Jack and the Beanstalk (1952) User Reviews

"He Shinnied Up The Stalk To Slay A Giant In His Den"

[bkoganbing · 7/10 · 27 October 2007]

Bud Abbott and Lou Costello always had a good following among children, but in their careers I think you could say that they only made one film that could be designated for kids. Jack and the Beanstalk was that one film.

It was part of a two picture independent deal from Warner Brothers, the second film being Abbott and Costello Meet Captain Kidd. These were the only two films the boys made in color.

The two of them, out of work as usual, take a job for a very precocious and obnoxious young David Stollery as a babysitter. Although it starts out with Costello wanting to read the kid, Jack and the Beanstalk as a bedtime story, the young lad winds up reading it to Costello. Lou falls asleep and in his dreams he fantasizes he's indeed Jack the Giant Killer.

Buddy Baer who menaced the boys in Africa Screams plays the giant and he's got a giant size Dorothy Ford as his housekeeper. Dorothy was a big girl, 6'2", and you can imagine she had some difficulty being cast except when her height was used as a joke. One of the only players who ever looked down at her was John Wayne in Three Godfathers at 6'4". Henry Fonda and James Stewart in On Our Merry Way also stood barely above her, but again her height was part of a gag.

Shaye Cogan and James Alexander were the princess and prince of the fantasy and they sang beautifully, but couldn't act worth anything. This was the last film of William Farnum who's career dated from the early silent screen days and even to the turn of the last century on stage. He played princess Shaye's father the king.

Some not terribly memorable musical numbers came from Jack and the Beanstalk, save the title song. I well remember as a kid having the 78 record of Bud and Lou singing the song and reciting the story. I was in my early single digit years, but became a lifelong fan of their's through that and their television series.

Jack and the Beanstalk is still a good children's picture for the very young, though I would warn parents to warn their little urchins not to imitate young master Stollery.

Bud and Lou are Off to See the Giant...

[moonspinner55 · 5/10 · 22 March 2008]

The often-told fable gets amusingly tweaked with Bud Abbott and Lou Costello in the leads, singing, dancing, and messing with a really nasty ogre. Opening in sepia tone, Bud and Lou somehow walk into a job as babysitters for a problem child; Lou wants a bedtime story read to him, quickly falling asleep and dreaming he and his mother live in a colorful storybook village, growing a magical beanstalk and attempting to rescue a kidnapped princess from a giant. Devised and co-produced by Lou's brother, Pat, this was an independently-financed production from the comedy duo which Warner Bros. distributed. It has some kooky songs and even kookier sequences (such as a masochistic Minuet between Lou and the giant's equally lanky female cook), but it does appear as a paste-up job. Filmed in just over three weeks, some of the scenes are so sloppy, one doesn't know if they were hastily left that way or if the clumsiness was perhaps intentional (the editing, too, is awful, leaving the cook and her cow behind in fantasy limbo). The sets, leftovers from Ingrid Bergman's "Joan of Arc", are fine, but the costumes are atrocious--hopefully, this venture scared Costello away from tights for the remainder of his life! It's kinda cute in a bumbling, ramshackle sort of way, and Lou gets a lot of funny business to do, but it isn't as imaginative as it should have been. ** from ****

Not As Good As the Rest

[itsnotpersonal-55577 · 5/10 · 19 November 2018]

I'm a big Abbott & Costello fan. Theyve been a huge influence on my life. This one was a let down overall. I enjoyed the songs, the actors, but the overall feel was very sloppy. It's one of their later works and yet it seems less out together and we'll thought out. It's just messy. They couldn't even get dancers that were in sync?

