The Court Jester (1955)

Directed by Melvin Frank, Norman Panama. With Danny Kaye, Glynis Johns, Basil Rathbone, Angela Lansbury. A hapless carnival performer masquerades as the court jester as part of a plot against an evil ruler who has overthrown the rightful king.

The Court Jester is a 1956 musical-comedy film starring Danny Kaye, Glynis Johns, Basil Rathbone, Angela Lansbury and Cecil Parker. 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

Danny Kaye spoofs medieval swashbucklers in this classic musical comedy. While the infant King of England awaits his rightful place as leader of the British Empire, his rule is usurped by Roderick (Cecil Parker), an evil pretender to the throne. Brave rebel leader The Black Fox (Edward Ashley) intends to remove Roderick from the palace and bring the crown back to its true owner, but in the meantime the baby king needs to be looked after, which is the job of a man named Hawkins (Kaye). The Black Fox travels with the little king and his rebels as they search for the key to a secret tunnel that will allow them passage into the castle. Maid Jean (Glynis Johns), one of the rebels, meets a man en route to the Castle who is to be Roderick's new jester. The rebels quickly hatch a plan: detain the jester and send Hawkins in his place; the king can then find the key and initiate the overthrow. Hawkins is able to persuade Roderick and his men that he is indeed a jester, but his espionage work gets complicated when Princess Gwendolyn (Angela Lansbury) falls in love with him, and he runs afoul of Sir Ravenhurst (Basil Rathbone), the evil genius behind Roderick. Court Jester features Kaye's famous

Danny Kaye plays kind-hearted entertainer Hawkins who disguises himself as the legendary king of jesters, Giacomo. Hawkins infiltrates the court of the evil ...

The Court Jester (1955) is Paramount's Vista-Vision comedy film starring Danny Kaye (in his best-known performance). It is a classic, high-energy musical spoof of the dashing adventure films in Hollywood's Golden Age of Swashbucklers (many of which starred Errol Flynn). From the

Despite his title role in the film, Danny Kaye was a king of cinema in his prime. Despite only appearing in two dozen films, his roles in White Christmas, The Secret Life of Walter Mitty and Hans Christian Andersen secured his iconic status. In The Court Jester, Kaye gets to use

Notes about The Court Jester, 1956, directed by Norman Panama, with Danny Kaye, Glynis Johns, Basil Rathbone, available from Turner Classic Movies

A hapless carnival performer masquerades as the court jester as part of a plot against an usurper who has overthrown the rightful king of England.

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Costumed swashbucklers undergo a happy spoofing in The Court Jester with Danny Kaye heading the fun-poking. Norman Panama and Melvin Frank drag in virtually every time-honored, and timeworn, medieval drama cliche for Kaye and cast to re-play for laughs via not-so-subtle treatment.