JACK AND THE BEANSTALK (1952) *1/2 Abbott and Costello are clearly running out of ideas, or at least spreading the few that they have too thin among too many films (four features and a tv series in '52 alone). I don't mean big, sweeping, grandiose artistic ideas, I mean silly little A&C ideas. Abbott's major contribution to the film, for example, is to wear a wig. Costello does somewhat better--his sleepwalking through the role almost makes sense in context, but when he (aesthetically) wakes up for brief moments of entertainment it reminds us that he's generally being far duller than necessary. There are several moments of sublime humour (the temp agency, Lou's dance with Dorothy Ford), but the funniest part of the film is probably the willfully asinine love scene between Shaye Cogan and James Alexander, and the funniest part of that is probably their makeup.
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