Wonderful bean-planting

[chouchoulane · 25 April 2004]

I turn to this movie when I'm feeling down. My 5-year old niece (with no prompting from me) prefers it to any Disney you care to name. It's one of those movies that's so bad it's brilliant. And why Jack's Mother's line, uttered in sheer frustration, "Plant the Beans, Jack!" has not become a revered movie catchphrase I'll never know. I always shout "Plant the Beans, Jack!" at the Kiefer Sutherland character in "24", especially when he's a little slow on the uptake. Abbott and Costello's "Jack and the Beanstalk" is a little gem and does not deserve the criticism levelled at it on IMDB. The humour may be basic, the characters may be of the cardboard variety, but the director has managed to create a special little world that children and adults can enjoyable enter .

an interesting film

[capricorn9 · 6/10 · 14 July 2006]

Just purchased this film on DVD along with their Africa Screams for $4.99! While it does turn out to be the full 81 minute version it is a very bad print It is still worth having in a collection and a joy to watch. Abbott looks tired though but a surprise to see Costello jumping around and carrying on, although I know a lot of it was stunt work. The disc also has a cute trivia section and BIOS. The above review mentions the giant as Max Baer Sr (Jethro's father) but the IMDb lists him as Buddy Baer, Max's brother. Of course the change from sepia to colour is very reminiscent of Oz and watching it one could almost think it was made around the same time, but it's 1952!

Surprisingly entertaining movie for kids of all ages.

[opsbooks · 7/10 · 26 May 2004]

Having read so much negative press on this movie over the years, I'd always avoided it, but the advent of the cheap public domain DVD encouraged me to finally give it a viewing.

Unfortunately, it's been transferred from a poor copy. The modern prequel, shot on tinted stock, is blurry and the contrast, non-existent. Faces are occasionally difficult to make out. Having said that, the actual story is entertaining and Lou comes across as an accomplished actor, more so than in many of the boys' movies.

Once the movie switches to the 'Jack' story, the film switches to 'colour' and I use that term loosely. Most hues are orange or brown. The greens look particularly bad.

Dorothy Ford as 'Polly', the giant's maid, was a big plus for me as I enjoyed her in an early 'Andy Hardy' appearance.

With so many negative comments put down to the actual quality of the print, I'm still happy to give this movie a 7. It gave me a lot of laughs and that's more than the greater majority of comedies I've watched over the decades can manage.

One to watch if you get the chance.

My least favorite A&C movie.

[pmtelefon · 4/10 · 24 June 2019]

I'm a big fan of Abbott & Costello. I been watching their movies all of my life. "Jack and the Beanstalk" is the one I watch the least. It's just not that much fun to watch. Yes, there are a few laughs but not enough. This movies suffers from a cheap looking production. The sets and the costumes are distractingly bad. The supporting cast doesn't deliver much support. They're all pretty bad in this movie. The songs are all bad/forgettable. They all get the fast forward button. "Jack and the Beanstalk" also has the worst giant in movie history. Dishonorable mention: the harp.

could be funnier

[SnoopyStyle · 6/10 · 16 February 2020]

Little Donald Larkin is a hand full. His sister Eloise is desperate for a babysitter so that she could go out with her boyfriend Arthur. Mr. Dinkel (Bud Abbott) and Jack Strong (Lou Costello) arrive at the employment agency just in time to scoop up the job. Costello tries to read the classic fairytale to little Donald but Donald ends up reading to Lou. Lou falls asleep and dreams himself to be Jack in the story. The butcher Mr. Dinkelpuss (Bud Abbott) sells him the magical beans.

Like Wizard of Oz, the movie opens with the black and white real world and then goes into the Technicolor dream world. That's about where the qualities diverge. The technical aspect looks a bit inferior despite over a decade difference. That's almost besides the point. I don't know about the princess addition. I don't like selling his beloved cow for meat. Why would they be poor if their hen laid golden eggs? These are a few of the unlikeable additions. They should have stuck closer to the fairytale. Costello as Jack is a no-brainer but he does need to be funnier. He's been funnier. Abbott should probably play both the bean seller and the giant. Instead, the giant is played by a very big actor. At the end of the day, this rises and falls on whether it's funny or not. The egg cooking is pretty funny but the movie needs more of that. The rest of the cast is limited in their acting skills. It does have some slapstick fun. It could have been great but it's only passable.

