Saturday, October 30, 2021

One More Monster!


One more future Scrooge had a memorable monster portrayal, but in a movie from Paramount, not Universal: Fredric March with his Oscar-winning role in 1931's "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde!"


I think this movie holds up really well and Fredric March does a great job as both characters.



A must see!

I actually think that Mr. Hyde sneaks in as a Universal Monster based on the 1953 Universal release "Abbott and Costello Meet Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde" co-starring Boris Karloff.

I think the movie is underrated due to non-fans thinking that Bud and Lou get in the way of the horror (although it's first and foremost a comedy anyway) and because Universal had not previously made a Jekyll/Hyde feature.

When the boys met the Wolf Man, Dracula and Frankenstein's monster in 1948's "Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein," those were the "real" monsters that had previously appeared in Universal movies.


And the original Invisible Man as portrayed by Claude Rains is referenced in 1951's "Abbott and Costello Meet the Invisible Man."


The mummy from 1955's "Abbott and Costello Meet the Mummy" is named Klaris rather than Kharis (as in the previous four mummy movies from Universal), but that's close enough!

So, these other "Meet" movies with A & C can be tacked on to the various series, but poor Mr. Hyde is an orphan! Is that why he's so upset?


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