History Film / TheCourtJester

* NoYou: This early moment between Roderick and Gwendolyne:

'''Gwendolyne''': If it pleases you so much, father, ''you'' marry Griswold!

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* InfantImmortality: The last remaining rightful heir to the throne survived the massacre that wiped out the rest of the royal family and is being cared for by the Black Fox's group in the forest. Roderick attempts to avert it by ordering said heir to be capture and killed, and the rightful heir even spends a fair bit of time in the castle without detection [[spoiler:and ends up back on the throne at the end.]]

* TheJester: Hawkins is forced to impersonate one to infiltrate the castle, hence the film's title. The ''real'' court jester, Giacomo, is [[spoiler:promptly knocked out and taken hostage by Jean, so he doesn't get very much screen time]].

* DeadlyDecadentCourt: Ravenhurst and his associates scheme murder to retain their influence with Roderick.

* {{Tomboy}}: Maid Jean. Her father taught her how to fight. She suspects he wanted a boy.

* HollywoodCostuming: Many of the dresses were based on fifties styles more than middle ages. The film even provides the trope image. Angela Lansbury looks almost like she should be posing next to an Oldsmobile Dynamic 88 at the 1955 GM Motorama, going by the obviously '50s bodice, hairstyle and makeup. Even more damning is that, at least when watching the movie in high definition, even ''tan lines'' can be seen on her (including on the aforementioned trope image).

* HollywoodCostuming: Many of the dresses were based on fifties styles more than middle ages. The film even provides the trope image. Angela Lansbury looks almost like she should be posing next to an Oldsmobile Dynamic 88 at the 1955 GM Motorama.

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* TongueTwister: "The pellet with the poison's in the vessel with the pestle...." Hawkins of course becomes completely TongueTied.

** The Captain of the Guard is confident that he has seen Hawkins before, as he first realises when he sees Hawkins as Giacomo. [[spoiler:When Ravenhurst suspects that Hawkins is The Black Fox, he points out no one would want the alliance with Griswold destroyed more than that "rabble in the forest". This comment leads the Captain of the Guard to one of these, as he realises he saw Hawkins dressed as an old man with the wine cart, and that Jean was with him.]]

** The "Outfox The Fox" number at the start makes it out that Hawkins is the Black Fox. [[spoiler:He ends up getting mistaken for the Black Fox by Ravenhurst and his associates and they conspire to use him to try and get rid of Griswold.]]

* BadassFingersnap: Played for laughs, as a finger snap is Hawkins' TriggerPhrase in and out of hypnosis.

* CrouchingMoronHiddenBadass: Hawkins is bumbling at rather a lot of things, but he is a competent father figure to the young king, his carnival skills make him rather adept at impersonating Giacomo, and it's an enforced trope when he gets to the castle and Griselda hypnotises him. [[spoiler:She does it first to make him court Gwendolyn, and again at the end to make him defeat Ravenhurst.]]

* GetOut: Before the knighting ceremony, Jean's message to Hawkins tells him to do this, as they only want to knight him so they can kill him off. The message reads: "They Knight you only to kill you. Run for your life!"

* TamperingWithFoodAndDrink: Grizelda does this several times.

* WeNeedADistraction: After "The Maladjusted Jester", Hawkins proposes a toast to the king as a way to distract everyone else so Jean can abscond with the baby.

* {{Pun}}: Kaye's song "The Maladjusted Jester" exists to lead up to "A jester unemployed/Is nobody's fool!"

* BaitAndSwitch: It looks initially like Hawkins himself is the Black Fox in the "Outfox The Fox" number", but once the number ends, the real Black Fox appears, Hawkins having been dressing in his clothes. [[spoiler:This also likely forehsadows how Hawkins will be mistaken for the Black Fox later by Ravenhurst and his cronies.]]

* AmusingInjuries: Hawkins to himself a few times. When he leaves his chambers to go and seduce Gwendolyn after being hypnotized, he bangs his hand against the wall as he turns to the door. Later, as he bows to Roderick when the latter first meets Jean, he bangs himself against the wall before walking away. He also burns his backside against a hot brazier during the knighting ceremony, and finally, when he accepts Griswold's challenge of mortal combat, he attempts to smack Griswold and hurts his hand.

* SayMyName: Roderick does this three times in a row when Brockhurst, Finsdale and Pertwee respectively drop dead at the banquet after being poisoned by Griselda.

* CrouchingMoronHiddenBadass: Hawkins is bumbling at rather a lot of things, but he is a competent faster father figure to the young king, his carnival skills make him rather adept at impersonating Giacomo, and it's an enforced trope when he gets to the castle and Griselda hypnotises him. [[spoiler:She does it first to make him court Gwendolyn, and again at the end to make him defeat Ravenhurst.]]

* EpicFlail: Hawkins faces off against a knight who [[WeaponOfChoice selects a mace and chain as his weapon]].

* {{Farce}}: The entire plot is a spoof of tales such as ''Robin Hood'' and ''Ivanhoe''..

* TheJester: Hawkins is forced to impersonate one to infiltrate the castle, hence the film's title.

%% ZeroContextExample entries are not allowed on wiki pages. All such entries have been commented out. Do not uncomment them without expanding them to provide context. A trope name on its own is not context, and neither is a trope name and a character's name with no further explanation.

This 1956 musical-comedy {{Farce}}, written and directed by Norman Panama and Melvin Frank and starring Creator/DannyKaye, Glynis Johns, Creator/BasilRathbone, Creator/AngelaLansbury, Cecil Parker, Mildred Natwick, and Creator/JohnCarradine, has been a CultClassic on TV for years, mercilessly mocking the conventions of [[TheMiddleAges medieval]] {{Swashbuckler}} films of the 1930s through the '50s. A lot of it is thanks to the talent of Danny Kaye, who is about as unlikely an adventure hero as you could get, and the film makes sure to milk every drop of that.

If this were a drama, the odds would be against them. But this is PlayedForLaughs.

The film flopped when it came out, but was later a hit on TV. Now it's on the American Film Institute's list of "100 Years... 100 Laughs," and preserved in the United States UsefulNotes/NationalFilmRegistry by the Library of Congress for being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".

* CleanCut: Hawkins slashes a set of candles, apparently to no effect, and Ravenhurst laughs at him. Then he ''blows'' on the candles, and they fall apart. This is another ActorAllusion, as well, as Tyrone Power had pulled a similar, if less exaggerated, bit of swordplay on Basil Rathbone's Captain Esteban in 1940's ''Film/{{The Mark of Zorro|1940}}.''

* AsLongAsItSoundsForeign: Hawkins pretends to be a jester from Italy. When a guard asks him why he doesn't have an accent, he replies that he is fluent in many languages and demonstrates it by talking a lot of nonsensical gibberish that sounds very much like French, Italian, and German. (This skill was then known as "double-talk", and Kaye was a famous master of it.) The guard, who doesn't understand any of this, allows him to pass

* ColourCodedForYourConvenience: Ravenhurst, Brockhurst, Finsdale and Pertwee's outfits in the scenes they appear. Ravenhurst tends to dress in black and purple, Brockhurst in yellow, Finsdale in green, and Pertwee in blue.

** Jean also gets one. [[spoiler:Before "The Maladjusted Jester", Hawkins subtly starts singing the tune of the lullaby he had earlier used to lure the infant king to sleep. ''While holding the basket containing the baby, right in front of Roderick, who wants to know what's inside it!'' The [[OhCrap Oh Crap]] comes when Jean realises this. Heck, she even mouths "Baby" as it happens.]]

* TamperingWithFoodAndDrink: Grizelda does this as several times.