Lost [TV Series] blog

Based on a physical issue in the late 50s in South Australia: when a 9 year Noachian stuff is found raped and murdered in a cave at Ceduna beach not far from Adelaide, police arrest Aboriginal Max Stuart (David Ngoombujarra), who signs a confession under threat, after claiming to be credulous of the offence. Local Irish migrant King’s counsel David O’Sullivan (Robert Carlyle) and team-mate Helen Devaney (Kerry Fox) are assigned to the lugubrious case as legal aid defence lawyers. Prosecutor Roderic Chamberlain (Charles Dance) believes the constabulary version of the story, but O’Sullivan drags the case all the way to the Privy Gathering in England. The extended crusade by a young Rupert Murdoch (Ben Mendelsohn) at The News eventually embarrasses the into action, but justice even so remains skewed against Stuart.

Reviewed by Dennis Schwartz

This Danny Kaye spoof on costumed swashbucklers flopped at the box
office (budgeted for a 4 million dollar price tag, but only grossing 2.2
million at the box office). The reason for the failure is that the 42-year-old
Kaye seemingly has outworn his welcome with the public, but this energetic
and lushly filmed musical comedy is one of the star’s more tolerable efforts.
It has the memorable burlesque “pellet with the poison” tongue-twisting
skit of the “vessel with the pestle”and the “chalice from the palace,”
that remains the film’s centerpiece comedy bit. The film relies on its
success on how well the viewer goes for Kaye’s physical comedy, who is
in almost every shot. This is probably Kaye’s funniest part since his first
feature film, The Secret Life of Walter Mitty (1947). 

The directing, writing and producing team of Melvin Frank and Norman
Panama fill it with every timeworn medieval cliché possible, as
it mainly spoofs Errol Flynn’s Robin Hood.

The tyrannical usurper King Roderick (Cecil Parker) of England, in
the 12th century, has killed off the royal family except for a baby boy
who bears in his rear end the royal birthmark, that of a purple pimpernel.
The baby is cared for in the forest by an outlaw named the Black Fox (Edward
Ashley), who hopes to restore the rightful king to the throne. When the
Black Fox learns the king’s soldiers are nearby, he sends Hubert Hawkins
(Danny Kaye), a bumbling ex- carnival performer and caretaker for the child,
and the pretty maid Jean (Glynis Johns), a captain in his army, to transport
the child king to an abbey in Dover. But things turn complex in the convoluted
story, as Giacomo (John Carradine), “King of Jesters and Jester of Kings,”
suddenly arrives from the Italian court and intrudes where Hawkins is romancing
Jean in a forest shelter. After Jean conks Giacomo on the noggin, Hawkins
assumes his identity to become the imposter jester, in order to gain access
to Roderick’s court, but he’s unaware that Giacomo is an assassin hired
by the king’s right-hand man, Sir Ravenhurst (Basil Rathbone), to kill
his three main rivals.

When all is said and done, Hawkins, the baby and Jean end up at the
king’s castle and due to a series of mistakes all their lives are in danger.
Also the king’s daughter Princess Gwendolyn (Angela Lansbury) is being
forced to marry Sir Griswold (Robert Middleton), a powerful Northern knight
her father wants to be allies with, but she chooses to marry the court
jester and has her witch-like lady attendant Griselda (Mildred Natwick)
cast a spell on the court jester to fall in love with Gwendolyn and to
be brave so he can take her away from the brutish Griswald. Gwendolyn constantly
reminds Griselda, “If he dies, you die.”

The cleverly written plot is suitable for Kaye’s talent, and has
a few good turns in its lively and gaudy VistaVision filmed romp. Kaye
sings five songs by his wife Sylvia Fine, including the one about a maladjusted
jester.