Not so much a Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde film as a Wolf Man film – for that’s how Jekyll behaves more like, a respected doctor who takes a serum and becomes a mad inarticulate killer. Both roles are played by Boris Karloff, in parts far more suited to his talents than Abbott and Costello Meet the Killer Boris Karloff.This starts with a bang: it’s set in Edwardian London, there are some atmospheric murders, our heroes are American policemen on exchange (perhaps not very believable but you wouldn’t buy them as Poms – and this gives them the excuse to be disgraced and hence want to solve the mystery), and there is a very lovely romantic subplot between an American journo (Craig Stevens) and a suffragette who is also a dancer (Helen Westcott). Abbott and Costello films occasionally were a little bit feminist and Westcott is perhaps their most modern heroine – she’s feisty, liberated, sexy, and sexually aggressive… and not punished for it (well, apart from being stalked by Mr Hyde but that’s normal in this sort of film).
The film becomes less good as it goes on; the second and third acts are really just Costello being scared and/or being chased by monsters (either Hyde or John Dierkes as Karloff’s Lurch-like butler), with the promising suffragette plot discarded; also there is no clash between Jekyll and Hyde, Jekyll is quite happy to be a killer, and somehow it seems to be cheating that people become monsters through biting when it’s not a wolfman film but a Jekyll and Hyde film. Also by this stage the lead duo were starting to look a bit long in the tooth. In one scene Costello winds up in a fun house and faces wax models of Dracula and Frankenstein, a throw back to Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein. This film isn’t as good as that, but is still entertaining.
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