VCI Entertainment offers a pair of public-domain Abbott & Costello features from the comedy team's work done outside of their hit Universal Pictures run. Cineastes may be more attracted by the idea of a 4K restoration of one of the few color A&C movies, 1952's Jack and the Beanstalk. Production values are discernibly sub-Universal in this semi-musical which (like The Wizard of Oz) has a monochrome framing story, in which babysitter Lou tries to placate a bratty kid with the bedtime story of Jack and the beanstalk.
Straightaway we are in the fairy tale (shot in "Super Cinecolor"), wherein director Jean Yarborough's recourse for special f/x is simply to contrast Bud Abbott and Lou Costello against extremely tall people: Buddy Baer as the Giant and 6'2" actress/glamour model Dorothy Ford as his friendly giantess housekeeper.
The basics of the fairy tale remain the same, with the addition of a singing prince and princess and a talking harp with an Irish accent (coming out of an utterly immobile puppet face) all trapped up there in the clouds, imprisoned in the castle of the greedy, cannibalistic giant—but they never seem too concerned about it. The songs are forgettable.
Abbott and Costello were a favorite with child viewers for generations and it's easy to see why, as Lou expertly dials down the burlesque schtick and verbal repartee with perfect-straight-man Bud Abbott to just play an overgrown man-boy type, and his mastery of gestures and expression indicate why A&C had such staying power with audiences.
Funnier, in fits and starts, is 1949's Africa Screams, a public-domain perennial with the pair going on a trip to a backlot African Congo at the behest of a sexy moll (Abbott & Costello regular Hillary Brooke) who mistakenly thinks bookstore clerk Lou has memorized an out-of-print exploration memoir giving away the location of a diamond hoard.
Buddy Baer again plays a supporting bad guy (here joined by his brother, boxing champ Max Baer; listen for a line where Buddy jabs Max with a Joe Louis reference), and two second-string Three Stooges are also in the ensemble, Shemp Howard and Joe Besser (Besser is actually quite a scene-stealer).
Much of the plot turns on now-unfashionable "goona goona" humor about black natives wanting to boil white people in stewpots etc., featuring cameos of two real-life animal hunters/trappers of renown, Frank Buck and Clyde Beatty (Buck performs a lion-tamer act that probably would not please animal activists today).
After the comedy bumpy ride, this one does end with a most satisfying bit for Lou. Martin Scorsese once cited Abbott & Costello Go to Mars as a guilty pleasure; he didn't mention Jack and the Beanstalk or Africa Screams. Still, for a crisp presentation of the immortal screen/TV/radio clowns' lesser-heralded antics, this nostalgic double bill makes a solid optional purchase.