Daily Dialogue — December 9, 2015

GRISELDA: Listen. I have put a pellet of poison in one of the vessels.
HAWKINS: Which one?
GRISELDA: The one with the figure of a pestle.
HAWKINS: The vessel with the pestle?
GRISELDA: Yes. But you don’t want the vessel with the pestle, you want the chalice from the palace!
HAWKINS: I-I don’t want the vessel with the pestle, I want the chalice from the what?
JEAN: The chalice from the palace!
HAWKINS: Hm?
GRISELDA: It’s a little crystal chalice with a figure of a palace.
HAWKINS: Th-the chalice from the palace have the pellet with the poison?
GRISELDA: No, the pellet with the poison’s in the vessel with the pestle.
HAWKINS: Oh, oh, the pestle with the vessel.
JEAN: The vessel with the pestle.
HAWKINS: What about the palace from the chalice?
GRISELDA: Not the palace from the chalice! The chalice from the palace!
HAWKINS: Where’s the pellet with the poison?
GRISELDA: In the vessel with the pestle!
JEAN: Don’t you see? The pellet with the poison’s in the vessel with the pestle.
GRISELDA: The chalice from the palace has the brew that is true!
JEAN: It’s so easy, I can say it!
HAWKINS: Well then you fight him!
GRISELDA: Listen carefully. The pellet with the poison’s in the vessel with the pestle, the chalice from the palace has the brew that is true.
HAWKINS: Where the pellet with the poison’s in the vessel with the pestle, the chalice from the palace has the brew that is true.
JEAN: Good man!
GRISELDA: Just remember that.

— The Court Chester (1955), written by Norman Panama and Melvin Frank

The Daily Dialogue theme for the week: Misunderstanding. Today’s suggestion by Katha.

Trivia: The “flagon with a dragon” routine had an antecedent in the Bob Hope Paramount comedy “Never Say Die“ (1939): “There’s a cross on the muzzle of the pistol with the bullet and a nick on the handle of the pistol with the blank.” The credits do not list any writers in common on the two films.

Dialogue On Dialogue: Commentary by Katha: “Lots of room for misunderstanding, even funnier, that the two women don‘t understand that. And the poor guy has to remember more silly rhymes because they broke the chalice from the palace. I love the sequence since early childhood, and have to think about it often, when the word ‘vessel’ is used.”

Additional Trivia: I co-wrote the remake of The Court Jester with Mike Myers attached to star for MGM. Sadly, another green lit project that bit the dust.

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