Paramount Presents: THE COURT JESTER [1955 / 2021] [Blu-ray + Digital] [USA Release]
Singing, Dancing, Jousting. He’s A Master Juggler!
Celebrating its 65th Anniversary, Paramount’s beloved madcap musical debuts on Blu-ray, beautifully remastered from a 6K film transfer of the original VistaVision negative. In this swashbuckling comic farce, star Danny Kaye is kind-hearted entertainer Hubert Hawkins who disguises himself as the legendary king of jesters, Giacomo. Hubert Hawkins infiltrates the court of an evil villain Sir Ravenhurst [Basil Rathbone], but when a sorceress hypnotizes Hubert Hawkins, royal chaos ensues. Alternating identities at the snap of a finger, between swordplay and wordplay, Danny Kaye’s comic genius shines through. The stellar supporting cast includes Glynis Johns, Angela Lansbury, Mildred Natwick, Cecil Parker, and John Carradine.
Paramount Pictures Home Entertainment is proud to spotlight a new line of Blu-ray releases for collectors and fans – PARAMOUNT PRESENTS. From celebrated classics to film-lover favourites, each title comes directly from the studio’s renowned library, spanning over 100 years of storytelling. The films have never looked better on Blu-ray – each lovingly remastered from new film transfers, featuring never-before-seen bonus content, and exclusive collectable packaging.
FILM FACT No.1: Awards and Nominations: 1957 Golden Globes: Nominated: Best Actor in a Comedy or Musical for Danny Kaye. 2004 National Film Preservation Board, USA: Win: National Film Registry for ‘THE COURT JESTER.’
FILM FACT No.2: 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 Vic Schoen. ‘THE COURT JESTER’ was an enormous challenge for Vic Schoen at the time because it was his first feature film. Vic Schoen was not officially trained on the mechanisms of how music was synchronized to film and learned on the job. The film also required 100 minutes of music for Vic Schoen to compose and arrange. Some pieces in the film (also known as "cues") were very long, and required many hours for Vic Schoen to finesse. One piece that Vic Schoen was most proud of in his career was the chase music he wrote toward the end of the film when Danny Kaye's character engages in a sword fight. Vic 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. Vic 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 Igor Stravinsky 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." The film's opening song, "Life Could Not Better Be" breaks the fourth wall by having Danny Kaye make direct references to the cast and crew, at one point also joking about which of the credited songwriters actually wrote the songs. Although not an uncommon in musical film comedies of the era such as Bob Hope and Bing Crosby's "Road" films several of which were also written by Norman Panama and Melvin Frank, in the context of the film these references also hark back to medieval theatrical performances that often began with an actor explaining the plot and how the play came to be made.
Cast: Danny Kaye, Glynis Johns, Basil Rathbone, Angela Lansbury, Cecil Parker, Mildred Natwick, Robert Middleton, Michael Pate, Herbert Rudley, Noel Drayton, John Carradine, Edward Ashley, Alan Napier, Lewis Martin, Patrick Aherne, Richard Kean, Hermine's Midgets [Ensemble], The Jackson Michigan Zouave Drill Team [Marching Knights and Knighthood Ceremony], Eric Alden (uncredited), Brandon Beach (uncredited), Lee Belser (uncredited), Chad Dee Block (uncredited), Phil Bloom (uncredited), Leo Britt (uncredited), George Bruggeman (uncredited), Bill Cartledge (uncredited), Phyllis Coghlan (uncredited), Tommy Cottonaro (uncredited), Billy Curtis (uncredited), Frank Delfino (uncredited), Leslie Denison (uncredited), Burnell Dietch (uncredited), Floyd Hugh Dixon (uncredited), Irving Douglas (uncredited), Ken DuMain (uncredited), Alan Eric (uncredited), Franklyn Farnum (uncredited), William Augustus Fuller (uncredited), Irving Fulton (uncredited), Russell Gaige (uncredited), Joe Garcio (uncredited), Edward Peter Gibbons (uncredited), Richard Gilden (uncredited), Harry Guardino (uncredited), Roy G. Gunther (uncredited), Kenneth Harp (uncredited), Robert Hart (uncredited), Len Hendry (uncredited), Robin Hughes (uncredited), John Irving (uncredited), Charles Irwin (uncredited), James B. Jordan (uncredited), Morgan Justin (uncredited), Ray Kellogg (uncredited), Ethan Laidlaw (uncredited), Mike Mahoney (uncredited), Tipp McClure (uncredited), Roger Lee McKee (uncredited), Frank Meservey (uncredited), Lee Miller (uncredited), Harry Monty (uncredited), Lloyd Nelson (uncredited), Nels P. Nelson (uncredited), Paul Newlan (uncredited), John O'Malley (uncredited), Tudor Owen (uncredited), Norman Papson (uncredited), Larry Pennell (uncredited), Gerald R. Peters (uncredited), Joe Ploski (uncredited), William Pullen (uncredited), A.J. Buster Resmondo (uncredited), 'Little Billy' Rhodes (uncredited), Ronald R. Rice (uncredited), John Roy (uncredited), Thomas G. Royal Jr. (uncredited), Wallace Russell (uncredited), Joel Smith (uncredited), Robert E. Smith (uncredited), Stephen Soldi (uncredited), Ray Spiker (uncredited), George Spotts (uncredited), Gary Stalley (uncredited), Larry Stalley (uncredited), Ed Stoddard (uncredited), Henry Lewis Stone (uncredited), Trevor Ward (uncredited), Leo Wheeler (uncredited), Claud Wuhrman (uncredited) and Stephen Wyman (uncredited)
Directors: Norman Panama and Melvin Frank
Producers: Danny Kaye (uncredited), Melvin Frank, Norman Panama and Sylvia Fine (uncredited)
Screenplay: Norman Panama and Melvin Frank
Composers: Victor Schoen (uncredited) and Walter Scharf (uncredited)
Costumes: Edith Head and Yvonne Wood
Choreography: James Starbuck
Cinematography: Ray June, A.S.C. (VistaVision Director of Photography) and Ray Rennahan (Director of Photography) (uncredited)
Technicolor Color Consultant: Richard Mueller
Image Resolution: 1080p (Technicolor)
Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1 (VistaVision)
Audio: English: 2.0 DTS-HD Master Audio Stereo
French: 1.0 Dolby Digital Mono Audio
German: 1.0 Dolby Digital Mono Audio
Subtitles: English, English SDH, French and German
Running Time: 101 minutes
Region: All Regions
Number of discs: 1
Studio: Paramount Pictures / Dena Enterprises
Andrew’s Blu-ray Review: ‘THE COURT JESTER’ [1955] where we get to meet Hubert Hawkins [Danny Kaye] is a follower of the Black Fox [Edward Ashley], a Robin Hood style rebel who hopes to put the royal heir on the throne in place of the usurper. Hubert Hawkins wants excitement, but is assigned to entertain the troops and care for the heir, a baby with the royal birthmark on his rear.
Originally released in 1955, ‘THE COURT JESTER’ was shot in Paramount Pictures trademark VistaVision widescreen format, capturing a grander scope of information on the film negative. For this new restoration, the original negative was scanned at 6K and one of the “separation masters” was also scanned and recombined with the negative scans to address the Technicolor fading in the negative. The result is an incredibly vibrant picture that faithfully captures the Technicolors and textures of Edith Head’s sensational costumes and Hal Pariera’s sparkling art direction.
‘THE COURT JESTER’ is a musical parody of popular old swashbuckling films starring the likes of Errol Flynn. It is a good-natured comedy that takes full advantage of the trappings of the genre. There are dashing swordfights, romantic trysts, and devious plots. The whole thing is played tongue-in-cheek, however, for maximum comedy.
King Roderick I [Cecil Parker] has usurped the throne of England, killing the entire royal family, save one. The baby prince survived and was smuggled away by loyalists. Hubert Hawkins is an ordinary man following the Black Fox, an outlaw hero fighting to return the true heir to power. Hubert Hawkins and Captain of the Guard [Herbert Rudley] are instructed to bring the baby safely to the Abbey where he can be protected. On the way, they run into Giacomo [John Carradine], a Jester who is traveling to serve King Roderick. Seizing the opportunity to place a spy in the King Roderick’s court, Maid Jean [Glynis Johns] knocks him out and convinces Hubert Hawkins to impersonate him.
