weezeralfalfa Clearly this adaptation of the classic fairytale has a number of basic similarities to the prior 1939 "The Wizard of Oz" The dream portion takes place high up in the sky, where there is a scary person or 2 that rules the land. Sepia or B&W film is used for the non-dream portions at the beginning and end.(I much prefer the B&W choice over sepia for the present film. Both are available at YouTube). A number of musical numbers are included, some with dance, some individual, others group sings. Certainly, those from "The Wizard" are more memorable.In this version, a number of people besides jack either climb the beanstalk, or are captured by the giant. This includes Abbott, as Mr. Dinklepuss, who climbs the beanstalk with Lou, as Jack. Princess Eloise (Shaye Cogan) and Prince Arthur(James Alexander)who were captured. Also, Polly(Dorothy Ford), who serves as the giant's maid, and presumably was captured as well. As in "The Wizard of Oz", all these characters are based on people Jack(or Dorothy) knew.In this version (there have been many versions in the details), the nameless giant(played by Buddy Baer) stole Jack's chicken who lays golden eggs, as well as the cow Jack exchanged for 5 magic beans from Dinkel. Just how the giant managed to descend to earth without a magic beanstalk and transport the cow plus the people up to his sky kingdom is not considered. Later, he needed the beanstalk to descend. Abbott and Costello begin as supposed babysitters for a Denice-the-Menace-type boy(Donald) and his infant sister. Lou is supposed to read "Jack and the Beanstalk" to Donald, but he stumbles in his reading, so they decide to reverse roles. Lou falls asleep and has this dream. At the end of the film, when Lou is awakening, he says "crown me", meaning the king put a crown on his head. Well, Donald 'crowns' him with a porcelain pitcher! A funny sequence is when Jack mixes some gunpowder in with the chicken feed. When he cooks their eggs, they explode like firecrackers. A&C are standing next to each other, and Lou notices that his shadow is notable longer than Abbott's, despite Abbott's greater height. Turns out the giant is standing behind Lou.After Prince Arthur sings the romantic ballad "Darlene" to Darlene(also known as Princess Eloise), he later sings another romantic ballad to her: "Dreamer's Cloth", and she responds in kind. Costello and Polly also dance to this tune. At 6'2" in bare feet, Polly looked ridiculous dancing with 5'5" Lou. In one segment, she kept bopping his head with her rotating elbows and otherwise jarring his head. Funny. Remember, she was serving as the giant's maid. Thus, before the others showed up, the household consisted of 2 giants, as ex-boxer Buddy Baer, who played the giant, was 6'7".The giant gives Abbott the job of putting his magic hen and jewels away. Bad idea. Abbott and Prince Arthur conspire to steal these, which they eventually succeed at. But Abbott loses them on the way down the beanstalk, the villagers below gathering them. The title song: "Jack and the Beanstalk" is sung during the credits, when Jack and Dinkelpuss begin climbing the magic stalk, and in the finale, when the people arrive from the beanstalk. In the finale, the villagers also sing "He Never Looked Better in his Life", in reference to the now deceased giant.On the whole, this is one of the more interesting A&C films I've seen, especially suitable for children. The musical scenes fit in well with the rest of the screenplay, and there is a good amount of A&C-style humor. Lou's brother,Pat, wrote the screenplay and served as executive producer of this independently produced film.

John T. Ryan WE CAN WELL remember having seen this picture as part of the local businessmen's neighborhood Christmas show for the kids. It was at the old Ogden Theatre; which was located at 53rd & Marshfield in Chicago. This would be circa 1960; so it was obviously not a new release.HAVING BEEN WELL acquainted with the style and routines that made up Abbott & Costello's repertoire, we were somewhat disappointed with this movie. There seemed to be an emptiness about the whole storyline. And besides, we were used to the likes of HPLD THAT GHOST, RIO RITA and ABBOTT & COSTELLO MEET FRANKENSTEIN; not to mention the ABBOTT & COSTELLO TV Show. Where were landlord Mr. Fields (Sidney Fields), Mike the Cop (Gordon Jones) and Roberta (Hillary Brooke)? THIS METHOD OF introducing a two leveled story, with one foot in the real world and the other firmly planted in the nursery rhyme domain, was just too much to ask a kid to assimilate in the space of an hour and a half. After all, we wanted more of the likes pf 'Who's On First' and the old horse 'Mudder & Fodder' type of routines.WELL, YEARS LATER and after having once again viewed this movie, we find that it is a much better A & C vehicle than our memories had classified it. Perhaps we could chalk it all up to our reluctant maturation process as being at the central cause of this turn about; but none the less, this is neither a cheapie, nor an attempt to ca$h in on the A & C name. Nor is it a sad sort of feature, which at once exploits a great team's waning fame; while aiding in accelerating the decline of a fading star quality act. (In much the same manner as those pictures that Laurel & Hardy did at 20th Century-Fox).THE TRUTH BE told, JACK IN THE BEANSTALK (Exclusive Productions/Warner Brothers, 1952) was an excellent sojourn for this funny twosome into the genre of the Movie Musical. Oh, sure, many of their most successful comedies were also musicals, like RIO RITA or BUCK PRIVATES; but this is the first musical that really starred them in the primary roles; without other, more musically inclined performers.IN SHORT, THIS A & C movie was a fine mixture of A & C comedy and top notch original music and songs. WE CAN ONLY surmise that this was better as a musical comedy for an older crowd; not those snotty nosed little urchins at that free Christmas Show!

bkoganbing 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.

Kenneth Eagle Spirit 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.