Danny Kaye Double Feature - The Court Jester / The Five Pennies

After his breakout success in the forties, and stints at an array of the major studios, Danny Kaye came to call Paramount Pictures home for much of the fifties. It was there that Kaye created some of his most memorable screen portrayals, as evidenced by the pair found in this collection (both of which enjoyed contributions from Kaye's songstress spouse, Sylvia Fine). The epic comic fantasy the Court Jester (1955) sees Kaye playing a fool who gets embroiled in a plot to overthrow a tyrant king. Thanks to the amazing all-star cast (including Angela Lansbury and Basil Rathbone), a score courtesy of Sylvia Fine and Sammy Cahn, and creators Norman Panama and Melvin Frank (and Kaye's considerable talents), the Court Jester is rightly considered a cinema classic. In the Five Pennies (1959), Kaye pairs up with Satchmo himself, the astonishing Louis Armstrong to bring the tale of Jazzman Red Nichols to life alongside a bevy of Big Band greats. Tuesday Weld makes her screen debut, too!