La poule aux oeufs d'or

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.

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?

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!

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.

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.