Hubert Hawkins loves Maid Jean, a smart, courageous, and tough as the Black Fox of the rebel forces. Hubert Hawkins disguises himself as Giacomo, the King Roderick's new jester, to get into the palace. Hubert Hawkins finds himself in the midst of intrigue, hypnotized into wooing the Princess Gwendolyn [Angela Lansbury] and hired by Sir Ravenhurst [Basil Rathbone] to kill those who stand between him and the throne. Maid Jean is captured by the King Roderick's soldiers, and Hubert Hawkins must battle a huge knight named Sir Griswold [Robert Middleton].
A wicked nobleman appoints himself King of England, while the rightful heir to the throne is just a baby in the care of a notorious revolutionary. The bumbling Hubert Hawkins follower of the rebel is persuaded to infiltrate the tyrant's castle disguised as a jester, but the plan is complicated when a Princess Gwendolyn falls in love with him. Although Hubert Hawkins has trouble remembering that the infamous pellet with the poison is in the pestle with the vessel quote.
Danny Kaye is in rare form with his singing, dancing and prat falling. Danny Kaye is also impressive supporting cast includes Angela Lansbury as a princess is smitten with Hubert Hawkins, but oddly Angela Lansbury is never asked to sing a song. The musical numbers are forgettable but still a lot of fun especially with the opening number with Danny Kaye dressed as a jester standing next to the opening credits as he sings with great charm and dexterity.
Aside from the top-notch casting, what makes ‘THE COURT JESTER’ work is Norman Panama and Melvin Frank's very smart screenplay, where they created an authentic swashbuckling adventure and do a great job of juggling the characters' competing goals, which increases the conflict and stakes. It's rare for comedies to be concerned about the plot and is so well executed.
And it all climaxes with one of the best sword fights ever filmed. It is totally hilarious, but you can see the real skill that went into it. Danny Kaye worked hard to learn fencing, and his opponent, Basil Rathbone, was already a skilled swordsman who said he was totally amazed at how good Danny Kaye was at fencing. Well, Danny Kaye was always a superb physical comic and fencing was just one more way to be very funny and totally hilarious.
‘THE COURT JESTER’ is a charming wonderful uplifting film. It actually has some humour that is still quite funny today. Danny Kaye delivers an outstanding performance. In addition to his singing and dancing, his quick, frequent change of character personalities, from meek as a mouse to brave as a lion, at a snap is an amazing feat of acting. Plus, Danny Kaye delivers some very wordy passages of tongue twisting dialogue most notably trying to remember “the pellet with the poison's in the vessel with the pestle; the chalice from the palace has the brew that is true!” The rest of the cast does a good job in support of Danny Kaye playing it straight with performances that could fit seamlessly into a drama.
This medieval spoof, produced, written and directed by the formidable team of Melvin Frank and Norman Panama, and gave Danny Kaye one of his all-time finest roles, as the meek and mild valet who saves a kingdom from its tyrannical ruler and again it is worth watching for the classic and truly amazing “The pellet with the poison's in the vessel with the pestle, the chalice from the palace has the brew that is true” routine alone and one of the funniest devices Danny Kaye ever employed. Basil Rathbone cuts an elegant figure as the villain of the plot, while Glynis Johns, Cecil Parker and Angela Lansbury get almost as many laughs as Danny Kaye by playing it straight. It has great horseplay as well as amazing swordplay, and all in all, altogether it is a totally witty and delightful from the start of the film to the end of the film.
‘THE COURT JESTER’ works and moves quickly to be a pretty enjoyable time for all ages. Sure, it contains a young Angela Lansbury, but also Basic Rathbone is quite the villainous treat, but everyone here is game. There, in a nutshell, you have the impeccable concoction of the film reflected in Danny Kaye, who is a loveable buffoon as much as he is a hero who nevertheless comes out on top thanks to another’s love. With a fairy tale ending such as this, life could not better be. Of course, ‘THE COURT JESTER’ is spruced up by the very fact it supplies a wagon-load of laughs to supplement a thoroughly agreeable adventure. The film ‘THE COURT JESTER’ was voted on an American Film Institute list as one of the funniest film of all time and I whole heartily agree with that comment 100%.
