raywest

18th Jun 2019

The Court Jester (1955)

Question: When Griswald knocks the helmet off Hawkins and it appears his head is knocked off, you can actually see a face in the helmet on the ground. But why? Hawkins is supposed to be hiding his head in the armor. So why did the filmmaker put a face in the helmet after it was knocked off?

Answer: I watched the clip on YouTube, stopping and rewinding it, but I cannot see what looks like a face inside the helmet. Maybe it's just the way light and shadows are reflecting on the metal.

raywest

You can see it as the helmet flies to the ground. Try slowing the video down if that helps. I can't say this is the reason, as I haven't done any research, but if I had to venture a guess, the helmet needed something to sit on so that it wouldn't fall off the armour early. They probably needed a mannequin strong enough to survive the horses' jerking around, but weak enough that the mace could decapitate it.