The Court Jester

The Court Jester
File:Thecourtjesterposter.jpg Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Melvin Frank Norman Panama
Written by	Melvin Frank Norman Panama
Produced by	Melvin Frank Norman Panama
Starring	Danny Kaye Glynis Johns Basil Rathbone Angela Lansbury
Cinematography	Ray June
Edited by	Tom McAdoo
Music by	Vic Schoen Walter Scharf
Production company	Dena Enterprises
Distributed by	Paramount Pictures
Release date	January 27, 1956 (1956-01-27)
Running time	101 minutes
Country	Template:Film US
Language	English
Budget	$4 million

The Court Jester is a 1956 musical-comedy film starring Danny Kaye, Glynis Johns, Basil Rathbone, and Angela Lansbury. The movie was co-written, co-directed, and co-produced by Melvin Frank and Norman Panama. The film was released by Paramount Pictures in Technicolor and in the VistaVision widescreen format.

Danny Kaye received a Golden Globe nomination for Best Motion Picture Actor - Comedy/Musical.

Made for a cost of $4 million in the fall of 1955, it was the most expensive comedy film produced at the time. The motion picture bombed at the box-office on its release, bringing in only $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 exchange: "The pellet with the poison's in the vessel with the pestle; the chalice from the palace has the brew that is true!" (mainly between Kaye and Mildred Natwick as Griselda).

In 2000, The Court Jester was listed at #98 on the American Film Institute's list of 100 Years... 100 Laughs. In 2004, The Court Jester was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant."

Plot

Set in medieval England, the plot nominally concerns the struggle to restore the rightful heir, a baby, to the throne after the King and all his family having been disposed of. Kaye plays Hubert Hawkins, an ex-carnival entertainer who becomes minstrel to the Black Fox, a Robin Hood-type character (Edward Ashley, who actually makes only a few minor appearances in the film).

The usurping King Roderick wishes his daughter, Princess Gwendolyn, to marry his neighbor, Sir Griswold of MacElwain, to enlist Grisworld's aid against the band of rebels headed by the Black Fox. Princess Gwendolyn, however, refuses to marry Griswold, and declares that she will wed only for love, since her personal maid Griselda, who is also a witch, has predicted that a true lover will come to the castle to court her. The marriage plan also does not suit well with Lord Ravenhurst, one of Roderick's advisors, who fears that Grisworld's presence may lose him his privileged position with the king.

Hawkins, whose usual task is to reveal the royal infant's distinct birthmark (the sign of his ancestry) to prospective rebel recruits, is charged with the task of carrying the child across the country to safety when Roderick's men threaten to discover the rebels. Disguised as an old man, he travels with Maid Jean (Glynis Johns), one of the Fox's lieutenants posing as his granddaughter, with whom he is in love and who has also fallen for him. They encounter the King's new Jester (John Carradine) on his way to the castle and knock him out, and Hawkins impersonates him, hoping to gain entry to the King's castle. The plan is to steal the key to a secret passage into the castle, through which the Black Fox could then attack. Hawkins is, however, unaware that the jester he is impersonating is also a famous assassin whom Lord Ravenhurst plans to employ against his rivals. Maid Jean, proceeding alone with the infant king, is captured by the King's men, who have been sent to round up pretty young girls to decorate the tournament. At the castle, she entrusts the infant into the care of an infiltrator working as an ostler before she is taken away. Matters are more complicated when Griselda hypnotizes Hawkins to avoid death by her princess' hands for her as yet unfulfilled promises; in his befuddled state, Hawkins inadvertently introduces Jean to the king, who takes a fancy on her, and gets the key lost, Gwendolyn infatuated with him, and Ravenhurst into entrusting him in taking out his rivals, only to have his memory erased by Griselda afterwards, who also kills Ravenhurst's competitors according to her own agenda.

