Abbott and Costello Meet Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1953)

Best movie of this year hands down!

Boring

A Masterpiece!

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

A&C Fans will most likely be enamored by the Duo meeting another Monster, but Unlike the Others it's Not a "Universal" Monster.The Atmosphere in this one is Very Good with a lot of Fog, Good Costumes, Superb Transformations and Monster Masks, and a Story that is more Downbeat than most.Some Things come off as a bit Disturbing. Boris Karloff as Dr. Jekyll Spikes His Arm with a Needle, He could very well have just drunk the Stuff. Speaking of Drinking Costello gets Falling Down Drunk. There are other Needle Scenes too. A Sub-Plot about the Doctor's Unhealthy Attraction to His Female Ward. Lou Transforming into a Creepy Mouse is a Furry's Fantasy.Overall, the Plot is not as Silly as Usual and the Comedy is more Slapstick than Verbal. Most of the Gags are Done well Past their Due Date and go on Far Too Long. The Ending is a Never Ending Chase that is as Repetitive as it is Unfunny. Recommended for A&C and Horror Fans Only.

Abbott & Costello play Slim & Tubby, two American policemen in London in order to study their local police tactics. They get a big chance when a series of murders break out with respected doctors being the victims. It turns out to be the work of Henry Jekyll(played nicely by Boris Karloff) who is frustrated and vengeful against the men who laughed at his research and theories. He developed the serum that turned him into Mr. Hyde, who is more athletic and stronger than Jekyll. Hyde becomes the object of a manhunt, with the expected comedic results. Despite the decline in quality of their films, this is an unexpected bright spot, being both funny and scary, and directed with energy and enthusiasm. I agree it would have been better if Karloff had the chance to do an entirely serious adaptation of the Robert Louis Stevenson novel, but this will have to do!

ABBOTT AND COSTELLO MEET DR. JEKYLL AND MR. HYDE (Universal-International, 1953), directed by Charles Lamont, marks another well-intentioned horror spoof variation featuring that dynamic dual of Bud Abbott and Lou Costello in another thrill and chill venture outing. Following the pattern that started it all with ... MEET FRANKENSTEIN (1948) along with other assortment of other Universal monsters as Count Dracula (Bela Lugosi) and the Wolf Man (Lon Chaney), followed by ... MEET THE INVISIBLE MAN (1951), and eventually their long overdue prospect of ... MEET THE MUMMY (1955), JEKYLL AND HYDE pits Bud and Lou's in what would be classified an two encounters for the price of one, both played by Boris Karloff. Unlike the aforementioned monster meetings, Jekyll and Hyde was not actually a Universal product, though it could have been. Earlier adaptations dating back to the silent era were those distributed by other studios, notably Paramount (1920/John Barrymore, 1931/ Fredric March) and the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (1941/surprisingly enacted by Spencer Tracy). While Universal succeeded in placing this classic Robert Louis Stevenson character(s) as part of their package for the comedy team, the opening credits reveal its story element to actually been written by Sidney Fields, the same Fields who played Bud and Lou's landlord in their weekly TV series, "The Abbott and Costello Show" (1952-54).Set in 19th Century England, the story opens in the streets of London where a Doctor Stephen Poole is brutally murdered by a hideous monster in Hyde Park. Bruce Adams (Craig Stevens) of The Daily Reporter is assigned to investigate along with similar crimes that have taken place in the area. He soon encounters Vicki Edwards (Helen Westcott), a militant leader speaking out for women's rights in the park. Her singing of "Equal Rights for Women" stirs a riot between men and women in the crowd. Slim (Bud Abbott) and Tubby (Lou Costello), a couple of American policemen assigned to study British methods in crime control, enter the scene only to end up in jail instead. Also in separate cells are Bruce and Vicki getting better acquainted during his "interview." Released on bail by her guardian, Dr. Henry Jekyll (Boris Karloff), a well respected research scientist, Vicki, a dance hall can-can girl by profession, starts seeing more of the crime reporter, much to the dismay by the overly jealous Jekyll. Dismissed from the police force by the harassed Scotland Yard inspector (Reginald Denny), Slim and Tubby attempt to redeem themselves by going out and capturing the monster. Because the former policemen seem to be getting closer to his secrets, Jekyll hires Slim and Tubby as his live-in assistants in order to place the blame on one of them for the ghastly murders. During their stay, Tubby encounters the secret laboratory full of experiments along with a muted servant, Batley (John Dierkes), Jekyll's zombie-like assistant, frightening enough to pass for an undertaker's undertaker.Having already appeared opposite Bud and Lou in ABBOTT AND COSTELLO MEET THE KILLER, BORIS KARLOFF (1949), Karloff, always a welcome presence is films such as these, has more to do this time around, especially opposite the derby bobbling Lou Costello. How interesting that Karloff's alter-ego throughout the story is identified solely as The Monster, never as Mr. Hyde. Considering Karloff's transformation from kind doctor to monstrous character with huge nostrils and wolf-like sounding and physical appearance, it's a wonder the movie wasn't titled "Abbott and Costello Meet the Werewolf of London" instead. Paging Henry Hull! As in the previous fright comedies, the supporting players, especially Karloff, play their roles straight, leaving the comedy for the bumbling heroes. Good comedy moments include barking rabbits; Costello's transformation to either a giant mouse or Hyde's monster; the big chase about town resulting to Reginald Denny's facial expression of disbelief; and the ever presence of Karloff himself. There's even a slight in-joke where Costello's Tubby inside a wax museum with figures of Dracula and the Frankenstein monster. Slick trick photography, Universal stock music scoring, and plenty of pratfalls (Costello, naturally) round up this otherwise amusing horror-comedy tale that reportedly did quite well in theaters upon its release.Distributed to home video and later DVD, ... MEET JEKYLL AND HYDE's cable television broadcasts consisted of The Comedy Channel (late 1980s), The Disney Channel (1995) and American Movie Classics (2001-03), Turner Classic Movies (TCM premiere: April 16, 2016), among others. As much as there are those who might feel this to be a weak attempt in the A&C horror stories, it's certainly improves over the some recent Abbott and Costello offerings as LOST IN ALASKA (1952) or ABBOTT AND COSTELLO GO TO MARS (1953). (**1/2)

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.