The Court Jester (1955)

Michael Pate: Sir Locksley

Photos 

Quotes 

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

  Ravenhurst : Or perchance a brilliant combination of both.

  Sir Locksley : We shall see.

• 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.

• Sir Locksley : This is the Black Fox?

  Ravenhurst : And still playing the fool.

• 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 : 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.