8mm Forum: Help needed identifying cartoon

This is topic Help needed identifying cartoon in forum 8mm Forum at 8mm Forum.

To visit this topic, use this URL:
https://8mmforum.film-tech.com/cgi-bin/ubb/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=1;t=007129

Posted by Phil Slater (Member # 2388) on May 27, 2012, 02:25 PM:

Hi, I have a cartoon on super 8 sound which I have not been able to find anything about. I would like to know who made it and when.

It is called 'Jack's Beans' and is the story of Jack and the Beanstalk. A couple of interesting things about it, the man who Jack sells the cow to and who gives Jack the beans is obviously meant to be W C Fields, and in the Giant's castle is a harp with the head of Harpo Marx. I would guess it's a 1930s cartoon, but haven't been able to find out anything else. There are no credit's of logos on the film, just the title. It's a Collector's Club release on a 200 foot reel. I attach some screen shots.

It's driving me mad, can't sleep until I solve this mystery. Can anyone help?

Posted by Brad Kimball (Member # 5) on May 27, 2012, 10:49 PM:

Phil, I have searched high and low and came up empty on all ends. I do know that Collectors Club often re-titled their movies with 'bogus' titles so I doubt that "Jack's Beans" is actually the title. Now you've got me restless. I'm a BIG Marx Bros. fan and it's driving me crazy not being able to find anything out.

Posted by Michael O'Regan (Member # 938) on May 28, 2012, 05:32 AM:

Yes, I also have been searching everywhere for any info on this. Nothing. Searches for animated versions of Jack and the Beanstalk seem to mainly throw up the Ub Iwerks version and the Betty Boop version.
Intriguing.
Hopefully someone will come froward with information on this.

Posted by Hugh Thompson Scott (Member # 2922) on May 28, 2012, 06:55 AM:

Hello Michael.regarding the " Jack & the Beanstalk " films,I've
turned up these: "Jack & the Beanstalk" 1931 by Max Fleischer
Prod.Dir, Dave Fleischer. 1 reel

1933 Celebrity Prods. 1 reel

1933 " La Feve Enchantee"

1933 P A Powers Prod Ub Iwerks Ani 6 mins

1939 "The Magic Beans" Walter Lantz 7 mins
A Walter Lantz Nertzsery Rhymes.

I think the reel you have looks to be in the style of Fleischer.
Hope this is of some help.

Posted by Lee Mannering (Member # 728) on May 28, 2012, 07:26 AM:

I'm no help Phil but like you would be interested to know the films real title.

Posted by David M. Ballew (Member # 1818) on May 28, 2012, 07:39 AM:

Hi, everyone (and Phil in particular),

This query was driving me absolutely crazy, so I had to pitch in and do some research.

I am reasonably sure we are looking at "String Bean Jack" (1938) from Terrytoons.

The first clue for me, Phil, was that your screenshots depict a two-headed giant. Terrytoons made a 1939 short called, well, "The Two Headed Giant." The model for that character looks very, very similar to the giant in your short, as evidenced in the pictures on this page (scroll down):

http://cartoonsof1939.blogspot.com/2010/08/107-two-headed-giant.html

Terrytoons was notorious for its stingy approach to cartoon production, and I can only surmise that if they ever once created a good two-headed giant model sheet, they sure as heck would have reused it. And reused it. And reused it.

The confirmation that I was on the right track came when I learned on several animation discussion boards that "String Bean Jack" offers caricatures of both W.C. Fields and Harpo Marx. (Apparently Paul Terry was such a penny-pincher, he refused to hire a harp for the sound effect of the harp. Instead, audiences heard a piano!)

The long and short of it is, I am about 95% sure you've got a copy of "String Bean Jack."

Whew! Only took me about 45 minutes of fervent Googling, and I am now bald on my left side from tearing my hair out. It's a good look for me.

[Edited to correct spelling of Terrytoons. Goes to show how tired I was! :-) ]

[ May 29, 2012, 06:49 PM: Message edited by: David M. Ballew ]

Posted by Lee Mannering (Member # 728) on May 28, 2012, 08:20 AM:

Very well done David! Interesting that Philip A. Scheib the composer played the piano for the harp scene in this 1938 little gem. http://youtu.be/c-_5ju2j-oo

Posted by Phil Slater (Member # 2388) on May 28, 2012, 08:25 AM:

Thanks David, you've done it! I can now rest easy. Thanks also to everyone else who did some investigating.

I will try to put it on Youtube in the next few days and add a link to this thread, so you can all see it. It's quite entertaining and was apparently Terry Toon's first colour cartoon, although my copy is black and white. I hadn't noticed the piano for the harp, but will look out for this next time I watch it.

Posted by Hugh Thompson Scott (Member # 2922) on May 28, 2012, 09:03 AM:

The Giant also bears a resemblance to the one in Popeye/Sinbad
and I still think Fleischer regarding the style.

Posted by Osi Osgood (Member # 424) on May 28, 2012, 12:39 PM:

I'm fairly sure that David's right. Phllip Schieb, (I probably had tht spelled wrong) was the studio composer for an incrediblely long amount of time, and the early Terrytoons were released rather early on, on super 8 and standard 8mm.

The style does look a little like Fleischer, however, but in the early thirties, nearly everybody's output look similar. It was only in the late 30's that each studio really started to develop they're own specific look. Now, differences in humor and over-all style, THAT started up rather early on. You could easily tell a Feischer from a Disney! Fleischer, very inner city and brash, Disney, much more "pastoral" in style.

... though, the early Mickey certainly wasn't against abusing assorted innocent farm animals on a regular basis ... and often did!

Posted by David M. Ballew (Member # 1818) on May 29, 2012, 09:23 PM:

The Giant also bears a resemblance to the one in Popeye/Sinbad and I still think Fleischer regarding the style.

Funny you should mention that, Hugh. Fleischer was my first thought also, but then I reasoned that more of you good folks would recognize a Fleischer film straightaway. My next gut instinct was that maybe we were looking at a Van Beuren cartoon, but when I skimmed a list of their titles from the era, none leaped out as a likely candidate.

It was only when I began to focus on that two-headed giant that I zeroed in on the answer. But I quite agree with your perception that "String Bean Jack" has a kind of Fleischer-esque quality.

Posted by Panayotis A. Carayannis (Member # 1220) on June 09, 2012, 01:57 PM:

I have a super 8 color copy, from Topfilm.

UBB.classic^TM 6.3.1.2