The Court Jester is a 1956
comedy film starring
Danny Kaye,
Glynis Johns,
Basil Rathbone, and
Angela Lansbury. The movie is
co-written,
co-directed, and
co-produced by
Melvin Frank and
Norman Panama. The film was released by
Paramount Pictures in
Technicolor and in the
VistaVision widescreen format.
Danny Kaye received a
Golden Globe nomination for
Best Motion Picture Actor - Comedy/Musical.
Made for a cost of
$4 million in the fall of 1955, it was the most expensive comedy film produced at the time.
[Danny Kaye Summary][Turner Classic Movies. Notes for The Court Jester] The motion picture
bombed at the box-office on its release, bringing in only $2.2 million in receipts the following winter and spring of 1956.
[Robert Osborne. On-air comments for The Court Jester airing March 15, 2008.] Since then, it has become a television
matinee favorite. The film contains the famous exchange: "The pellet with the poison's in the vessel with the pestle; the chalice from the palace has the brew that is true!" (mainly between Kaye and
Mildred Natwick as Griselda).