Before departing, Jean reveals the existence of a rebel spy within the royal palace, entrusting Hubert with a whistled tune through which to identify himself. Taking refuge in audacity, they manage to escape the soldiers by dint of some pithy wordplay and spotless character work, before coming across the usurper’s new court jester, Giacomo, on the road.Īfter subduing the jester, it is decided, by Jean, that Hubert should take Giacomo’s identity and infiltrate the royal palace while she locates a new safe haven for the royal baby. In classic style, he soon gets more than he bargains for when a raid by Roderick’s soldiers compels Hubert and the Black Fox’s lieutenant, the beautiful Maid Jean, played by Glynis Johns, to don disguises and smuggle out the young king. This royal baby has been whisked to safety by the Black Fox, a Robin Hood-style rebel with a cause.ĭanny Kaye stars with his usual relish and aplomb as Hubert Hawkins, the Black Fox’s bard who is at the start of the film pushing for a more active role in the band’s freedom fighting efforts.

The setting is medieval England, the year indeterminate, and we have the fictitious King Roderick usurping the throne from the rightful heir – a baby boy identifiable only by an unusually alliterative birthmark, a purple pimpernel. The true joy and genius of The Court Jester is its plotting and the manner in which misunderstandings steadily pile upon coincidences creating a frantic and heady mix for our principal players to whimsically cavort through. At its core, The Court Jester is a joyous and artfully constructed farce which whips its viewers through its numerous set pieces and shenanigans at an exhilarating pace. Starring the inimitable Danny Kaye, it is a musical comedy set in a trackless and timeless facsimile of the Middle Ages. When The Court Jester was first released in 1955, whimsy was not necessarily a characteristic that the average cinemagoer would have associated closely with the medieval period.

Tongue twister in the court jester