ABBOTT AND COSTELLO MEET
DR. JEKYLL AND MR. HYDE

(1953)
With Bud Abbott, Lou Costello, Boris Karloff, Craig Stevens, Helen Westcott, Reginald Denny, John Dierkes
Directed by Charles Lamont
Black and White
Reviewed by JB

    The boys had met Frankenstein (Frankenstein's Monster, to be completely accurate, as well as Dracula and The Wolf Man) and it was a classic film. They later met The Invisible Man and it was a fine, amusing picture.  Now in this film, they meet Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. The third time was not the charm. Making a conscious decision not to use their usual verbal routines in the film, Abbott and Costello are left with little else but fright humor. Even the presence of Boris Karloff and Reginald Denny doesn't do much to lift the film up from the level of joyless slapstick. Truth is, if you take Abbott and Costello out of the film, it might have made a nice horror film on the level of THE GHOST OF FRANKENSTEIN. Instead, it wallows in endless turns of Lou being frightened and Abbott falling down. The boys, God love 'em, were tiring, and their comedy, at least in the movies, was now tireseome.  2 - JB

Abbott and Costello     The Age of Comedy