Product: The Court Jester [VHS] (1956)
Rating: 5.0
A Master of Wordplay
The Court Jester is one of the funniest and most entertaining movies ever made. Danny Kaye was one of the three greatest film comedians after the advent of sound. The other two were Bob Hope and Red Skelton. All three made enjoyable comedies and frequently played the same kind of part, that of a well-meaning but inept bumbler who is thrust into a dangerous situation and would like to flee but stays to save the damsel in distress. Danny Kaye and Glynis Johns are delightful as the hero and heroine. The clever word-play routine performed by Danny and Mildred Natwick about the "pestle with the poison" is deservedly considered a comedy classic. However, I think it should be noted that a year before "The Court Jester" was released, Red Skelton's "A Southern Yankee" also contained a very clever bit of word play about "the pocket with the packet." I have always suspected that Sylvia Fine (Danny Kaye's wife) or whoever wrote the Kaye word play may have been inspired by the similar word play in Red Skelton's movie. Unfortunately, no one ever mentions Red's funny routine. Incidentally, Skelton's movie deserves to be released on DVD, too. Buster Keaton worked with Red as a comedy consultant. It would be pointless to try to pick one of the great comedians as better than the others. I'll just mention that Danny Kaye was a great master of double talk and musical nonsense numbers with almost impossible to pronounce words. His only rivals in double talk were Sid Caesar and Jonathan Winters, who were great comedians but not movie stars.