So bad it's good

[lastmidnite2 · 3/10 · 6 December 2009]

I watched this last night for the first time in 40 years. It's bad. Really bad. But it has enough hilariously awful moments, that it's worth watching. First of all, was it deliberate to make the boy being babysat completely effeminate? He even says to Costello a la Mae West "you fascinate me!" as Costello does a double take. God only knows what would have have happened if the babysitter had been a hunk. THIS kid would have seduced him in a heartbeat! Then there's the principal male dancer. He is totally inept. Roar with laughter as he leaps and prances with no talent whatsoever over the giant's grave during He Never Looked Better in His Life. The two romantic leads are zeros, wastes. Abbott gets to sing one line and that was dubbed in by another singer. Geez, I guess he couldn't even carry a tune! Costello does manage to be charming in his I Fear Nothing number, and I guess very small children might like it, but there's not much to recommend it. But oh that seductive effeminate boy! THAT aspect alone blew me away! Plus the fact the family accepted anyone off the street with no references to babysit a child! Today, little femmy boy would be taken away from them!

JACK AND THE BEANSTALK (Jean Yarbrough, 1952) **1/2

[Bunuel1976 · 6/10 · 28 December 2007]

I had watched this previously (at secondary school, of all places!) and recall not liking it all that much. However, I was more amenable to it this time around – perhaps because it came hot on the heels of a similar film pitting a comedy act in a fairy-tale setting, i.e. the self-explanatory SNOW WHITE AND THE THREE STOOGES (1961); here, of course, it's Abbott & Costello we're talking about.

The film utilizes the sepia-into-color transition popularized by THE WIZARD OF OZ (1939) between its modern-day bookends and the period-set main narrative; less welcome are the entirely resistible love interest and musical numbers, seemingly compulsory ingredients of this type of family-oriented fare but which now date them most of all! As usually happens, too, most of the characters who appear in the fairy-tale also turn up in 'real life' – including, in this case, the Giant (played by Buddy Bear from the afore-mentioned SNOW WHITE AND THE THREE STOOGES) who also fills in for a burly cop whom the pint-sized Lou Costello aggravates!

The stars are amiable as always and manage to adapt their standard characterizations to the requirements of the familiar formula. Incidentally, this proved to be the boys' fourth of five films with director Yarborough – and one of only two A&C vehicles to be made in color (the other being the similarly adventurous ABBOTT AND COSTELLO MEET CAPTAIN KIDD [1952]). Atypically for them, this was not a Universal production – but rather an independent one distributed through Warner Bros., which explains its public domain status!

Finally, I really ought to spring for those four "Abbott & Costello" DVD collections from Universal one of these days – plus I still have a handful of filmed fairy tales/children's classics to go through during this Christmas period...

Adventures in Babysitting

[southdavid · 4/10 · 9 September 2020]

I used to watch the "Abbott and Costello" movies a lot when I was younger, particularly the Universal Monster crossovers. For the first time in probably thirty years I watched this one recently - it was a little disappointing, I have to admit.

Whilst reading a story to a boy he's babysitting for, Jack (Lou Costello) leaps into the world of Jack and the Beanstalk. Struggling for food, Jack sell's his family cow to Mr Dinkelpuss (Bud Abbott), the town butcher, in return for some magic beans. Planting the beans, they grow into a massive beanstalk, that reaches all the way up to the castle of the fearsome giant (Buddy Baer) who has been plundering the town and has kidnapped both the Princess (Shaye Cogan) and her betrothed Prince Arthur (James Alexander). Jack and Mr Dinkelpuss climb the stalk, with the aim of getting at the Giant's treasure and rescuing the couple.

I appreciate that it was only ever going to be gentle family-friendly comedy, but even so this feels underneath my recollection of those slapstick farces that I watched in my youth. I'm not sure the colour helps, I get that it's to work as a gentle parody of "The Wizard Of Oz" but the colour work here (at least on the dvd I've seen) was much more gaudy than It needed to be. There's some decent moments, such as the animation integration on the beanstalk scenes - the eggs with gunpowder in them works well and the wordplay is occasionally amusing.

The giant is a disappointment though, I'm not expecting full CGI creatures, but they could have kept him in shadow and superimposed him into scenes, and made him truly a giant. The physical comedy at the end of the film is a bit of an anti-climax and the individual romance songs are poor, though the ensemble ones in the village are a bit better, but there the dancers there are strikingly terrible. The Irish harp too doesn't add much to the plot and could have been dropped.

I need to revisit a few more of their films, but I won't be back to "Jack and the Beanstalk" in a hurry.