THE COURT JESTER MUSIC TRACK LIST
THE MALADJUSTED JESTER (Written by Sylvia Fine) [Performed by Danny Kaye]
LIFE COULD NOT BETTER BE (Written by Sammy Cahn and Sylvia Fine) [Performed by Danny Kaye]
OUTFOX THE FOX (Written by Sammy Cahn and Sylvia Fine) [Performed by Danny Kaye]
I’LL TAKE YOU DREAMING (Written by Sammy Cahn and Sylvia Fine) [Performed by Danny Kaye]
MY HEART KNOWS A LOVE SONG (Written by Sammy Cahn and Sylvia Fine) [Performed by Danny Kaye]
RITUAL OF KNIGHTHOOD (Written by Sammy Cahn and Sylvia Fine) [Performed by Chorus]
WILLOW, WILLOW WALEYC / PASS THE BUCKET (Written by Sammy Cahn and Sylvia Fine)
LIFE COULD NOT BETTER BE (Reprise) (Written by Sammy Cahn and Sylvia Fine) [Performed by Danny Kaye and Chorus]
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Blu-ray Image Quality – ‘THE COURT JESTER’ has been remastered by Paramount Pictures that features with a full 1080p High Definition 6K transfer presentation of the film and with also a stunning VistaVision 1.85:1 aspect ratio. WOW! The film ‘THE COURT JESTER’ debut on Blu-ray is one for all ages! The film’s VistaVision restoration is totally and utterly gorgeous and something to really marvel at. The crisp clarity, texture and details on this are also stunning. The costumes, castle walls, props and more all have such touchable looking visuals. The colours are really beautiful and totally luscious. This truly is a fantastic restoration job and the transfer is something to recommend for collector of this film. The way this was shot and care to the restoration really gives this frame a very big and open field look to it for both grand interiors and limited exteriors in the film. Movements are cinematic and smooth with no blurring or jittering issues when it comes to the more rapid motions. Blacks are deep and close to natural. It’s a very well-lit film, but the shadows look really lovely and with exceptional details, especially with the darker scenes, and the clothing. The all-star of this transfer is the colour palette is beautiful and bursts right out of your screen. It’s truly is its own character and intoxicating on your viewing experience. Colour performance in this film will truly enhance your viewing enjoyment. Skin tones are natural and consistent from start to finish. Impressively with this VistaVison type of aspect ratio, there is no flicker on it. Facial features and textures are discernible from any reasonable distance in the frame. All in all, Paramount Pictures gets a five star rating from me.
Blu-ray Audio Quality – ‘THE COURT JESTER’ Blu-ray release brings you just one standard 2.0 DTS-HD Master Audio Stereo experience and has been cleaned up very good and features a nice, crisp, balanced sound. Vocals take the forefront of the mix, but its depth and layering impresses with little intricacies like the whipping and chipping of swords. Or, just natural sounds have a full, natural texture to them. All in all, this is a very complimentary audio experience when watching the film. Also what is really great about the audio track is that the vocals are clear and crisp and the singing comes out with a decent blend with nice dynamics all its own. Once again, Paramount Pictures have dome a five star rating on the audio experience of this film.
