Yesterday's Movies

Before watching the movie:

I may have encountered this in some dusty streaming back catalogs or cheap collection of classic movies, but it didn’t appeal much to me on the face of it. Much more recently, I learned that it’s the source of the tongue-twister scene I think I saw in an AFI special about “the pellet with the poison is in the vessel with the pestle”, which I always wanted to find. The climactic swordfight is also highly praised by fight choreographers, I believe coming behind few other than the famous Princess Bride duel.

I’ve seen a few other Danny Kaye movies, but I only just now realized I might have been confusing him with Dennis Day occasionally. Kaye seems to be someone who used to be much more appreciated, but has been forgotten since the New Hollywood revolution.

After watching the movie:

The rightful royal family of England has been slain in a coup by the pretender king Roderick, aided by his right hand man Lord Ravenhurst, but one rightful heir remains, a baby bearing the family birthmark, a Purple Pimpernel, on the buttock, and has been hidden in the forest by the Black Fox and his band of resistance fighters. Hubert Hawkins, a former circus performer, is among the Fox’s gang for entertainment, but his belief in the cause leads him to long for an opportunity to fight along the rest of the men. When their hideout is discovered, the Fox orders his trusted Captain, the Maid Jean, and Hubert to smuggle the baby out of the forest to safety, but along the way they have a chance encounter with Roderick’s new jester, Giacomo of Italy, and an unexpected opportunity to plant Hubert inside Roderick’s court presents itself. Jean sends Hubert to the castle on Giacomo’s wagon to meet with a secret confederate among the staff and continues alone, but is soon captured by soldiers ordered to bring the fairest wenches to court. At the castle, Roderick intends for his daughter Gwendolyn to marry Sir Griswold and so secure an alliance to firmly crush the rebellion, though Gwendolyn insists she will only marry for love, and Lord Ravenhurst arranged the hiring of the Giacomo because the real Giacomo is an accomplished assassin Ravenhurst intends to have murder Roderick’s other advisors and so undermine the planned alliance.

The misunderstandings and dramatic ironies set up in quick succession once all the players are in the castle is dizzying. The intricate network of connections is as tightly braided as a Shakespeare play, though the payoff is maybe less than I was expecting as there’s only a little over an hour and a half and there must be time for songs. The tongue twisters and quick wit run throughout the film, but once you know the “chalice from the palace” scene, nothing else is really on the same level. “Get it? Got it. Good.” is also repeated multiple times and seems to originate from here, but I remember the phrase being everywhere in the 90s.

Danny Kaye has so many things to do in this movie. He’s a coward, he’s a simple hero, he’s a swaggering lothario, he’s a daring swordsman, and also he sings and dances. Most “star vehicle” movies put the actor they’re built around into exactly the same character type they always do, but this movie goes out of its way to put him in all of the situations. Glynis Johns has slightly more to do than any other damsel in distress love interest, but what she gets to do for most of the plot is a bit disappointing next to her introduction as the Fox’s military leader who commands the utmost respect and obedience from all her men. Also I finally saw Angela Lansbury playing a young romantic character (Gwendolyn) and I completely didn’t notice it was her until I read the cast list!

The music is fun in the moment, but not terribly memorable. The bird call whistle the resistance uses to identify each other gets worked into a song pretty neatly, but the call itself is the closest the movie comes to something that will stay with you. For a musical that’s not great, but as a comedy, the music at least mostly has a reason to be there and doesn’t overstay its welcome.

This is a movie that deserves to be remembered, and I think it has been, but it’s been remembered down to the point where only the highlights remain, and everything impressive about it I’d already been well exposed to, so nothing was as truly special as I was expecting. The dialogue is clever, the setups are hilarious, the result is possibly a little less than the sum of its parts.