A wonderful comic vehicle.

[KennethEagleSpirit · 8/10 · 12 January 2007]

Abbott and Costello's talents shine in the happily childish version of "Jack and the Beanstalk". The use of sepia tone and colour, the music and choreography, song and dance, the crossing over of players from one role to another, plus various other aspects of this very fine movie make it obvious that techniques and styles used for "The Wizard of Oz" are being toyed with here. And that works right well for our intrepid duo. There are certain other things involved that make this movie a treat for me ... Buddy Baer's, Max Baer Jr. of "The Beverly Hillbillies" uncle, appearance as the cop and the giant. Pat Costello, Lou's brother, having been involved in the writing of the script. These things help make this film fun. It does, however, have it's down side. I do think that the choreography is poorly done. But the cute tunes and accompanying vocals help detract from the rather sloppy dance numbers. Some of the players, the couple in love ( prince and princess ) to be precise, aren't very good at their trade. But these things are a small price to pay for an otherwise throughly enjoyable walk down the yellow brick ... er, I mean ... climb up the beanstalk.

You Would Prefer Maybe Jack the Giant Slayer?

[johcafra · 7/10 · 8 June 2013]

C'mon, lighten up. This was for the kids in the matinée.

Even when he acts in character Bud is the consummate straight man.

Lou looks like he enjoys himself. He sings quite well. He and Buddy Baer (not quite a giant but close enough to count) do their own stunts.

The musical score is excellent, with lyrics at times both thoughtful and hilarious.

Mel Blanc and Arthur Shields lend their voices. Dorothy Ford lends her unique perspective.

Of course it looks like a cartoon. It was supposed to.

You can't get the genius of "Who's On First?" in every clip of a very long-running vaudeville act.

For the very young at heart.

"Gilligan's Island" pretty much summed it all up in a 3 minute dream sequence.

[mark.waltz · 5/10 · 24 April 2014]

An oh-so-silly children's musical for the early Saturday and Sunday matinée kiddie audience (while the parents did their grocery shopping), this Abbott and Costello film probably had little interest from their adult fans. The giant is actually just a tall, fat man, a big bully who just happens to live on the clouds, and the opening and closing framing (concerning a bratty kid Lou happens to be babysitting) just adds needless length to the film. A few silly songs are thrown in to add to the juvenile feeling. If you are at all familiar with Stephen Sondheim's musical, "Into the Woods", you've seen it done much better. In fact, if you've seen any of the productions of that hit show, those songs might pop into your head while these songs are instantly erased mercifully from your musical memory database.

One funny scene involves Costello (as Jack) being chased by the so- called giant in a hollow log which brings a few laughs, but the rest of the film is somewhat unbearable. I can't rate this film based upon what I thought of it, but by imagining how a less jaded and technically less advanced era of pre-teen movie audiences might have taken to this. But if you want to see how a good fairy tale can actually be from that era, I highly recommend "The 50,000 Fingers of Dr. T" over this mediocre nonsense.

The best of the team's fifties efforts

[rdh7182373 · 17 July 2000]

Abbott and Costello's "Jack and the Beanstalk" was the best of the team's fifties features. Shot around the same time as their television show, it represents one of the two color films they made in their career. The original photography was actually in Eastmancolor. The prints were made in the Super Cinecolor 3 strip process was was similar to Technicolor but grainier and difficult to focus due to the dual emulsion print stock. It looks as if the framing devise might have been filmed in Eastmancolor too but printed on B&W sepia toned stock. I used to watch this picture as a child in syndication and found it amusing and even charming. While a far cry from their pre-1948 movies, I give them a lot of credit for trying something different. The supporting players are fun with Buddy Baer (Jethro's dad) having a ball as the giant. The princess is played by Shaye Coogan who later became a pop singer. James Alexander popped up on their TV show too. One of the campy elements of the film is Johnny Conrad and his dancers who often out of synch during the songs. Consumers should be aware that there are three versions of the film put out by different companies due to it public domain statis. The uncut version was taped from a Preview print,contains extra scenes and runs approx. 82 min. It was released on laserdisc with extras. The standard release cut 78 minute version is also on tape. The cut scenes include a sequence of the butcher arguing with ladies in town and extended versions of the song, "Darlene" and "Dreamer's Cloth". It was re-issued by RKO in B&W in 1961 and used to played in syndication that way for many year. Good luck in hunting a complete version.

