No. 74: The Court Jester
The king of comedy
December 06, 2011
1956, dir. Melvin Frank, Norman Panama. The Court Jester should be a serious movie. You have a medieval setting with real attention to period detail. You have palace intrigue and actors with impeccable English accents, including the most impeccable of them all in Basil Rathbone’s snide baritone. But then this jester shows up, and he has a really big nose, and is funnier than any English person has ever been in history and, oh yeah, he’s played by Danny Kaye. All of a sudden, you’re watching a comedy.
Marc Tracy is a staff writer at The New Republic, and was previously a staff writer at Tablet. He tweets @marcatracy.