The Court Jester (1955)

Angela Lansbury: Princess Gwendolyn

Photos 

Quotes 

• Princess Gwendolyn : Marry Griswold? Never!

  King Roderick : What was that?

  Princess Gwendolyn : He's a brute and a lout.

  King Roderick : Brute or not, lout or not, if it pleases me you will marry Griswold.

  Princess Gwendolyn : If it pleases you so much, you marry Griswold.

• Princess Gwendolyn : [to Griselda]  Remember, if he dies, you die!

• Princess Gwendolyn : If my father hears of this our necks will snap like twigs!

  [she snaps her fingers, causing Griselda's spell to break and Hawkins to start panicking] 

  Hawkins : Uh, like what?

  Princess Gwendolyn : Twigs!

  [she snaps again, putting the spell back in place and Hawkins to stop panicking] 

  Hawkins : Twigs? Speak not of twigs when you look at an oak! Until tonight, my little sapling.

• King Roderick : Take the witch out and burn her!

  Princess Gwendolyn : Harm one hair on her head and I throw myself from the highest turret!

  King Roderick : Gwendolyn, you go too far.

• Princess Gwendolyn : I've seen this monster and it's not for nothing he's called the grim, grisly, and gruesome Griswold.

  King Roderick : Grim, grisly, or gruesome, you marry Griswold.

• Princess Gwendolyn : When I marry, I marry for love. Someone dashing and romantic who will carry me off as a princess should be carried off.

  King Roderick I : Ah, who fills your head with this childish fiddle-faddle?

  [spotting Griselda] 

  King Roderick I : Ah, I know. Griselda. She of the evil eye.

• 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.

• Princess Gwendolyn : So this is Giacomo, king of jesters and jester of kings.

  Hawkins : Not today, milady. Today I am Giacomo, a lover of beauty. And a beauty of a lover.

  Princess Gwendolyn : Can this be true, or is it merely a dream?

  Hawkins : Dream? Is this a dream?

  [kissing her hand] 

  Hawkins : Or this?

  [kissing her fingers] 

  Hawkins : Or this? Or this? Or this? Or this?

• Princess Gwendolyn : We are strangers, hardly met. What manner of man are you, Giacomo?

  Hawkins : What manner of man is Giacomo? Ha ha! I shall tell you what manner of man is he. He lives for a sigh. He dies for a kiss. He lusts for a laugh. Ha! He never walks when he can leap.

  [jumping and bouncing on her bed, then jumping off] 

  Hawkins : He never flees when he can fight. He swoons at the beauty of a rose, and I offer myself to you, all of me; my heart, my lips, my legs, my calves. Do what you will. My love endures.

  [kissing up her arm and over her head] 

  Hawkins : Beat me. Kick me.

  [kissing down her other arm] 

  Hawkins : I am yours.

  Princess Gwendolyn : Oh, Giacomo, you are so ardent.

  Hawkins : With your permission, milady, I'd like to go around again.

• King Roderick I : The key to the secret passage.

  Princess Gwendolyn : Father, let me have it.

  King Roderick I : So you'd run away, would you? Well, you trick me not. This key will never leave my person. You will marry Griswold upon the morrow, and I promise you, daughter or not, princess or not, one move, one false move, and your neck will snap like a twig.

  Hawkins : [as the King snaps, he steps out from his hiding place]  Where is he? Giacomo hides not behind drapes!

• King Roderick I : I've just met Griswold's emissary, and the marriage is approved.

  Princess Gwendolyn : You know very well, Father, that when I marry, I marry only for love.

  King Roderick I : I knew you'd say that. Now, Gwendolyn, do be reasonable. Don't you realize that without this alliance, our power, our prestige, our position could go like that?

  [as he snaps, Griselda's spell on Hawkins is put back in place; he steps out of his hiding place, ready for action] 

  Princess Gwendolyn : Well, then let it go like that.

  [as she snaps, the spell is broken, and Hawkins returns to hiding] 

  King Roderick I : I wish you to marry Griswold.

  Princess Gwendolyn : And suppose I do not wish to marry Griswold?

  [she snaps again, and the spell is put back in place; Hawkins steps out once again] 

  King Roderick I : I don't give a fig for your wishes.

  [he snaps, and the spell is broken again] 

  Princess Gwendolyn : Well, I don't give a fig for yours.

  [she snaps, and the spell is put back in place yet again] 

  King Roderick I : No one snaps at the king.

  [he snaps, and Hawkins returns to his hiding spot] 

  King Roderick I : Don't you dare snap at me.

  Princess Gwendolyn : I'll snap if I choose.

  [she snaps, and Hawkins steps out again] 

  King Roderick I : Don't snap at me.

  Princess Gwendolyn : [snapping]  I will snap.