ABBOTT AND COSTELLO: JACK AND THE BEANSTALK








 JACK AND THE BEANSTALK 1952 Fully restored version - YouTube


ABBOTT AND COSTELLO in JACK AND THE BEANSTALK

 

Maybe AFRICA SCREAMS was colorized (?) but JACK THE BEANSTALK is the first color Abbott and Costello movie I ever saw in color (for years CAPTAIN KIDD had a black and white version shown on TV). Unfortunately, while I hate to say anything bad about any Abbott and Costello movie, this one is really not that funny. The story is, of course, the same Jack and the Beanstalk we know and as such, can’t be all that bad. It’s framed ala THE WIZARD OF OZ in a real world situation. Lou is to baby sit for a bratty kid who starts to read the fairy tale to Lou after hitting him over the head. Lou dreams the whole fairy tale.

 

The color is bright, the fable mostly light hearted, Bud the butcher, Lou is Jack and the story goes pretty much as one would expect. There are the usual pratfalls and quips from Lou and all are mildly amusing. A few of the songs are quite okay (He Never Looked Better in His Life and I Fear Nothing). Some of this is HUH? Polly, the giant house keeper, helps Lou, Bud with Lou’s Nellie (the hen that lays golden eggs), the prince, and the princess escape the castle in the sky. They leave the Harp behind. The Harp is a weird sarcastic character. While Lou follows Bud, Nellie, the princess and prince down the beanstalk, what happens to Polly AND Lou’s loved cow Henry? Do they stay in the sky realm?

 

Much was made of Lou’s love for Henry in the start of the dream sequence.

 

The sets, music, effects, and the giant are all quite well done.

 

The movie is frequently boring, such as a long dance sequence between Polly and Jack but nothing is as bad as when the prince sings. In fact, I have to agree with the ABBOTT AND COSTELLO BOOK, the prince and princess are the worst two leads in ANY A and C movie. Their acting is lame, their singing lame, and their rapport missing. In fact, I don’t get the princess’s problem after the prince reveals he is the prince---she was faking she wasn’t the princess, too.

 

I guess the movie is tolerable and as a kid movie, it’s just fine but honestly…it is the weakest of the ones I’ve watched in this re-watch of all their 36 movies. I wanted to skip ahead to some the independents because some of them are just …not great (AFRICA SCREAMS, CAPTAIN KIDD). This one barely holds interest and doesn’t really hold up now. Still, the boys did something new and for that, it is to be commended and there were few, if any old routines.

 


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