Jack and the Beanstalk (1917)

Synopsis of Jack and the Beanstalk

Jack and the Beanstalk was the first of Fox's Sunshine Kiddies films, a delightful (and now sadly lost) series of opulently produced films based on famous children's stories. Most of the major roles -- both adult and juvenile -- were filled by such talented child performers as Francis Carpenter, Virginia Lee Corbin and Violet Radcliffe, though certain key roles were essayed by adults; in Jack, for example, the giant was played by the gangly J.G. Traver, and his wife was portrayed by the hatchet-visaged Vera Lewis. It was also not uncommon for the female child actors to play male roles, in the tradition of the English Pantomime plays. Often mistakenly categorized as spoofish predecessors to Hal Roach's Our Gang comedies, the Sunshine Kiddies entries were played with a straight face, though it was hard to take the notion of children playing grown-up roles too seriously. Virtually all of the Kiddies films were directed by the fraternal team of Chester and Sidney Franklin, and at the outset of the series were produced in association with D.W. Griffith. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Writer(s):

Mary Murillo

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