![]() ![]() Perfect plan, right? Well, it just so happens that Hawkins is walking into a proverbial hornets nest as Giacomo is actually an assassin hired by the evil Lord Ravenhurst (Basil Rathbone), and is expected to kill several courtiers so that HE can be right hand to the king. Have Hawkins take over the role a court jester named Giacomo and meet up with a spy on the inside. Thus comes Hubert Hawkins and the Black Fox’s second in command Lady Jean (Glynis Johns, most notable for being the mother in Mary Poppins, and the old grandmother in While You Were Sleeping) who stumble into the perfect way to get close to the kind and end his reign of terror. This merry band of outlaws led by the infamous Black Fox have actually stolen the last remaining heir to the throne away in the forest, but need a way to get him IN to the castle and in front of the people who believe that the original royal bloodline is dead. A man who has stolen the throne from the rightful king and slaughtered all but one of his heirs in an attempt to legitimize himself. So why not put him into a sword and armor film with his trade mark rubber face and witty dialog.ĭanny Kaye stars as Hubert Hawkins, an entertainer from the circus who joined up with a merry band of Robin Hood style rebels who are fighting against a tyrannical king named King Roderick (Cecil Parker). Danny Kaye was on top of the world right then, having just come off the massive success of White Christmas, and the days of Robin Hood esque period piece films was still going strong. A gaudy musical comedy of slapstick proportions, The Court Jester is one of those films that is so joyously fun and light hearted that even the over the top faux pas that sometimes dot the center act are completely wiped away. Like always, Paramount Presents gives us a nice fold open case with great artwork, a classy clear Blu-ray case, but most importantly, an amazing film based off of a 4K+ scan (in this case a full 6K scan was done). Yes, one of my absolute favorite childhood classics was coming to Blu-ray and would not only come out on Blu-ray, but get a full 6K scan and restoration from the original negative to boot and included in Paramount’s “Paramount Presents” lineup of premium films. You can be certain that I nearly went through the ceiling when I saw Paramount send out the press release and was fanning myself like a 14 year old Twilight fan who had just seen a shirtless Edward on screen. I’ve probably watched the film once per year around Christmas time since I was about 10 years old, and have showed it off so many times that I went through not 1, not 2, but THREE copies of the film on VHS back in the day. Strangely enough, it became a bit of a cult classic back in the days of VHS and DVD, and was one of THE movies that I grew up watching in the 80s. Despite Danny Kaye being a mega star back in the 50s, The Court Jester was not a critical success back in 1956 when it was initially released.
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