Actually, a literal key is a key McGuffin in the story, and that’s okay for Kaye. Here we arrive at a key element in Kaye’s persona. Standing next to him is the bold and beautiful Captain Jean (Glynis Johns), a rebel wench with a peremptory and take-charge attitude. He feels this duty is more appropriate to a woman in other words, he feels emasculated. Meanwhile, Hubert feels embarrassed to be tasked with proving the baby’s royal lineage to new recruits by flashing “the purple pimpernel”, the royal birthmark on his royal posterior. They promise to be available if he changes his mind, and so the comedy establishes that the story will partly be about how seemingly unlikely and non-standard heroes can save the day if given a chance. “Hmm,” says the Black Fox without conviction, and he dismisses the little people with as much condescension.
This activity turns out to be a feint, for Kaye’s character is merely circus acrobat Hubert Hawkins, who longs to prove his manly mettle in a fight for justice. But hold! One rightful royal babe has been spirited away to the forest by the dashing and mysterious Black Fox (Edward Ashley).Īt first, the viewer thinks Kaye plays the Black Fox because he tells us so in a lively and elaborate scene of musical cavorting surrounded by a troupe of little people billed as Hermine’s Midgets. As a narrator explains, the throne has been usurped by King Roderick (Cecil Parker) after his right-hand conniving scoundrel, Lord Ravenhurst (Basil Rathbone), caused the royal family to be massacred. Set in some never-never-England, the story spoofs Robin Hood and other swashbuckling heroes. It’s one of several films written, produced, and directed by the hardy team of Norman Panama and Melvin Frank, who found in Kaye an ideal performer for their tendency to mix verbal and physical humor in fiendishly complex plots. The Court Jester(1956), a just-about-perfect example of a Danny Kaye vehicle, arrives on Blu-ray for the first time in the Paramount Presents line.
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