shirls70 Every time I watch this movie I laugh hilariously. That's saying a lot because I rarely feel the same emotions after watching a movie.... I know exactly what's coming.Danny Kaye is in a role made for him, as a bumbling man who is thrown (or hypnotized) into the role of "Giacomo", a famous lover and experienced fighter. The scene where he is in and out of a trance while engaging in swordplay is terrific. For me, the granddaddy of all scenes is when he is going through the trials to become a Knight, then his initiation ceremony. These scenes are pure gold and I noticed they are most mentioned by reviewers here too. Mildred Natwick has a terrific role as Griselda, the one who makes Kaye think he is really Giacomo. She gives him ridiculously complicated rhymes to remember which drink has poison and of course, Kaye keeps forgetting. The rest of the Knight's trials are just as funny and the final initiation ceremony had me on the floor with laughter. It starts off slow and as the drums quicken, and Kaye is literally carried through. This stuff is priceless! Beautiful Angela Lansbury and Gorgeous Glynis Johns are the love interests.I gave it a 9 out of 10, not because of Kaye, but for the silliness with the baby's birthmark (on its rear), and the too lengthy romance scenes. Danny Kaye is a decent singer, but his true calling is as a funny man.Yay...Verily.....Yay.

The_Film_Cricket Danny Kaye only made a handful of features but this was the films that best displayed his gifts. In this spoof of Errol Flynn swashbucklers, set in merry old England, he plays Hubert Hawkins, a former carnival entertainer who now works for a notorious Robin Hood-like outlaw named The Black Fox. He gets involved in court intrigue when the infant king has his birthright usurped by the imposter Roderick. Hawkins gets himself involved in a convoluted plot: The phony king finds out where The Black Fox's camp is located and so the outlaw instructed Hawkins to escort the infant monarch – who bears the royal birthmark, the purple pimpernel, on his posterior – away from the camp. He and maid Jean (Glynnis O'Conner) elude the king's men disguised as an elderly wine merchant and his granddaughter. Slipping away, they find shelter in an old farmer's shack where they are joined by Giacomo (John Carradine) who pronounces himself "King of Jesters and Jester to the King". A light bulb goes off in Hubert's head and he whomps Giacomo over the head, intending to steal his identity and slip into the palace, installing himself in the king's confidence while planning to let The Black Fox's forces in in order to overtake the throne.The plot is probably more complicated than it needs to be – what we really want to see is Danny doing his thing. We want to see his snappy performance of "You'll Never Outfox the Fox" which he performs to boost morale within the camp. We want to see his performance of "The Maladjusted Jester", a performance before the phony king that displays his gift for tongue twisters. And of course we want to see the famous bit involving two goblets, one of which is poisoned and the other is safe "The pellet with the poison's in the vessel with the pestle; the chalice from the palace has the brew that is true!" Ah-Ha but there's a change in the plan so it becomes "The pellet with the poison's in the flagon with the dragon; the vessel with the pestle has the brew that is true." We want to see the verbal dance as he explains to the King the business of the duty to the Duke and the Doge and Duchess and the details therein.With his craft honed in his youth in the Catskills, Kaye is a fanciful presence, a man of merriment who knows how to kid himself. He spent years perfecting his vocal inflections, his dances, his singing voice, he is the consummate entertainer. He can change personalities on a dime as in scene in which he is under a spell cast by the witch Gremelda. When she snaps her fingers he goes into a trance in which he becomes the greatest swordsman of all. Fighting the evil Sir Ravenhurst (Basil Rathbone), he unknowingly snaps his fingers and his mind switches back to the fumbling Hubert then another snap of the fingers and he is again the Hubert the expert swordsman.I love the way this heavily plotted movie takes time out to give him his moments. Example is "The Maladjusted Jester" number in which he is thrust before the King to make him laugh, but he has nothing to work with, so he just makes it up. We know that it is rehearsed and practiced but he makes his act look effortless, this dance of words and of song are flawless. That's why it always makes me a little sad that he never got the credit for his performance here. He was a pure joy to watch. He said "If you're not cooking with joy, happiness and love, you're not cooking well."

jc-osms Very enjoyable spoof of the swashbuckling genre with Danny Kaye in effervescent form in the lead role. It's colourful, with sumptuous sets and costumery to the fore, romantic, with a young Angela Lansbury and the fetching Glynis Johns as the competing love interest for our hapless hero, occasionally, well you wouldn't say exciting, but eventful with Kaye squaring off against the old despicable villain in so many of this type of film, Basil Rathbone and last but not least, certainly it's highly amusing.Kaye plays his part with athleticism, impressively given his age but of course it's his buffoonery which is the main attraction. Whether under a witch's hypnotic spell, making him brave at the snap of a finger, engaging in customary hilarious tongue-twisting confusion (it took me some time, but I think I now know in which goblet the pellet with the poison is) or engaging in the climactic sword-fight with Rathbone at the end, he's great value all round.There are some fine songs too, particularly "Outfox the Fox" and "The Maladjusted Jester" wittily written by Sammy Cahn and of course a happy ending with no-one really hurt or killed in action. His rapid-fire patter invariably draws a smile too ("Get it?" "Got it" "Good").I appreciate that Kaye's brand of clowning humour is hit-or-miss with some people but he usually makes me laugh and this is definitely one of his best parts in an affectionate tribute to the ghosts of Flynn, Power, Grainger and others...

writers_reign This is one of the better Kate vehicles, one that remains watchable half a century later. It features most, if not all, of the Kaye schtick; the tongue-twisters, the mugging, the balladeering - in this case a lullaby - all the stuff in fact that tends to grate when the earlier - 40s - movies surface on TV. It helps, of course, that Basil Radford is on hand as chief villain. Radford was, hands down, the finest swordsman in Hollywood ( fencer, for the pedants, though I accept that Radford's old opponent Errol Flynn was a swordsman in both senses of the word) and more could have been made of the final showdown between him and Kaye instead of aborting the duel via catapult. The plot was old when Cain was lining up Abel in his cross-hairs but no one really notices. Sammy Cahn weighed in with some fine (sorry about that, Sylvia) lyrics with Mrs Kaye, Slyvia Fine, restricted to music only with the exception of The Maladjusted Jester, John Carradine appeared all too briefly as the real Giacomo and all in all a good time was had by all.