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At-A-Glance Film Reviews

The Court Jester (1956)

Rating

[4.5]

Reviews and Comments

"But did you put the pellet with the poison in the vessel with the pestle?"

One of Danny Kaye's most treasured films, this uproarious parody of The Adventures of Robin Hood and other colorful medieval adventures is crammed full of Kaye's brand of goofy humor. His characters are always the lovable underlings thrown into grand, life-threatening situations by circumstance and forced to save himself by his own comic wits. Kaye plays these characters so well, they never cease to amuse audiences, and The Court Jester is one of his funniest takes on the formula.

Trivia note: the most famous (and perhaps funniest) scene -- the pellet with the poison routine -- wasn't original material; it was adapted from an old vaudeville act.

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