Bud and Lou go on a whimsical journey...

[simeon_flake · 6/10 · 6 September 2014]

First, the Goodtimes DVD release of this film is the one to get for people who have never seen this film before or have seen poor quality transfers of it. Very excellent quality and I am someone who had never seen this movie before--but it's hard for me to imagine there being a better print out there. So a big thumbs up to Goodtimes video for that.

As for the film itself, I'm usually not one for cute and whimsical vehicles turned out by my favorite comedians. "Snow White and the Three Stooges" for instance is a prime example of cute and whimsy gone all wrong--but fortunately, this film doesn't reach that low level.

While it's not prime A & C, "Jack and the Beanstalk" managed to hold my attention and I didn't find myself staring at my wristwatch waiting for the film to end.

And the performances by all the actors involved were good enough--although by the closing minutes of the film I was left to wonder what happened to the Giant's housekeeper that Costello becomes infatuated with. One minute we see her leaving the Giant's castle with the cow, then she's never seen again--kind of odd.

Overall, while I prefer my A & C a little more edgier & not geared towards kids so much, "Jack and the Beanstalk" is not a film that embarrasses the duo--a pleasant little vehicle that should delight the kids and maybe entertain the adults as well. 6 stars

Worth recording for a new generation

[racliff · 7/10 · 22 September 2007]

For us, an Abbott and Costello movie is something you have to be in the mood for. I'm very happy I recorded this -- my wife remembered it from when she was young, but I had never seen it. The family wanted to watch something not too serious before bed and this was selected.

Our daughter has watched many of the old movies with us -- always complaining in the beginning, but most often coming around. She mostly ignored this in the beginning, preferring to check her email, but she started enjoying herself -- many times laughing out loud to the zaniness.

It's wonderful to think you can have a fun evening with a 55yr old. The mono-colour introduction that blends into the full-colour fairy tale. It's a fun twist of a story that everyone is familiar with, that includes a little song and a little dance, along with everything you expect Lou and Bud to delivery.

Watch it with your children and have a very fun evening!

Abbott & Costello's version of the story

[Leofwine_draca · 4/10 · 26 June 2017]

JACK AND THE BEANSTALK is an all-colour, vibrant, cheap and cheerful version of the fairy tale, and also a vehicle for comic duo Abbott & Costello and their usual brand of dim-witted, slapstick humour. This one's dominated by Costello who takes on the role of Jack himself while Abbott only plays in support. It's a dated production for sure, lacking the finesse of an earlier production such as Laurel & Hardy's BABES IN TOYLAND, although there are a few choice moments. The song and dance numbers are quite difficult to sit through, but a lot of the entertainment value arises from Buddy Baer's turn as the Giant, portrayed as an unstoppable, TERMINATOR-style villain.

climbing ever upward

[lee_eisenberg · 7/10 · 13 August 2005]

So I guess that Bud and Lou just liked to mess with classic stories (although they did have some interesting results). In this case, they're baby-sitting a bad boy, and Lou tries to read him "Jack and the Beanstalk" but falls asleep and dreams that he's Jack and Bud's the butcher, and they climb the beanstalk to rescue the prince and princess from the giant (Buddy Baer).

I think that my favorite scene was when Lou was trying to make the giant an omelet, and...well, I'll let you see what happens. As this was an Abbott and Costello movie, they did have a few unnecessary songs, but other than that, it was pretty funny. For other interpretations of the classic story, "Bewitched" and "Gilligan's Island" both had episodes portraying it.