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Blu-ray Special Features and Extras:
Special Feature: Filmmaker Focus: Leonard Maltin on ‘THE COURT JESTER’ [2021] [1080p] [1.78:1] [7:03] The noted critic covers the film's origins, the film's cinematography, inspirations and homages, budget, casting and Danny Kaye's performance, and his own love for the film. Here we meet Leonard Maltin Film Critic and Historian in his home in Toluca Lake, California and here to talk about Norman Panama and Melvin Frank’s ‘THE COURT JESTER’ starring Danny Kaye, and we find out that Norman Panama and Melvin Frank first met in 1933 as students at the University of Chicago and after graduating, and went to Hollywood and formed their partnership in 1935 which endured for four decades; first writing for Milton Berle before becoming writers for the comedian Bob Hope's Radio Show to write his gag ideas, witty one liners. In 1941, they sold their first script to Paramount Pictures, ‘My Favorite Blonde’ in 1942, which starred Bob Hope and was a massive box office hit and the successful writing duo worked for Bob Hope for the next 20 years. Eventually Norman Panama and Melvin Frank got to produce their own screenplays and went onto work for Paramount Pictures for five years where, among others, they wrote ‘Road to Utopia’ [1946], starring Bob Hope and Bing Crosby, for which they received an Academy Award® nomination for Best Original Screenplay. They then moved to Columbia Pictures making ‘It Had to Be You’ [1947] and ‘The Return of October’ [1948] and also wrote the screenplay for ‘Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House’ [1948] for RKO, and people have said about the brilliant Norman Panama and Melvin Frank it was very hard to categories the duo’s brand of humour, especially with the wide range of films they were involved in, and in 1950, they signed a writing, producing and directing deal with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and made films together as co-writers, co-directors and co-producers. They started with ‘The Reformer and the Redhead’ [1950],‘Strictly Dishonorable’ [1951], ‘Above and Beyond’ [1952], and also made ‘Knock on Wood’ [1954] and of course ‘THE COURT JESTER’ [1956], both with Danny Kaye, with the former earning them another Academy Award® nomination. They also co-wrote ‘White Christmas’ [1954] with Norman Krasna. They wrote a Broadway play together in 1956, later adapted into “Li'l Abner” [1959] and directed by Melvin Frank. They received another Academy Award® nomination for ‘The Facts of Life’ [1960] and also worked on ‘The Road to Hong Kong’ [1962]. Leonard Maltin says that when you see the name Ray June [Director of Photography] in films of the 1930’s, 1940’s and 1950’s you immediately knew the film would look beautiful and helped to create the M-G-M style, that looked so glossy and sheen like and what you get to view in the film ‘THE COURT JESTER’ and of course Norman Panama and Melvin Frank were an original unique one off and with the film ‘THE COURT JESTER’ the duo wanted it to be a homage to the film ‘The Adventures of Robin Hood’ that of course starred Errol Flynn, on top of all that, ‘THE COURT JESTER’ has lots of twists and turns along the way, but of course with the long journey throughout the film wins in the end, which is worth it and no expense was spared in making this Technicolor film, because it was given a very generous budget of $4,000,000 and of course was a great deal of money in 1955 and in doing so was able to recruit the best actors available at the time, and of course hiring Danny Kaye was totally genius, because Danny Kaye was able to do visual comedy, verbal comedy, musical comedy, all at once, and on top of all that, Danny Kaye was a very incredible endearing gifted man and originally became a star on Broadway in the play “Lady in the Dark” in 1941 which was a musical by Ira Gershwin and Moss Hart and also Gertrude Lawrence, Bert Lytell, Victor Mature, Donald Randolph, Margaret Dale, Davis Cunningham and Macdonald Carey. Samuel Goldwyn happened to see the show and thought Danny Kaye had the potential as a movie star and was brought to Hollywood at the pinnacle of his acting career at that moment in time, and of course he appeared in the Irving Berlin box office hit ‘White Christmas’ [1954] and of course co-starred Bing Crosby, Danny Kaye, Rosemary Clooney, and Vera-Ellen and was directed by Michael Curtiz and a little known fact that Danny Kaye co-owned the film ‘White Christmas.’ With the film ‘THE COURT JESTER,’ Danny Kaye had to be very funny, loveable, endearing and was all those things, but he also had to be a proper hero for the story to work. Then alongside him in the film he had the wonderful British actress Glynis Johns who was the leading lady in the film, and her father was also the famous fine British actor Mervyn Johns who worked frequently at Ealing Studios. On top of all that, Glynis Jones became well known in lots of British films especially the in the late 1940’s and also the 1950’s, and then went to Hollywood and of course her greatest success was a decade later playing Mrs. Banks in Disney’s ‘Mary Poppins.’ Another great British actress that appeared in ‘THE COURT JESTER’ was the incomparable Angela Lansbury, who was well established actress and a decade later made her screen debut at the age of Nineteen and earned an Oscar Nomination in the film ‘Gaslight’ [1944] as best supporting actress and repeated it again the next year for the film ‘The Picture of Dorian Gray’ [1945] and went onto win one more Oscar Nomination for the film ‘The Manchurian Candidate’ [1962]. The casting of basil Rathbone as the villain was a coup, and of course was a direct connection to Errol Flynn in the film ‘The Adventures of Robin Hood’ and Basil Rathbone also appeared in the film ‘The Mark of Zorro’ [1940] and starred with Tyrone Power and in both films he had the unforgettable sword fights, which of course he loses as he is the bad guy, and on top of that, to have Basil Rathbone in the parody film ‘THE COURT JESTER’ was again a great coup. The wonderful British character actor Cecil Parker who has performed in both stage and screen appearances, and also appeared in the Alfred Hitchcock film ‘The Lady Vanishes’ [1938] and also appeared in the Noël Coward play “Blithe Spirit” in 1941 with the character actress Margaret Rutherford. Also appearing in the ‘THE COURT JESTER’ was the experienced stage actress Mildred Natwick and made her screen debut in the John Ford film ‘The Long Voyage Home’ [1940] and John Ford became fond of this character actress, that he included her in his great film ‘The Quiet Man’ [1952] alongside John Wayne, Maureen O'Hara and Barry Fitzgerald. Leonard Maltin feels it is very important when it comes to the film ‘THE COURT JESTER,’ is that it is very polished and has great production value that you can only expect from a film of this calibre, that was produces by a vert “A” list team on both sides of the Technicolor camera. The musical numbers in ‘THE COURT JESTER’ are very well integrated into the story, and they never stop the flow of the continuity of the film, and you always feel that the songs are there for a purpose, and especially of course the showcase number “THE MALADJUSTED JESTER” written by Sylvia Fine. Leonard Maltin thinks the ‘THE COURT JESTER’ is one of the best films Norman Panama and Melvin Frank ever made, because it was a great showcase for the very talented Danny Kaye, especially with all of his very professional skills, plus the film tells a good story and it has the perfect cast to tell that story and Leonard Maltin does not like to watch the film ‘THE COURT JESTER’ too often, because he does not want to memorise too much of the film, because he still wants to have an element of surprise and forget some of the gags, forget the snapping of the fingers. To Leonard Maltin, this movie is like an old friend, that you do not want it to drift out of your life, because there is value in rekindling that relationship and you do have that relationship with movies you love and this one he really loves. At that point, the special with Leonard Maltin finishes abruptly, but despite this, it was really great hearing Leonard Maltin’s rapturous love for the ‘THE COURT JESTER’ and all he has said, is exactly the same feeling as what I have about the film and of course watching the brilliant Danny Kaye performing in such a magical way.
Theatrical Trailer [1955] [1080p] [1.85:1] [2:24 This is the Original Theatrical Trailer for the film ‘THE COURT JESTER’ and it’s a real testament to the restoration quality of this film to check it out and just see the stunning difference you get to view. The trailer heralds “Paramount Sweeps You Back to the Rousing Days When England Hailed Its Bravest Knight!” Yeah, Verily . . . it’s Danny Kaye! The Greatest CLOWN of Our Time . . . in the Comedy Spectacular of All Time The Court Jester! All Hail the King of Comedy, In His Royal Triumph of Hilarity Danny Kaye in VistaVision and color by Technicolor! An off-screen narrator plays up Danny Kaye’s comedy and derring-do and we see some action moments and then shows comic moments from the film.
Finally, ‘THE COURT JESTER’ is a charming and joyous film, with a lot of its humour surprisingly holding up to today’s measures. Paramount Pictures debuts on this amazing Blu-ray release and gives us an absolutely dazzling restoration that is worth the purchase alone. The audio is also totally amazing. Unfortunately the extras don’t offer very much, but the knock out presentation is worthwhile enough to not have one get too grumpy about that aspect of the Blu-ray disc. ‘THE COURT JESTER’ is pure joy. The film is very funny and this is largely due to the writing and the performance of the stars. Danny Kaye is the talented actor at the centre of the film and carries it very well. Danny Kaye’s performance is versatile and full of heart. ‘THE COURT JESTER’ also stars Glynis Jones and Angela Lansbury and both women are excellent in their roles with excellent comedic timing. There is a lot of comedy in this film, as well as lots of wordplay, slapstick, farce and much more and definitely there is something for everyone. This is Danny Kaye's best ever film and one of the funniest comedies ever, with a plot that is both exciting and hilarious funny all at the same time and especially with its tongue-twisting wordplay, music, dancing, brilliant Technicolor, and extravagant production values, it is a joyous excursion into a fairy tale world. Very Highly Recommended!
Andrew C. Miller – Your Ultimate No.1 Film Aficionado
Le Cinema Paradiso
United Kingdom