Abbott and Costello Meet Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

Two bumbling American cops (Tubby and Slim) hunt for the mysterious Mr. Hyde (Eddie Parker) in London, England.

For whatever reason, the more popular Abbott and Costello horror films seem to be with them meeting Frankenstein, the Mummy or "the killer". But this one is really exceptional, with great makeup and transformation scenes and plenty of humor. It also happens to be one of the few that could arguably called scary.

I have credit Eddie Parker as Hyde because he should be recognized. With all due respect to Boris Karloff, Parker made the role with his jumping around and acting the part of the monster. Parker was such a huge figure in Hollywood, but no one has ever heard of him. (Somebody please write a book about him.)

Hi Im 13 years old. I love Abbott & Costello! Abbott And Costello Meet Dr Jekyll And Mr Hyde Is A Very Funny Movie! It Is About Abbott And Costello As Cops Tracking Down Mr Hyde All Over London!! Stars Boris Karloff As Dr Jekyll And Mr Hyde! I Have The Movie! Mixed With Comedy And Horror It Is A Good Movie!!!

Watching Abbott&Costello Meet Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde the only thing that struck me wrong was the casting of Craig Stevens and Helen Westcott as the young lovers. Both are completely American and have absolutely no trace of English speech pattern for a story set in Victorian London. Even Bud and Lou's presence in the film is explained that they are Americans studying English police methods. Which begs the question, what police force in America would hire them?

The cultivated Dr. Henry Jekyll is played by Boris Karloff, but his Jekyll is not the scientist that we saw Fredric March and Spencer Tracy play. He's well into his experiments that now have him change without warning into Mr. Hyde. Unlike with Tracy and March, Hyde does not speak he just grunts and growls the way Karloff's Frankenstein monster does.

Westcott is Karloff's ward whom he has raised since childhood, but those aren't fatherly glances he's giving her now. Especially since young reporter Stevens has become interested in Westcott after covering her at a suffragette rally. It doesn't take much to get his inner Hyde going.

As for Bud and Lou none of their patented burlesque routines are featured here, but they still get plenty of laughs. Unfortunately for the film, their best moments are as London Bobbys trying to break up the suffragette rally where the women do get the better of them which is at the beginning of the film.

Of course at the end Costello gets jabbed with some of Karloff's Hyde serum and goes off on an inner Hyde journey of his own. Reginald Denny has a fine role as the English Scotland Yard Inspector driven quite crazy like Herbert Lom by this pair of American Clouseaus.

Not the best of A&C, but the boys still had a lot of good humor still left for their audience.

Whenever I see this I see it through Rose-tinted Spectacles: because I first saw it as a kid nostalgia kicks in and all faults are forgiven. There's quite a few of A&C's in that list, The Lost World (1960) springs to my mind as a different another. It certainly helps because in places this is laughably bad, but of course those bits were likely thrown in just for the kids! On the other hand there are some effective atmospheric moments, the set pieces usually work and the overall production values were good. You know the story - good cop bad cop. The classic 4-round-the-chimney routine still holds up, and the very last gag in the film should leave you smiling - unless you have watched this movie all the way through against your will.

Over here, it's fashionable and even de rigueur for film critics (and buffs) to denigrate the entire A&C canon as anything from utterly worthless to as unfunny as death (no kidding!) along with Britain's wartime box office no.1, George Formby. Without watching a single film sometimes. Pity the blinkered high brows as not being quite complete human beings, at always having to view such harmless fun in an Artistic light. Or maybe pity ordinary people who hate A&C but feel they have to force themselves to sit through this and then unload their bile.

Sure, times change (from innocent to cynical) - Jekyll/Karloff passionately says to Vicky that he'd loved her since she was a child - putting a whole new psychological slant on his persona. Has that been cut out yet? And any comedic aspect of animal experimentation has thankfully gone of course - hasn't it? A&C haven't changed, these are typical late performances from them, only with not so many memorable lines.

If you can see this simply as knockabout Jekyll and Hyde with 2 bumbling American policemen in London and nothing more you'll do OK like me.

Have just sat down and re-watched this film with my 3 kids and can definitely say that they loved it. Although by this time in their careers Abbott & Costello's top movie double-act crown was being swiped by those new kids Martin & Lewis,this movie was a box office smash when first released and still holds up well today. The mixture of comedy and horror works a treat as it had done in " Meet Frankenstein" a number of years earlier and Karloffs performance adds real class to the tomfoolery on screen. Of course the Universal depiction of turn of the century London,( all fog shrouded streets and fish & chip shops ) leaves a lot to be desired,I think it adds to the films charm in much the same way as when used in the Basil Rathbone Sherlock Holmes mysteries of the same period. Bud and Lou carry off their roles well and the romantic subplot seems not to intrude as much as in the boys earlier wartime comedies. All in all a good little film to be watched on a rainy Monday afternoon.