The Court Jester (1955)

Basil Rathbone: Sir Ravenhurst

Photos 

Quotes 

• Hubert Hawkins : I'd like to get in, get on with it, get it over with, and get out. Get it?

  Ravenhurst : Got it.

  Hubert Hawkins : Good.

• Ravenhurst : I bid you welcome. I am Ravenhurst.

  Hawkins : [laughing]  Ravenhurst!

  [seriously] 

  Hawkins : R-R-Ravenhurst? Uh, the 'real' Ravenhurst?

  Ravenhurst : What?

  Hawkins : Uh, I mean, does the king know? D-does the king know about your being the real Ravenhurst?

  Ravenhurst : Keep your jests for the king.

• Sir Locksley : Your Giacomo seems more the fool than the assassin.

  Ravenhurst : Or perchance a brilliant combination of both.

  Sir Locksley : We shall see.

• Ravenhurst : What is the first step?

  Hawkins : Get me to the king's chambers.

  Ravenhurst : King's chambers?

  Hawkins : Yes.

  Ravenhurst : Very well. If you say so.

  Hawkins : That may be the "key" to the whole plan. Get it?

  Ravenhurst : Got it.

  Hawkins : Good.

• King Roderick I : My kingdom seething with revolt. Cutthroats and assassins in every tree! Why must I be surrounded by fools? Ravenhurst. Ravenhurst!

  Ravenhurst : Sire.

  King Roderick I : Could you have been so incompetent, bungled so horribly as to have permitted that child to live?

  Ravenhurst : Sire, there is no child. My men assure me that none of the royal family escaped alive. Believe me, sire, this is nonsense.

  King Roderick I : Nonsense? You call it nonsense, Ravenhurst? Is it nonsense that I cannot ride in my own domain without being murderously attacked? My child, I came within an inch of my life.

  Princess Gwendolyn : [assuming he's overreacting]  Oh, Father.

• King Roderick I : Each day, some new insurrection. Who is this Black Fox?

  Ravenhurst : Oh, just some ridiculous adventurer with a handful of rabble.

  Sir Brockhurst : Rabble today, but an army tomorrow. We need help to wipe them out, men and arms.

  Sir Pertwee : Aye. An alliance with our good friend Griswold of the North.

  Sir Finsdale : Aye, alliance. And quickly. He arrives tomorrow for the great tournament.

  King Roderick I : Alliance with Griswold?

  Ravenhurst : Sire, this rabble can be crushed.

  Sir Brockhurst : Griswold has men and arms.

  Ravenhurst : We need no uncouth interloper from the north.

  King Roderick I : Uncouth, yes. But Griswold *is* strong.

  Sir Brockhurst : Perhaps too strong. Perhaps our friend Ravenhurst fears an alliance would put Griswold and not himself at the king's right hand!

  Ravenhurst : [drawing his sword]  You shall die for this!

  Sir Brockhurst : [drawing his own]  One of us will!

• King Roderick I : Arrange for the wedding directly after the tournament. We'll make a show of this.

  [to one of his guards] 

  King Roderick I : You there! Go hence. Scour the countryside, bring in the fairest wenches in the land. Mind you, see that they are the fairest. Wenches, laughter, song; that's what this court needs.

  Ravenhurst : Indeed, sire, and the good Giacomo will provide it.

  King Roderick I : Giacomo? Who is Giacomo?

  Ravenhurst : He's the new jester I've sent for; by reputation, the gayest and wittiest entertainer in Europe.

  King Roderick I : Splendid. What a festival this will be. Jousting by our boldest knights, wenches at our beck and call, my daughter married to Griswold, who will take her to his castle up north - *WAY* up north!

  [laughter] 

  King Roderick I : My gentle lords, you make me very happy.

• Sir Locksley : They have won.

  Ravenhurst : For the moment, yes, but the king is guided by the last voice he hears, and that voice shall be mine. Giacomo will see to that.

  Sir Locksley : Giacomo? A mere jester?

  Ravenhurst : With one special talent, for which my agent has bargained dearly. In addition to his brilliance as an entertainer, the jester Giacomo also happens to be the world's most skillful, devious, and subtle master of the art of assassination.

• Ravenhurst : Welcome home, Sir Bertram. You saw the jester's performance?

  Sir Bertram : Mm-hmm.

  Ravenhurst : When I sent you to negotiate with Giacomo, I never expected results like this. Was he not brilliant?

  Sir Bertram : Indeed... with one slight discrepancy. This man is not Giacomo.

  Ravenhurst : What?

  Sir Bertram : Ah, I know not this pretender, but I assure you he is not the Giacomo I met and negotiated with in Europe.

