> The Court Jester is a spoof of swashbuckling films, and none so much as The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938). That film is famous for the climactic swordfight between Errol Flynn and Basil Rathbone. In The Court Jester, Basil Rathbone is once again playing the sword-wielding villain, but instead of Errol Flynn, he fights Danny Kaye.

> Basil Rathbone had studied fencing for many years and was considered one of the best in Hollywood. However, he was 64 years old when the film was shot and had to be doubled in some scenes by the famed fencing coach, Ralph Faulkner, who spoke highly of Kaye, calling him "a brilliant person, both mentally and physically." One scene called for Kaye to fence with Rathbone while pouring a glass of wine and drinking it, which was very difficult. Rathbone was simply unable to keep up the speed and so shots of Faulkner were edited in.

> Basil Rathbone wrote about the experience in his autobiography, saying that he was shocked that after only a few weeks of training, "Danny Kaye could completely outfight me! Even granting the difference in our ages, Danny's reflexes were incredibly fast, and nothing had to be shown or explained to him a second time. I was talking to him once about this, and he told me (in effect) that his mind worked like a camera that took perfect pictures, and that he had a very keen sense of mime that could immediately translate the still picture into physical movement. Hear or see anything just once and he could imitate it without the slightest effort."

> Kaye wasn't always letter-perfect, however. Michael Pate, who played Sir Locksley, later remembered that during one of the fight scenes, Kaye accidentally hit Rathbone, bouncing the sword "right off Basil's forehead, right through to the back of his head. It cut straight through his wig and into his pate, as a matter of fact! I don't remember whether there were stitches but there was quite a lot of blood where the epee grazed the top of his head." Rathbone must have forgiven Kaye for the injury, because The Court Jester was one of the few films that he spoke fondly of his autobiography. However, there were times when he was not so pleased to be reminded of it. Years later, while taking a fencing lesson in Hollywood, Rathbone was annoyed by two men who were practicing. Each time they came near him, they would recite the running gag from the film "Get it? Got it. Good." Rathbone finally had enough and begged them to "Please stop it!"

> Like Basil Rathbone, Danny Kaye also had to deal with fans reciting lines from The Court Jester. According to his daughter, Dena, Kaye's fans most often wanted to say the film's famous tongue-twister, "The pellet with the poison's in the vessel with the pestle; the chalice from the palace has the brew that is true!" Of course, when the chalice from the palace was broken, the line was changed to "The pellet with the poison's in the flagon with the dragon; the vessel with the pestle has the brew that is true."

> Today, The Court Jester is a classic comedy, but it was actually a box-office failure when it was released in early 1956. It had been shot with a budget of $4 million, which made it the most expensive comedy at the time. However, it only made back half the cost at the box office. Regardless of the financial failure The Court Jester earned Danny Kaye a Golden Globe nomination for Best Actor in a Comedy/Musical.

> In 2004, The National Film Registry added the The Court Jester to its list of historically important films, ensuring that it would be preserved for future generations. So far, it is the only Danny Kaye film to be so honored.