During the evening banquet, Sir Griswold arrives to solidify his alliance with the king. However, Gwendolyn openly declares her love for the jester, and the enraged King orders Hawkins' death. Griswold, insulted, announces that, if "Giacomo" were a knight rather than a common clown, he would challenge him to mortal combat. Meanwhile, Ravenhurst and his fellows have learned that Hawkins is an impostor, but wrongfully assume that he is the Black Fox himself; they also find out that Maid Jean is one of the rebels and that the royal heir is in the castle. Still intent on preventing the alliance, Ravenhurst counsels the King that he can get rid of the jester by making him a knight, who would then have to fight Sir Griswold. Although the requirements for Knighthood are usually very rigorous, the King arranges for Hawkins to pass them rapidly.

Jean uses her confidence with the king to steal back the key and send it to her band, although she also tries to save Hawkins by asking the Black Fox to substitute him in the joust. But just before the rebels can use the passage, it collapses, leaving only a small crawlspace. The Black Fox decides to summon Hawkins' friends, a troupe of acrobatic dwarves he had met earlier, from the carnival and sends them through the passage for a diversionary attack while the rest of the rebels assault the castle from the outside.

Back in the castle, Hawkins becomes a knight, and Griswold immediately challenges him to a joust to the death. Griselda, under Gwendolyn's orders to protect Hawkins, tries poisoning one of the drinks to be used for the toast immediately before the joust, but through one of his men Griswold also learns of the poison, and after a quarrel between the two combatants about the unpoisoned drink the toast is cancelled. Against all odds, Hawkins wins the joust because his armor was incidentally magnetized by a lightning bolt, but he refuses to deliver the coup de grâce, sparing Griswold's life. As Griswold leaves with his soldiers, Ravenhurst denounces Hawkins and Maid Jean to the King. Before the King can pass judgement upon them, Hawkins' friends, who have secretly entered the court through the secret passage, rescue him and capture the castle from the King's soldiers. During this battle, Ravenhurst attacks Hawkins with a sword. Griselda hastily enchants Hawkins again, giving him expert prowess in fencing - some of the time. Ravenhurst is finally hurled out of the castle into the sea via catapult.

Griswold returns to defend the King, but Hawkins reveals the infant king's birthmark to him and to his men. The former enemies all pledge allegiance to the true king, Griswold and Gwendolyn become enamored with each other, and Hawkins leads everyone in one last chorus of "Life could not better be".

Awards and honors

American Film Institute recognition

• 2000: AFI's 100 Years... 100 Laughs #98

Songs

• "(You'll Never) Outfox the Fox" (words by Sammy Cahn, music by Sylvia Fine)
• "My Heart Knows a Lovely Song" (words and music by Sammy Cahn & 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)
• "Maladjusted Jester" (words and music by Sylvia Fine)
• "Life Could Not Better Be" (words and music by Sammy Cahn & Sylvia Fine)
• "I Live to Love" (words by Sammy Cahn, music by Sylvia Fine, deleted from the film but included on the soundtrack album)

Note: Sylvia Fine was Danny Kaye's wife.

Musical score

Hollywood arranger and composer Vic Schoen was asked to provide the musical score for the film. Film composer Elmer Bernstein was hired as the assistant musical director to Schoen. The Court Jester was an enormous challenge for Schoen at the time because it was his first feature film. He was not officially trained on the mechanisms of how music was synchronized to film – he learned on the job. The film also required 100 minutes of music for Schoen to compose and arrange. Some pieces in the film (also known as "cues") were very long and required a great deal of hours for Schoen to finesse. One piece that Schoen was most proud of in his career was the chase music he wrote toward the end of the movie when Danny Kaye’s character engages in a sword fight. Schoen wrote a mini piano concerto for this scene.

A pleasant surprise happened during the recording session of The Court Jester. The red “recording in progress” light was illuminated to ensure no interruptions, so Vic Schoen started to conduct a cue but noticed that the entire orchestra had turned to look at Igor Stravinsky, who had just walked into the studio. Schoen said, “The entire room was astonished to see this short little man with a big chest walk in and listen to our session. I later talked with him after we were done recording. We went and got a cup of coffee together. After listening to my music Stravinsky had told me 'You have broken all the rules'. At the time I didn’t understand his comment because I had been self-taught. It took me years to figure out what he had meant.”

External links

• The Court Jester at IMDb
• Template:Allmovie title