A Mildly Amusing Diversion

[sddavis63 · 4/10 · 15 January 2009]

I'm not really much of an Abbott & Costello fan (although I do enjoy "Who's On First") and, to be honest, there wasn't much in this movie that would inspire me to watch any more of their work. It wasn't really bad. It had some mildly amusing scenes, and actually a very convincing giant played by Buddy Baer, but somehow, given the fame of the duo and the esteem in which they're generally held, I have to say I was expecting more. As the story goes, the pair stumble into a babysitting job, and during the reading of Jack & The Beanstalk as a bedtime story (with the kid reading it to Costello), Costello's Jack falls asleep and dreams himself into the story. There's a "Wizard Of Oz" kind of feel to the story, in that the characters in the dream are all the equivalents of real-life acquaintances of Jack, and the movie opens in black & white and shifts to colour during the dream sequence. The fight scenes between Jack and the giant and the dance scene between Jack and Polly (Dorothy Ford) are among the amusing parts of the movie. Polly, of course, also leads to one of the questions of the movie - what happened to her? Jack and gang apparently left her behind in the giant's castle! I know - it was just a dream, so who cares. Still - I wondered. There were also a couple of cute song and dance routines. My 4 year old giggled a bit during this, so she was able to appreciate some of the humour. I found it to be an acceptable timewaster, but certainly not anything that would convince you of Abbott and Costello as comic geniuses. 4/10

Fairy tale on Abbott and Costello slapstick humor!!

[elo-equipamentos · 7/10 · 11 September 2018]

Jack and beanstalk a fairy tale were many times put on screen, for first time adapted by a slapstick humor from one my favorite couple of comedians like Bud Abbott and Lou Costello who overcame all others pictures, start with sepia tone into color indeed a carbon copy of "The Wizzard of Oz" all characters in the beginning moves inside the tale, a smart catch of humor and all them were transfered with the same behavior and feelings on it, the highlights comes from the genuine and candid character Lou Costello as Jack, the weakness of the movie is about tries to be a mix of humor and musical, where the song were pointless and unsuited, the duo are my heroes even l've been belong of a remote next generation, perhaps cause they look like "The Three Stooges" who were aired everyday on TV at my hometown and quickly they became one of my favorite duo comic!!!

Resume:

First watch: 2011 / How many: 2 / Source: DVD / Rating: 7

Cack and the Beanstalk.

[BA_Harrison · 3/10 · 4 June 2022]

Just like the Wizard of Oz, Abbott and Costello's Jack and the Beanstalk is a musical fantasy that starts off in monochrome but transitions into colour once the film enters fairy-tale territory. Unlike The Wizard of Oz, the film is charmless, puerile rubbish aimed at small kids that features lamentable comedy and completely forgettable songs.

In the black and white intro, Bud and Lou play Mr. Dinkel and Jack, who take a job as babysitters for a precocious problem child (background checks not being a thing in the '50s). Jack tries reading a fairytale to the young lad, but winds up having the story read to him by the boy instead. Dozing off, Jack dreams that he is the hero of Jack and the Beanstalk, who teams up with Mr. Dinklepuss to rescue a princess from the giant who has been terrorising his kingdom.

Abbott and Costells' buffoonery is particularly infantile on this occasion - predictable sub-pantomime level humour - and the tuneless warbling is grating, making this film a real chore to sit through. Furthermore, the giant is a total letdown, played by 6' 6¾ Buddy Baer in platform shoes, no special effects required. Shaye Cogan plays the princess, but she is easily outshone by statuesque brunette beauty Dorothy Ford, who, at 6' 2", is tough to ignore.

2.5/10, rounded up to 3 for IMDb. Watch Laurel and Hardy's March of the Wooden Soldiers for a more successful attempt by a comedy duo at doing family-friendly fairytale fantasy (it's far from L&H's best work, but much better than A&C's effort).

very good Abbott and Costello movie

[mercury4 · 10/10 · 15 August 2003]

