Abbott and Costello Meet Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde * (1953, Bud Abbott, Lou Costello, Boris Karloff, Reginald Denny, Craig Stevens, Helen Westcott) – Classic Movie Review 5590

Director Charles Lamont’s silly 1953 Universal monsters comedy chiller puts Boris Karloff back together with Bud Abbott and Lou Costello after their success with Abbott and Costello Meet the Killer, Boris Karloff in 1949.

Reginald Denny also stars as Inspector X of Scotland Yard, who understandably sacks bumbling American cops Slim and Tubby (Abbott and Costello) from the metropolitan police force when they are over in London England to study police tactics. So they go after the monster of London’s Hyde Park. But instead they find his murderous namesake Hyde by mistake.

Luckily, or unluckily, they are bailed from jail by Dr Jekyll, who is killing colleague doctors laughing at his transformation experiments. Soon Tubby is injected with the serum that turns Dr Jekyll into Mr Hyde.

The dignified Karloff is a huge asset as Dr Henry Jekyll and Mr Hyde (though his stuntman Eddie Parker takes over as Mr Hyde when the make-up transformation is done). There are also classy support performances from a slew of good character actors to help the stars out of trouble. And there are a couple of entertaining moments in a wax museum and on a rooftop.

But mostly this is a weary, formula affair, lacking inspiration in the screenplay written by John Grant, Lee Loeb and Howard Dimsdale, from a story by Sidney Fields and Grant Garrett. Needless to say, Robert Louis Stevenson’s source novel remains uncredited.

© Derek Winnert 2017 Classic Movie Review 5590

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