Jack and the Beanstalk (1952 film)
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| Jack and the Beanstalk | |
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 Jack and the Beanstalk Theatrical Poster |
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| Directed by | Jean Yarbrough |
| Produced by | Alex Gottlieb Pat Costello Bud Abbott Lou Costello |
| Written by | Nat Curtis Pat Costello |
| Starring | Bud Abbott Lou Costello Buddy Baer Dorothy Ford Barbara Brown |
| Music by | Raoul Kraushaar |
| Editing by | Otho Lovering |
| Distributed by | Warner Brothers |
| Release date(s) | April 9, 1952 |
| Running time | 78 min. |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $683,000 |
| Preceded by | Comin' Round The Mountain (1951) |
| Followed by | Lost in Alaska (1952) |
| IMDb profile | |
Jack and the Beanstalk is a 1952 family comedy starring the comedy team of Abbott and Costello. It is a comic revision of the classic fairy tale.
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[edit] Plot
Mr. Dinkle (Bud Abbott) and Jack (Lou Costello) look for work at the Cosman Employment Agency, whose agent Polly (Dorothy Ford) catches Jack's eye; however, his simple advances towards Polly are interrupted by the arrival of her boyfriend (Buddy Baer), a towering figure of a policeman. Polly assigns them to be babysitters for Eloise Larkin's (Shaye Cogan) brother Donald (David Stollery) and their infant sister, while she and her fiance, Arthur (James Alexander), perform in a local theatre production. Their sitters' duties are complicated by Donald being something of a child prodigy, as well as a self-proclaimed "problem child". The dull-witted Jack is immediately outclassed by Donald, and an attempt to lull the boy to sleep by reading the fairy tale "Jack and the Beanstalk" (Jack's "favorite novel") aloud fails when Jack stumbles over some of the multi-syllable words. Bemused by his new babysitter, Donald graciously agrees to read the story to Jack instead, and the role-reversal is made complete when Jack falls asleep as Donald reads. He begins to dream that he is the young Jack of the story.
Jack (Lou Costello) learns that the Giant (Buddy Baer), who lives in a castle in the sky, has stolen all of the food and all of the land's wealth, which now means that his kingdom's princess (Shaye Cogan) must marry a prince from a neighboring kingdom (James Alexander), whom she has never met. Jack must also make sacrifices, as his mother sends him to sell their last family possession of any value, their beloved cow "Henry", to the local butcher, Mr. Dinklepuss (Bud Abbott). Along the way he meets up with the prince, who is then kidnapped by the Giant after Jack goes on his way. The unscrupulous Dinklepuss trades five 'magic' beans to Jack for the cow. By the time he makes it back home, he learns that the princess has been kidnapped by the Giant, as well as Henry.
Undeterred by his mother's disappointment over bringing home the beans, Jack plants them and overnight a huge beanstalk grows all the way up into the sky. He decides to climb the beanstalk to rescue everyone, as well as retrieve "Nellie", the hen that lays golden eggs that the Giant stole from his family. Dinklepuss, learning about Nellie's existence, decides to join Jack on this adventure.
Upon arriving at the top, they are captured by the Giant and imprisoned alongside the prince and princess. After the Giant assigns the hapless pair to perform labors around the castle, they befriend the Giant's housekeeper, Polly (Dorothy Ford), and she aids them in a plan to escape over the castle wall along with the royal prisoners, Nellie, and some of the wealth in gems that the Giant has accumulated (the latter two pilfered by the greedy Dinklepuss). They flee down the beanstalk with the Giant in pursuit, as Polly escapes the castle behind him, astride Henry. During the climb down, Dinklepuss loses first Nellie (who falls into the arms of Jack's mother) and then the gems, which rain down upon the impoverished townsfolk below. Once all are on the ground, Jack chops down the beanstalk, sending the Giant falling to his death.
Just as Jack is about to be rewarded by the King for his heroism, he is forcibly awakened from his dream by Donald, who breaks a vase over Jack's head just as Eloise and Arthur return from their evening out. Jack's angry outburst in front of the couple over Donald's behavior results in a second knock on the head from Mr. Dinkle, which switches Jack back into his dream persona. After greeting the others as their storybook counterparts, Jack walks off into the night with the bravado and courage of Jack the Giant-Killer.
[edit] Trivia
- It was filmed from July 9 through August 2, 1951.
- The film's opening and closing segments were processed in sepia tone, although many of the DVD releases feature these sequences in black and white, while the entire "Jack and the Beanstalk" story was shot in SuperCineColor.
- Since Universal wouldn't spend the money to make an Abbott and Costello film in color, they decided to do it themselves. Using the agreement with Universal that they could make one independent film per year, they made this film using Costello's company, Exclusive Productionst and the second color film, Abbott and Costello Meet Captain Kidd using Abbott's company, Woodley Productions.[1]
- Just before filming began, on May 9, Abbott and Costello signed a contract with NBC to star in their own Television series, The Abbott and Costello Show.
- Sets from the 1948 film, Joan of Arc, were used in this film.
- A soundtrack, including songs and dialogue, was released on Decca Records on June 9, 1952.
- It was re-released in 1960 by RKO Pictures.
[edit] DVD releases
As this film is in the public domain, there have been at least a dozen DVD releases from a variety of companies over the years, including a restored version to be released by Legend Films. The image below is the cover of the Diamond Entertainment Corporation's release.
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[edit] Reference
- ^ Furmanek, Bob and Ron Palumbo (1991). Abbott and Costello in Hollywood. New York: Perigee Books. ISBN 0-399-51605-0
