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

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!

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.

Hey, I've been one of the ultimate A&C fans for decades, but this film is lazy, stupid and totally uninspired. The character of Hyde is just a cipher of a character, mindlessly creating havoc. Who honestly believes it's Karloff's alter ego? It's just a stuntman running around giving a bad performance! A & C are mostly on automatic pilot. The only effective scene--and it's just one shot!--is when a group of Scotland Yard bobbies transform into a pack of Hydes. It's inventively done and genuinely scary--why wasn't the preceding movie up to this level??Believe me, I love A&C, but this film was a botched opportunity. By contrast, A&C MEET THE INVISIBLE MAN (1951) had a real story, far better characterizations and was truly hilarious. HYDE is simply depressing.