The Court Jester

"The pellet with the poison's in the vessel with the pestle; the chalice from the palace has the brew that is true!"
"The pellet with the poison's in the flagon with the dragon; the vessel with the pestle has the brew that is true!"

Lisa from Boondock Ramblings is doing the Summer of Angela (Lansbury), this time with one of my all time favorite movies, "The Court Jester" from 1955 with Danny Kaye, Glynis Jones, Basil Rathbone, and of course Angela Lansbury. Here is her post.

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Wikimedia Commons

Here's the plot (with spoilers). I'm already apologizing because there's a lot of plot with a lot of twists and reading it can be quite confusing. I could have made this really, really short or, well, the way I did.

Hubert Hawkins is a carnival entertainer in the Black Fox's band of rebels protecting the infant King of England after Roderick the Tyrant has had the Royal Family killed and taken the throne. He'd like to join the fight and offers a group of acrobatic little people to provide entertainment instead of him, but the Black Fox refuses.
Instead he and Maid Jean, the Black Fox's captain, are to disguise themselves to take the baby to the safe Abbey of Dover. When they seek shelter during the stormy night, they show their affection for each other, but first the usurper must be defeated.
Then they meet the King's new jester, Giacomo. Jean seizes the opportunity to gain access to the castle by knocking Giacomo out and telling Hawkins to take over for him while she will take the heir to Dover. There's a secret passage from the castle to the forest, so if Hawkins manages to get the key, the rebels can take the castle over. There's already a man in the castle who can't get the key himself, but can help Hawkins.

Unfortunately, they do not know that Giacomo is also an assassin hired by the King's right hand, Lord Ravenhurst, to murder three of the Lords in court and thus prevent the King seeking alliance with Sir Griswold in exchange for his daughter Gwendolyn's hand.
Also Jean gets held up by the King's men who gather the most beautiful women in the country to bring to the court. Luckily, their man in the castle, Fergus, can hide the baby.

Gwendolyn refuses to marry such a brute because her maid, the castle's witch Griselda, has promised her a dashing man. Desperate because Gwendolyn threatens to die and take her to death with her if she has to marry Griswold, Griselda tells the Princess that Hawkins, who has just arrived, will be her love.

From there, about anything that can go wrong, goes wrong. Of course Ravenhurst thinks Hawkins is Giacomo, and due to a misunderstanding, Hawkins thinks Ravenhurst is the rebel instead of Fergus.
Then Griselda casts a hypnotic spell to make him the dashing lover, a snap of the fingers will turn the spell on and off. On his way to the Princess, he meets Jean who has managed to steal the key. He doesn't recognize her, but she slips him the key. The King, who had asked Hawkins to pick one of the ladies for him, thinks he has chosen Jean.
Hawkins woos Gwendolyn who takes the key from him for their escape together, but then the King finds and takes it from her. Hawkins also receives orders from Ravenhurst. He forgets everything, though, after being released from the spell.

At Jean's command, Fergus takes the basket with the baby to Hawkins shortly before he is supposed to perform for the King. With his performance he manages to distract the audience from the basket and Jean can take the baby to safety again.
Griselda poisons the three lords which makes Ravenhurst think Hawkins carried out his orders.
When Griswold arrives, though, Gwendolyn says she loves the jester and Hawkins is arrested. Also Ravenhurst's agent tells him that he's not the real Giacomo.
Ravenhurst's conclusion is that Hawkins must be the Black Fox, so he suggests to the King to have him knighted quickly to allow Griswold to challenge him to mortal combat, presumably so that the Princess will have to marry Griswold, but really to have the Black Fox kill him.

Jean steals back the key and gives it to Fergus who manages to send it to the rebels by pigeon before he gets killed.
Hawkins is knighted in a rushed ceremony (one of my favorite scenes, I still say "yea verily yea" to myself a lot when I do something!). Jean tells him to accept the duel because the Black Fox will come and fight in his stead. That plan fails when part of the secret passage caves in and no one can get through - no one?



Anyhow, Hawkins has to fight the duel himself, but Griselda, threatened by Gwendolyn again, says she has poisoned Griswold's toast and gives him the instruction for telling which cup is poisoned. Just when he has memorized the verse, one of the cups gets broken and the verse changes.
They get overheard by one of Griswold's men, though, so now both duelists try to get the safe drink. The King gets tired of it and orders the mortal combat to begin immediately.



