Abbott and Costello Meet Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
                                                                                      
Director: Charles Barton
Year: 1953
Rating: 4.0
This is another in the series of Abbott and Costello popular Monster films that in other movies brought in Frankenstein, the Wolfman, Dracula and The Mummy. All Universal Monsters as is the studio behind the Abbott and Costello films. In this case though, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde was not. I guess they were running out of Universal monsters. Interestingly, this stars Boris Karloff as the Monster while he had no interest in playing Frankenstein in the 1948 film, Meet Frankenstein. At the time, he wanted nothing to do with his monster. I am very hit and miss on this comic duo, mainly miss. They have some wonderful moments or routines in many of their films but for me most of it is looking for cheap laughs. You can often see the jokes coming from miles away. If they are waiting around the corner to hit the villain, you know they will instead hit their partner, if there is something there for Costello to trip over, he will. This film was like having a date with a wood chipper. I thought the pain would never end. Every joke was predictable, repetitive, ancient and groan inducing.  This is their 34th film together as best as I can count. No wonder it feels like we have seen it all before. We have. Yet this seems to have its fans, so what do I know.



A&C (Slim and Tubby) are in London turn of the century. What are they doing in England? They are Bobbies of course and where else would a Bobby be other than England. A Monster has been killing people in brutal and shocking ways. Even more shocking is that women are demanding the vote in protests with men on the sidelines scoffing at them. Reporter Bruce Adams (Craig Stevens) when asked if he believes in women's rights says "No, I don't" but this doesn't stop him from romancing the pretty rabble-rouser (Helen Westcott). When not demanding equality for women, she works in a music hall, displaying more leg than had to be legal back then. A big fight breaks out at the protest and our two heroes try and break it up, only to be pummeled by the women and losing their jobs. "I should never have given these jobs to Americans", says Inspector Reginald Denny. They decide that the only way to get their jobs back is to catch the Monster.



And sure enough they see him climbing up a building and give chase leading to the expected silly shenanigans. They are joined by Adams and end up in a Wax Museum - where there is a Frankenstein figure - and Tubby thinks he has locked up the Monster. But by the time the cops arrive, it isn't the Monster but the respectable Dr. Jekyll. But but but but - he was a Monster. Now being played by Boris Karloff. The Monster was played by a stunt man. In this telling of the classic tale, Jekyll is a psychopath who uses his alter-ego to kill people he doesn't like. In this case he wants to kill Adams who his ward/rabble-rouser, Vicky, wants to marry. He has loved her since she was a little girl - creepy - and wants to marry her. Even creepier. A&C end up having to stay the night at Jekyll's home where he has an Igor type assistant willing to kill. Tubby is turned into a mouse and then a monster. As a mouse he goes to have a drink at a pub and scares the hell out of another mouse. It gets a bit funny when we have two Monsters being chased by the cops all over London, but it wasn't enough to save a film that feels like it has cobwebs around it.