The court Jester (Melvin Frank, Norman Panama, 1956): USA

rewieved by Alan Gueler viewed at AFI Fest

The Court Jester

I have seen many movies that are trying to portray the Robin Hood style in set design. Bushes and trees in a forest , men in hoods swinging down from a tree and starts singing and a troubadour as the narrator, that kind of  style. That was the feeling I got when watching the beginning of this movie The Court Jester (Melvin Frank, Norman Panama, 1956). It didn’t have any inciting first minutes, so I was a bit bored the beginning 10-15 minutes before it really took a turn for the better. The Protagonist Hubert Hawking (Danny Kaye) who plays a fool with a mission to smuggle a new rightful heir baby to the the king of England.

The court gesture is a very funny movie with loads of clever jokes. The variety of angles are good, well edited and uses very bright high key lightning, but what makes this movie stand out of a crowd is:

– the mise-en-scen. The set design is very well made and brought up feelings from my childhood, watching the animated version of Robin Hood on my VHS. Even though most of it is on a sound stage, it still brings up feelings.
– the sound score that’s used in thin movie is typical for this time era, the same sounds used in loony toons if you know what I mean. that is what I think makes this movie a family comedy, because of the silly non-diegetic sounds. Something else typical for this era that this movie is using is that the protagonist performs at least one song diegeticly.
– the performance from the Danny Kay as Hubert. The performance is very good, it was very impressive and enjoyable to see him switch between two different characters around 48 times in in 5 minutes when his character was hypnotized.

Something that I appreciate with the directing part is that the fighting scenes are filmed from a full shot only, unedited. By doing so, great skills with a sword is required from the actor and Danny Kaye didn’t disappoint. Another person to give credit is the stuntman for swinging from balcony to balcony in the castle. That scene doesn’t have any visual effects, that is happening for real.