  Captain of the Guard : I tell you, I've seen this man before, and somehow, that maid.

  Sir Locksley : What did I tell you? What plan now?

  Ravenhurst : To my chambers immediately.

• Ravenhurst : Is he not fabulous? To go from plan one to plan two without a moment's pause.

  Sir Locksley : The man is pure genius.

• Ravenhurst : Sire, if I may suggest, it ill benefits the propriety of your high office to be seen with these unkempt wenches.

  King Roderick I : What?

  Ravenhurst : It is said the Incomparable Giacomo has a discerning eye for beauty. Uh, why not let him select a suitable companion for Your Majesty?

  King Roderick I : Excellent, excellent. I trust the jester's reputation is based upon many years of... accomplishment?

  Hawkins : Why do you think they call me incomparable, sire? Get it?

  King Roderick I : Got it.

  Hawkins : Good.

  King Roderick I : Bring her to my chambers. Within the hour?

  Hawkins : Within the hour.

  Ravenhurst : Finish with the king and come to my chambers.

  Hawkins : Within the hour.

• King Roderick I : What do you mean Griswold himself suggested a solution?

  Ravenhurst : You yourself heard him, sire. He said were the jester of noble rank, he would challenge him to mortal combat.

  King Roderick I : But the jester cannot fight in tournament. He's a commoner.

  Ravenhurst : Then, sire, knight the jester.

  King Roderick I : Knight the jester?

  Ravenhurst : Griswold can then challenge him for the hand of Princess Gwendolyn, and by the rules of chivalry, she must wed the victor.

• Sir Locksley : This is the Black Fox?

  Ravenhurst : And still playing the fool.

• Captain of the Guard : Fergus is dead.

  Ravenhurst : Did he talk?

  [the captain whispers in his ear] 

  Ravenhurst : The child in the castle?

• Ravenhurst : Your arrival, Giacomo, shows imagination and brilliance.

  Hawkins : Did you expect less?

  Ravenhurst : Are you now prepared to fulfill the bargain arranged by my agent, Sir Bertram of Allenberg?

  Hawkins : Quite.

  Ravenhurst : Very well, then. There are two plans.

  Hawkins : Two plans.

  Ravenhurst : Plan one: the untimely demise of milords Brockhurst, Finsdale, and Pertwee.

  Hawkins : Uh-huh.

  Ravenhurst : These three must die tonight.

  Hawkins : Three for tonight. Proceed.

  Ravenhurst : The method I leave to you, but die they must.

  Hawkins : Ha. They shall drop like flies.

  Ravenhurst : [snapping twice]  Precisely. Like flies.

  Sir Locksley : Do you have some sort of twitch?

  Hawkins : Twitch? I twitch only for action.

• Ravenhurst : If plan one fails, you must execute plan two.

  Hawkins : Plan two?

  Ravenhurst : Take the princess from the castle before midnight, by whatever means you may devise.

  Hawkins : For murder or abduction, I'm your man. You've paid the price, name your plan.

  Ravenhurst : First, plan one. Are you sure you can dispose of milords Brockhurst, Finsdale, and Pertwee?

  Hawkins : Are they married?

  Ravenhurst : Yes.

  Hawkins : Order flowers for the widows. Get it?

  Ravenhurst : Got it.

  Hawkins : Good.

• Ravenhurst : But if he's not Giacomo, who can he be, and what does he want? Why would he do our every bidding?

  Sir Locksley : Why would he work to destroy the alliance?

  Ravenhurst : Why would he murder with the cunning of a fox?

  [a thought strikes him] 

  Ravenhurst : A fox. But of course, a fox. A Black Fox.

  Sir Locksley : But you don't think that...

  Ravenhurst : Why not? Who else would oppose Griswold and want the alliance destroyed but that rabble in the forest?

  Captain of the Guard : The forest?

  [realizing how he knows Hawkins] 

  Captain of the Guard : That's where I saw him, dressed as an old man riding into the forest, with the very wench who sat beside the king tonight.

  Ravenhurst : My lords, what a prize! The Black Fox himself!

  Sir Bertram : Expose him! You'll get all the credit.

  Ravenhurst : Not so fast. Not until the Fox pays us one last service. He'll rid us forever of the barbaric Griswold.

  Sir Locksley : Kill Griswold? But how?

  Ravenhurst : Whose is the deadliest blade in England? Who is the only man alive who can best Griswold in mortal combat? Only the Black Fox.

  Sir Locksley : But the Fox is a commoner and cannot fight in tournament.

  Ravenhurst : We shall see.