I've loved this movie since I was a little kid. I remember the night my mother brought this movie home for me. I loved it and I still do. I think it's very funny and original. There are also some very catchy tunes in this movie. Lou is also a surprisingly good singer. The actors that portray Prince Arthur and Princess Eloise are okay too, but Abbott and Costello are the best. Former heavyweight boxing sensation Buddy Baer, also brother of former heavyweight champion Max Baer is good in this movie as the cop and The giant. He's a better actor than boxer. He had a natural talent. The beginning of this movie is hilarious how Lou Costello keeps crashing the car and how he gets into trouble with Buddy Baer. The slapstick in the house is good too. I especially like the comedy in the Giant's castle. My favorite parts are; the part were Lou is climbing the beanstalk and they're all singing as a farewell. Jack is singing back to them that he'll return. Lou Costello is a very good at singing. My other favorite part is the part when Jack is fighting with the Giant. I like when Jack makes exploding eggs and when he tries to make the Giant an omelet they keep exploding. Abbott and Costello are hilarious and the greatest comedians of all time. This is only one of their great movies that I will love and cherish. The reviews for this movie aren't very good and I can't understand why. This is a very good Abbott and Costello movie. I also love how Lou Costello comes back to reality in the end and thinks he's back in the dream when Bud hits him. He starts singing his song and leaves with an attitude like no one is going to push me around. Very good movie.

"The taller you are, the taller your shadow. You see, that's the basic principle of mathematics."

[utgard14 · 6/10 · 28 November 2014]

Abbott and Costello tackle a classic fairy tale in this enjoyable comedy. Aimed more at kids, it still has appeal for adult viewers I think. There are a lot of nice bits of comedy and some pleasant songs. Like the Wizard of Oz, the parts in the real world are filmed in sepia tone and the fantasy part (the bulk of the movie) is in color. Bud and Lou are both having a good time playing outside their usual type of movie and it shows. Lou especially seems into it. The Giant is played by Buddy Baer, younger brother of former heavyweight champ Max Baer. Shaye Cogan and Dorothy Ford are very pretty and likable. Mel Blanc provides the voices for the harp and animals. He's always fun. This was the first Abbott & Costello movie I ever saw. I was a kid then and over the years I've seen many more plus episodes of the TV show. It's a charming movie for kids and adults who don't take themselves too seriously.

Bud and Lou's First Color Film

[PCC0921 · 5/10 · 15 April 2023]

Abbott and Costello wanted to make color films, but Universal Pictures did not, so Lou's independent film company, Exclusive Productions, funded and produced Jack and the Beanstalk (1952). Even though it had the full backing of Lou Costello, as well as Bud, this film was still considered an independent film production and it shows in some of its design. The boys still give the audience a good performance, albeit on the kids side of the equation. By 1952 Bud and Lou had been relegated to the "just for kids", type-of audience. The boys style of comedy had evolved more towards a younger audience. The musical interludes, acting and over-all quality in Jack and the Beanstalk (1952), seemed average at best. Bud's singing voice is obviously dubbed. There is however, inherit qualities to the film, that makes it worth watching. It does give a good effort, even though the cash wasn't there.

The allure to this film is all about Bud and Lou. The greatness that they expressed from the movie screen in the 1940s, is what kept this 1950s film afloat. It shows how wonderful they were, even in an average film. It shows how dedicated they were to their craft. There are some cool, stylized animations, drawn backgrounds and art designs, that depict the beanstalk fairly well. There are a couple of cringeworthy, creepy characters, that pop up in the film however. The Giant has a magical, talking harp, that also talks. It is constructed with a wooden head nailed to the top of the harp. The wood-carved, puppet-looking head, is oddly designed and it seemed creepy. Another oddly depicted character was Jack's (Lou Costello), cow, Henry. Henry has red make-up and lipstick smeared on her nose and cheeks, in an attempt to remind the audience, that Henry is a female. When she begins to cry, because Jack has to sell her, it looks like the poor animal was punched in the face. The idea just wasn't executed well.

The story found in Jack and the Beanstalk (1952), does utilize all of the entertaining aspects, about the fairy tale of Jack and the Beanstalk. However, some of the pacing, related to bad songs and an over-all, B-movie atmosphere, brings this film down to E For Effort level. Also remember, that Jack and the Beanstalk (1952), was produced, with the opening/closing scenes in sepia-tone and the rest of the film in color. The VHS era and airings of the film on television, has spawned versions of Jack and the Beanstalk (1952), that have the opening/closing scenes in black and white. Make sure you are watching the color/sepia-tone version of the film, since that is the originally intended version of the film. The copyright for Jack and the Beanstalk (1952), was never renewed by the last owner, RKO Pictures, so it has been in public domain status for the last 45 years. You can find many different versions of this film on YouTube.

5.1 (E+ MyGrade) = 5 IMDB.