Due to Hawkins's armor having been struck by lightning, it is magnetic and thus Griswold is pulled off his horse as his flail sticks to Hawkins's shield.
Ravenhurst then calls him out as the Black Fox and Jean and he are taken before the King as traitors and the basket with the baby brought in.
The Black Fox, however, has called on Hawkins's acrobatic friends, the little people who have managed to come through the secret passage while the rebels, who have come via the coastal road, enter the castle disguised as monks.
Hawkins and Ravenhurst start a sword fight that Hawkins is about to lose when Griselda hypnotizes him again. In the end, he and Jean manage to catapult Ravenhurst into the sea with the help of two of the acrobats.

When Griswold arrives to demand the King's release from the rebels, Hawkins shows him and the court the birthmark on the true heir, the purple pimpernel on the baby's bottom.
The fight is won and Hawkins and Jean get their happy ending, too.

I have loved this movie as long as I can think back.
Usually I'm not much of a fan of non-musicals having songs, but these ones I like.

It's not hard to tell that this is a parody, but also a bit of a homage to the popular swashbucklers. Of course, the Black Fox and his rebels make you think of Robin Hood and his Merry Men right away. The difference is that this story is told from the point of view of Hawkins, an unlikely hero with an unlikely love story.
I never liked the Black Fox because I thought he was condescending to Hawkins. Granted, Hawkins is not trained in the art of fighting, he's an entertainer, but he proves that he can be brave for the cause and in the end that mix - and some magic and a lot of luck - is what helps win back the throne for the rightful heir.

Were this a Robin Hood movie, Hawkins would be Alan-A-Dale, but who would be Maid Marian?
Depending on the version, Maid Marian was either at the court - that would be Princess Gwendolyn - or she lived with the Merry Men - that would be Maid Jean. 
Gwendolyn, however, is no Marian. She's the usurper's daughter and a spoilt and selfish young lady. I think Angela Lansbury played that role beautifully the way she ignored the wishes of her father without batting an eye or threatening a Griselda, the witch, without hesitation to make her do her bidding (she's also smart enough not to look her in the eyes). Makes you wonder what would have happened to Gwendolyn under the new King.
Actually, I wondered every time who would have taken over until the baby was old enough. That's just the way my brain works. I'm digressing, sorry.
Maid Jean is not really Marian, either. She's a captain in the band of rebels and wants to see the true King on the throne willing to put her personal feelings last until the goal is reached. She's also smart and courageous. Her love story is not with the rebel leader, though. Instead she loves Hawkins although he hasn't even shown yet how brave he really is which is very sweet.

Well, and Basil Rathbone is a wonderful villain as Ravenhurst and practically making fun of his swashbuckler roles before this one, such as King John's Guy of Gisbourne, for example.

There's no denying that this is Danny Kaye's movie, tailored to some of his many talents (I say some because they went way beyond acting, singing, and dancing!) one of which was his skill of wordplay and delivery of high-speed tongue twisters, but also of slapstick and pantomime.
I loved the idea of the hypnotic spell which gave Kaye the opportunity to change character within seconds and that shows nowhere better than in the sword fight between Hawkins and Ravenhurst.
Basil Rathbone who was the best fencer in Hollywood was amazed at Danny Kaye's fencing skills after training for only a few weeks (nevertheless there was a stunt double for Rathbone in some parts of the fight, the probable reason is explained in this interesting video).
As Hawkins is under the spell through some of the fight which gets turned on and off, however, there is a mix of skilled swordplay and wildly flailing around to stay alive - absolutely hilarious!

I have always been a big fan of the Robin Hood legend through a book we had, but also my first TV encounter with it which was "The Adventures of Robin Hood" with Richard Greene (thinking about it, there might be a re-watch in order) and of course "The Adventures of Robin Hood" with Errol Flynn. Often being a fan of the underdog in a movie, I found "The Court Jester" to be the perfect combination for me.
I loved the sets, the bright colors, the beautiful costumes for both women and men, the fun, and even the songs.
Actually I loved the film so much that I ordered it from the USA almost 20 years ago because it wasn't available in Germany then. Weirdly, that DVD disappeared eventually, but luckily it had also come out in Germany by then (I love the movie in English and German).

Not everyone was as enthusiastic as I had been from the start.
"The Court Jester" got good enough critical reviews, but it was a box office fail. The film had been the most expensive comedy movie produced up to that time (due to the sets and costumes), but only made about half of the money back.
Over the years, however, it has become one of those cult classics a lot of people like to watch over and over - me, me! - and love to quote from.

So if you really don't know this movie yet, give it a try. You might well be positively surprised how much fun a 70 year old movie can be! It's much less confusing when you watch it, too.
I will never tire of watching it myself.