#The court jester star full#

Kaye's vocal talents are also put to considerable use, both in songs and in rapid-fire, sometimes nonsensical alliterative rhymes. From the finger snapping sequence through the end of the film is one long build up with increasingly outrageous situations, until we finally arrive at pandemonium, complete with tens of acrobatic midgets battling a cadre of knights in a scene remarkably prescient of the anarchic screwball comedies of the latter half of the 1960s. It's a bit silly, but the humor in The Court Jester is all about silliness-it's appropriate for the titular role and more importantly, it's just plain funny. Even funnier is that despite himself, he basically manages to follow the plans. Meanwhile, complicated plans are being made which he is expected to follow. Kaye as Hawkins as Giacomo has to keep toggling back and forth between two personalities, neither of which knows about the other. This leads to a hilarious extended sequence where different characters are interacting with Hawkins for different covert ends-some fueled by mistaken identity-and continually snapping their fingers. Princess Gwendolyn's matron, Griselda (Mildred Natwick), finds cause to put Hawkins under a spell to make him fall in love with the Princess, making a finger snap the cue for his hypnotic transitions. Kaye was adept at quickly changing characters, as in The Secret Life of Walter Mitty (1947), and gets to put that skill to great use here, first in disguises, then as the jester, and most importantly, as a hypnotized pawn in a number of 'games'. Of course, The Court Jester is really a showcase for Kaye's considerable and diverse talents. The cast is excellent, even if some members such severely underused, such as Carradine and to an extent Rathbone. The Court Jester is just as authentic feeling as Knights of the Round Table (1953) or The Black Knight (1954), both part of a popular trend of the era of Arthurian and related films, leading to this satire. Producers/directors/writers Melvin Frank and Norman Panama and their crew certainly got the period setting right. Most of the film is set within Roderick's castle, however, which is no less attractive visually. The few panoramic landscape shots are stunning and almost surreal.

#The court jester star full#

It is full of lush, extremely saturated color. As one of the earliest 'VistaVision' films, The Court Jester looks gorgeous. The last half is so incredible that I wanted to give the film a 10 instead perhaps on subsequent viewings (this is only the second time I've seen the film the first was many years ago) the opening sections will work better for me. It's unfortunate that a few minor flaws in the earlier sections of the film (including the complicated plot) caused me to rate The Court Jester as a 9 instead. This is a slow burner, but as such, the last hour at least is a very solid 10. However, it does have a fairly complex plot in its early stages-all of the above is relayed within the first 10 15 minutes. Although you cannot tell from my accounting of the premise above, The Court Jester is a comedy, and a very funny one at that. After running into a court jester named Giacomo (John Carradine), Hawkins and Maid Jean (Glynis Johns) end up in a scheme to infiltrate Roderick's castle and give the Black Fox's men access for a coup. One of the Black Fox's men is Hubert Hawkins (Danny Kaye). The Black Fox leads a motley crew they live in the forest and bear some similarity to Robin Hood and his merry men. The infant, whom many in the kingdom would believe to be the rightful heir to the throne, is being looked after by the 'Black Fox' (Edward Ashley). However, Roderick's men overlooked an infant of the otherwise massacred competing royal family.

His plans include trying to marry his off his daughter, Princess Gwendolyn (Angela Lansbury), to the gruff Sir Griswold (Robert Middleton)-a scheme she firmly opposes. He's working on building alliances between the most important, powerful and aristocratic families in his kingdom, including Sir Ravenhurst (Basil Rathbone) this will help build a trustworthy legitimizing base.

Set in an era similar to Arthurian England, The Court Jester features a questionable king, Roderick I (Cecil Parker), who has taken over by killing off all of his opposition.