Il piccolo gigante

Little Giant is the most unusual Abbott&Costello film ever made with Bud and Lou not functioning as a team per se. They did one other film like that for Universal at the time. According to the Bob Thomas book on the team the two were close to breaking up at the time and it was decided to treat them separately. Eventually things were patched up.

Bud has a dual role as the evil general manager of the Hercules Vacuum Cleaner company who's been skimming off the books to pay for his expensive, but secret wife Jacqueline DeWit. His other roles is as his own cousin and branch manager of the Stockton office of the said company. Bud as the cousin has a girlfriend in secretary Brenda Joyce.

Not enough is said about Bud's acting here in two fairly straight roles because he got lost in the praise for Lou Costello's best show of pathos. Little Giant is the film where he is fairly compared with such silent screen comedians like Charlie Chaplin, Harry Langdon, or Roscoe Arbuckle. If Little Giant had been a silent film, any one of these comic greats could have done the Costello role. Lou measures up to all of them here.

Lou's a simple kid from the farm who's taken a correspondence course in salesmanship and wants to be a vacuum cleaner salesman in the tradition of his uncle George Cleveland. With the best wishes of his mother Mary Gordon, Lou goes off to Los Angeles to get a job with the Hercules Vacuum Cleaner company.

Costello's various adventures both on the job and amorous show him at his best as an innocent. Not even Stan Laurel ever responded to vamping the way Lou does with Jacqueline DeWit.

Today's viewers will not get the joke, but Costello's character Benny Miller coming from Cucamonga was a guaranteed laugh every time the town was mentioned. It took years for the town to live down its reputation as a place for hicks, but that was as a result of the Jack Benny Show and the famous announcement that occurred every so often in one of the broadcasts about a train leaving for Anaheim, Azusa, and Cucamonga. Imagine that with every letter Cucamonga enunciated to the fullest. When you got off at Cucamonga you were in the equivalent of Hooterville. And Costello's very character was a typical Cucamonga resident as the Jack Benny Show told the world.

For the biggest and most successful extension of Lou Costello's range as a comedian, one should view Little Giant.

Included in the second of Universal's multi-disc DVD sets of Abbott and Costello, LITTLE GIANT is a charming film, full of pathos, and NOT a standard A&C comedy. First, Abbott and Costello are not a team here. It's basically Costello's film, with Abbott in a dual role as both the film's antagonist and the antagonist's cousin, who befriends Costello. Second, the comedy is more physical than is usual for A&C and less verbal. It proves what a fine physical comedian Costello was. Third, the film tries for pathos instead of pure slapstick, and strays into territory more associated with Chaplin or Harry Langdon or even Jerry Lewis (as in Hardly Working, which this film reminded me of). Once again, Costello proves his talent as an actor of quality and depth. I applaud Universal for trying to develop the talents of Abbott and Costello in films such as this one and THE TIME OF THEIR LIVES, which followed it. Interestingly, after these two changes-of-pace for A&C, Universal played it safe by doing a sequel to BUCK PRIVATES, their first solo smash. Abbott does a nice job in both roles (obviously, the "positions" of his toupee were intentional!). A shame he did not get more character roles such as these. With the wide circulation the new DVD boxset will give LITTLE GIANT, I feel it will gain a new and understanding audience who will appreciate the chances the film takes. Finally, the wonderful Elena Verdugo is as charming as ever.

While I certainly agree with the other viewer that Little Giant is atypical of the Abbott and Costello oeuvre, it is definitely not their last movie together!

It also had the one singularly saddest scene in my 50+ years of movie-going.

Seemingly failed vacuum-cleaner salesman "Benny Miller" is returning home to the sticks with a little bird in a small wooden cage, a gift for his mom (Mary Gordon, of course). He stops to aid a neighbor whose mule-drawn wagon is stuck in a big muddy patch. He puts his shoulder to the rear of the wagon, the whole ensemble takes off without so much as a "thank you" from the neighbor, "Benny" goes face first into the mud and when he manages to get himself erect, he discovers that the bird has escaped.

He's standing there, covered with mud from eyebrows to knees in his best Sunday suit, holding the empty cage, and says, his lower lip quivering, "M-m-my bird... it was for my Mom.."

