Somewhere in my parents’ house there still exists an extremely used VHS copy of The Court Jester. This film was the subject of family movie night at least once a quarter, if not once a month, throughout my childhood. But how well does it hold up now that I am a boring adult?
In a word: fantastically.
Everything about this movie — the story, the costumes, the songs, the ridiculous slapstick comedy — is a constant delight. Danny Kaye is perfectly cast as an Entertainer/Baby Wrangler who finally gets his shot at being the real freedom fighter he’s always wanted to be. And his opportunity comes in the perfect form – as an opportunity to entertain at the king’s court.
Glynis Johns likewise shines in this gem as Captain Jean. The film plays around with the reversed gender roles between herself and Hawkins, but never goes for the low-hanging fruit so often explored in comedies of the allegedly more progressive 80s and 90s (a girl? she’s a girl? Hawkins is outranked by a girl???).
In fact, the film does more to subvert gender expectations than you might expect from a movie released in 1956. Because she’s a woman, Jean is able to go undercover as a “wench” to serve the pleasures of King Rodrick the Tyrant. Through a combination of feminine wiles and canny intelligence, she manages to subvert the castle’s security in spite of Hawkins’ many missteps as a hapless, hypnotized boytoy.
This film probably had a bigger impact on my creative inspiration than any other. In fact, when I penned the Aidan’s War Trilogy, I began by thinking of The Court Jester. While those novels are not comedies, I like to think they are animated by a similar spirit.
(Although Aidan’s War doesn’t have nearly as many musical numbers.)
I tend to gravitate toward stories that can walk a fine line between hilariously funny and tragically sad. The Court Jester is arguably the genesis of my tastes in this regard, as it has moments which still make me laugh out loud in spite of double-digit rewatches, yet there are also tragic developments which anchor the film just close enough to reality to resonate. I always feel a wave of pity for the unfortunate Fergus the Hostler who meets a tragic end when he is tortured to death off screen.
Googling the personal lives of your favorite celebrities is a risky endeavor, one that becomes increasingly dicey with the stars of the 40s and 50s. You can imagine my delight (and perhaps experience it yourself now) when I learned that Danny Kaye doesn’t appear to have been an entirely terrible person.
During the Red Scare, Danny Kaye and several of his fellow actors (Including Lucille Ball, Judy Garland, Ira Gershwin, and Gene Kelly among many others) formed the Committee for the First Amendment and openly protested the House Un-American Activities Committee and the blacklisting of the Hollywood Ten. While this organization unfortunately did not prove very effective, all of them deserve some credit for standing by their fellow storytellers and putting their own careers on the line.
At the time it was made, The Court Jester was the most expensive comedy ever filmed with a whopping budget of $4 million. The box office take? $2.2 million. In other words, it bombed. Hard.
Sometimes stories just don’t connect, and sometimes they are ahead of their time. I like to think this film fits comfortably into the latter category. Whatever the case, I know that any time I’m not sure what kind of film I’m in the mood to watch, I can’t go wrong with this goofy, cheesy, over-the-top film which still gives me the same amount of comfort as a warm blanket on a cold day.