La poule aux oeufs d'or

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 ****

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.

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?

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.

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 .