it pleases you so much, you marry Griswold!" retorts his witty daughter.
Gwendolyn has a nanny/personal confidant in Grizelda (Mildred Natwick), the "witch", who has raised the Princess to believe in more girlish romance, partly to soften up Gwendolyn's belligerent cynicism. Unfortunately, with such a brutal horse-trade as her proposed marriage to Sir Griswold of Macklewein, girlish fancies of romance are starting to fly out the window of Gwendolyn's heart and she matter-of-factly threatens Grizelda with a dirk (a small dagger) if Grizelda can't arrange something better.
Desperate to save both their lives, Grizelda (look, she ain't no witch. She has pills and potions. That makes her a chemist) pulls out every trick in the book. She first proffers the court jester as a romantic alternative to the princess, and then mesmerizes him to make sure he courts the princess as ardently as the princess wants. Grizelda's hypnosis of "Giacomo" imbues him with super-confidence, so he can fight for his life as well as Gwendolyn's hand.
Mildred Natwick obviously had a terrific time pretend-hypnotizing Danny Kaye. "Master, you can snap me in and snap me out", he drools at her. Later, Kaye's impeccable talents at physical comedy have him jerking to every unconscious snap of everyone's fingers.
However, Hawkins is already in love with the only woman from their guerilla group back in the forest, Capt. Jean aka Maid Jean (Glynis Johns), who is, of course, beautiful and smart, and could whip his narrow butt in a heartbeat, if only she didn't LIKE him so much. Before they both arrived through different routes at King Roderick's castle, they had one romantic night together in an emergency hut as they sheltered the true heir to the throne. As they talk of politics and regret about the loss of the throne in the hut, she ends up seducing herself (nice to see how that works) as she reflects that "my father made me everything I am". To his credit, Hawkins reassures her that her father "does beautiful work", in a very satisfying gender role reversal for 1956. Sadly there is not enough chemistry between them, and there should've been, because the rest of the scene is very honest.
The homage scenes to The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938), the Errol Flynn classic with the much younger Basil Rathbone, are real gifts. They include the procession of robed monks secreting reinforcements, and Rathbone doing himself in the earlier role.
But my personal favourite is the spoof scene of Errol Flynn accidentally cutting through one humungous candle in the 1938 film. In The Court Jester (1956), Danny Kaye, fencing *far too well* against Rathbone in his hypnosis-fortified guise, deliberately cuts a swath through an entire row of candles without any apparent effect-until he breathes on the candles, and they all drop off their candlesticks on cue. This Court Jester scene has stuck in my mind from childhood.
The entire supporting cast is terrific. Cecil Parker's King Roderick eventually becomes quite personable as he relaxes into his regal position and quips with "Giacomo", and he's very funny with Maid Jean as a lecherous royal repelled by her clever claim to having an STD! WOW, very contemporary for 1956!
I really love all the musical numbers as well. They are so organic (well integrated) that they provide a deeper understanding of the plot. Kaye's incredible, once-in-a-lifetime-find wordsmith-wife Sylvia Fine crafted all his tongue-twisters, including these songs. Kaye just flips them off as if they were nothing.
It's a shame we don't see more jester's hard knocks to establish the jester milieu. Nevertheless, I always get blown away by the final lyrics of The Maladjusted Jester: "...For a jester's chief employment is to kill himself for your enjoyment/ And a jester unemployed is nobody's fool!"
There is a lot of political commentary in this alleged piece of fluff.
Addictively quotable. No more quibbling: 10/10.