Product: The Court Jester [VHS] (1956)
Rating: 5.0
"the perfect storm" of farces
IMPORTANT NOTE: "The Court Jester" is a true widescreen film, shot in VistaVision, and (probably) intended to be projected at 1.85:1. It is ABSOLUTELY NOT a 4:3 film cropped to "look like" widescreen.Danny Kaye is a classic example of a wildly talented performer who was not well-served by the movie industry. Sam Goldwyn knew to shoot Kaye in Technicolor to show off his red hair, but not to give Kaye first-rate material. In most of Kaye's films he plays some sort of congenital [dunce]. If you think gross stupidity came to movies only recently (eg, "Dumb and Dumber"), you've never seen "The Kid from Brooklyn," "On the Riviera," and similar Kaye [stuff]."The Court Jester" is a wonderful exception, as Kaye's jester is no fool. Panama and Frank -- the team who produced most of the Hope/Crosby "Road" films -- were at their absolute peak with a wildly convoluted send-up of Robin Hood and similar derring-do. In addition to clever wordplay, they aren't afraid to descend to the deliriously dumb -- when Glynis Johns, pretending to be a deaf-mute, makes 15 seconds worth of hand gestures that Kaye interprets as nothing more than "No", he explains it's because she stutters.The Panama-Frank direction is also on-target. When Kaye and Johns clobber John Carradine, it's shown as shadows on the wall, in the best Michael Curtiz fashion.Danny Kaye's wife, Sylvia Fine, wrote a lot of specialty material for him. (One might argue that he would have been nowhere nearly as successful without her.) Her comic songs were sometimes modeled on Gilbert & Sullivan; "The Maladjusted Jester" is her take on "Oh, a private buffoon" from "The Yeomen of the Guard." (I suspect she wanted to use Sullivan's music, but couldn't, as it was still under British copyright.)Basil Rathbone reprises Sir Guy from "The Adventures of Robin Hood," and Panama-Frank gave him plenty of screen time, both as an actor and as a fencer -- Rathbone was, and still is, the consummate slick villain. And what can one say about Glynis Johns but "delicious," or Mildred Natwick but "inimitable," or Angela Lansbury but "chunky"? (Sorry about that.)Pretty much a perfect entertainment -- the ideal film to chase away the blues.PS: When, oh when, are we going to get a Blu-ray? Assuming the original VistaVision camera negative (or composite negative) exists, an HD transfer should be spectacular.