Touches You

An Exercise In Nonsense

Absolutely Fantastic

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

Bud and Lou have their hands full in this Gothic comic thriller where a mad man is on the loose in Hyde Park in London, and no clues are in evidence as to who it may be. Of course the audience knows from the beginning, because with for legend Boris Karloff highlighting this movie and top featured billing, he ends up being the obvious suspect, at least in the audience's mind. He is a doctor of great renown who has a secret life, and as he explains, it is for the good of society. He wants to discover what in the human brain causes mankind to become violent, and with Christmas carols on his mind, wishes peace on earth and goodwill towards men. But Abbot and Costello are soon on to him, however nobody else will believe them.There are several highlights of this delightful follow up to the previous horror spoofs that Abbott and Costello had made, and a double dose of irony and in a reminder Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein, there is a scene in a museum where Lou hides out from Mr Hyde while in countering dummies of both Dracula and the Frankenstein monster. Karloff had not appeared in that film, and while he dummy monster looks more like Glenn Strange then Karloff, it is obvious that the Dracula dummy was influenced by Bela Lugosi, only adding a slight goatee to his wax double. A hysterical scene involving a cat and a head all of a sudden tossed by Costello, leads to a scene that had my belly aching in laughter. Then when Lou drinks a person that turns him into a man sized mouse or at least his head, is also very funny, as is the chase sequence where you come the 2nd Mr Hyde, disrupting a pleasant day in a park. All in all, this is almost as good as Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein, and definitely the second best in their series of horror spoofs.

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)

After ABBOTT & COSTELLO MEET FRANKENSTEIN this is my next favorite of their "meet the monsters" movies. Thankfully it offers an added treat by starring horror legend Boris Karloff in the part of Dr. Jekyll, though when he's running around London as Mr. Hyde it is actually a stunt man in a monster mask. Bud and Lou are "Slim" and "Tubby" (okay, so the names aren't very original), two Americans who are hired as bumbling police bobbies in England. It isn't long before they're thrown off the force for their incompetence, but they have a plan to try and get their jobs back by trying to apprehend the "monster" that's been loose and murdering people. This would be Mr. Hyde, the savage alter ego of Dr. Jekyll (Karloff). As portrayed in this film, Jekyll is not very innocent himself, as he is rather a schemer who is madly in love with his young ward (Helen Westcott) who is young enough to be his own granddaughter! The comedy of Abbott and Costello this time relies more on slapstick gags than their trademark verbal "routines". Both comedians look like they did during their television show, as this feature was produced at the same time. If you're a fan of Boris Karloff, this film puts him to far better use than he was given in 1949's ABBOTT AND COSTELLO MEET THE KILLER. It also works as a straight monster movie along with the jokes. *** out of ****

This movie was a fun watch for me and my ten year old. It did have some really weird segments, most notable being the suffragettes dancing the can-can to drum up signatures; and, the Balinese dancer who couldn't dance. After way too much time building the love-interest, the film gets down to the rush of sight-gags that we expect from A and C...The special effects are pretty weak; however, the timing of the two is as good as ever. There are transformations, barking rabbits and people turning into mice...more than enough to capture the imagination of a child and more than enough to get an adult to watch the movie with his own child.Enjoy!