This 12-year-old dissolved into tears right there in the fifth row of the Macomb Theater in Mount Clemens, Michigan. Years later I could still well up at the thought of that scene, and when, as an actor, I needed to play a certain value, it was that "sense memory" I called upon.

This is one of Abbott and Costello's most unusual films, as it's the first of two that made where the characters were NOT friends. In addition, Bud Abbott plays dual roles--one a nice enough guy and the other a total scum-bag! Plus, and here's the oddest part, the film is a traditional story in many ways-as both play honest-to-goodness people! As a result, it really isn't a comedy per se--as the film is not built around gags but people. Sure, there are a few laughs here and there, but that is all.

While I know that the film was a bit of a flop and many people disliked its style, I frankly liked it because it was such a departure. You see, by 1946, the team had already made 16 films in only 6 years--and all but one of them (WHO DONE IT!) followed roughly the same formula. With this formula, there was a love story, some Abbott and Costello comedy and lots of singing. As far as the love story goes, this time it actually involves Lou and a girl back home. However, there is no singing and little what anyone would consider comedy.

I think one thing that bothered people is the pathos in the film. Lou plays a nice guy who gets hurt pretty badly at times in the film. You want him to win but time and again, jerks take advantage of him. Near the very end, this hit practically epic proportions, though smartly, the film didn't stay mired too long in pathos--coming to a nice and quick resolution.

The film begins with Lou living on the farm with his Mom. He wants to make good, so he's been taking a correspondence course in salesmanship. Unfortunately, he isn't very good at it and when he goes to the big city to make his mark, he makes a mess of it. He loses his job and gets another job with the same vacuum cleaner company in another town. However, in an odd twist, his co-workers play a joke on him--convincing him he's psychic. The gag works too well, as Lou is convinced it's real. The jokes on them when he turns into an amazing salesman--setting a sales record the very next day.

As for Bud, in Los Angeles, he plays a crooked and thoroughly nasty jerk. He takes pleasure in firing Lou and it's interesting to see them working against each other instead of with each other. In his next job, Lou goes to work for Bud's cousin--played once again by Bud (with a slightly different hairdo). This time, he's more of a normal guy and confides in Lou that he can't stand his stupid cousin in L.A.! It was an interesting acting challenge for Bud--as rarely did any of his characters in other film have any depth. Here, he plays two parts and quite well. In fact, it worked out well enough that they had him do the same in the next film, THE TIME OF THEIR LIVES. Another, more practical reason they did this was because Bud and Lou were having a horrible spat at the time--and they would only play in films where they acted separately!! Fortunately for the team, the managed to patch things up for other films.

One of the only comedy routines in the film was also used in one of the team's earlier films, IN THE NAVY. This is the funny math routine where Lou explains (rather convincingly) that 7x13=21! While it is a retread, it's redone well.

Overall, while this is hated by most people, I liked the film a lot--nearly giving it a 9. Why? Originality and both Bud and Lou stretched themselves--trying new things even if the public wasn't 100% ready for THIS big a change. Maybe much of the reason I respect this film so much is that I have re-seen all the Abbott and Costello films leading up to LITTLE GIANT and it just felt like a breath of fresh air seeing such a completely original film.

This is a little appreciated A&C film that actually is quite good. It has almost no music to interrupt it. Abbott has a dual role & is only with Costello in small parts of the film. When this was made, the boys were fighting so they tried not to do scenes together.

Director William Seiter has a lot to do with a lot of the difference here. Sidney Fields has a great sequence doing the straight man with Costello early in the film too.

This film has a funny/ fuzzy math routine (common core) that obviously is drawn straight from A&C's radio shows they did before the movies. There is a lot of good support for A&C in this movie. This is the only film where Costello does "pathos" type comedy and he is actually quite good at it.

Some critics rated this as the best A&C film that few people have seen. It is the first of 2 films which departed from their standard format. Maybe they should have fought more often as they are 2 of the stronger films the team did.

Overall, this is a good outing, and worth seeing. Universal has it on their DVD Franchise Collection, Volume 2 of 4 volumes.