"I saw what I saw when I saw it..."

What do Bud Abbott, Groucho Marx, Rex Reed, and Mahatma Ghandi all have in common? It could be a joke, given today's topic but it isn't. All four of these great men were born on October 2, and in a belated celebration of Bud Abbott in particular, I am going to talk about a few of the wonderful horror and mystery parodies that Bud and his partner, Lou Costello did. Before Scary Movie and all of the other modern parody films, Bud and Lou were using a mix of satire, parody, comedy, slapstick, straight man/funny man, and over all hijinks to create tons of classic movies, all of which remain hilarious to this day.

Perhaps the first purveyors of horror parody, Bud and Lou came out with such gems as Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein, Abbot and Costello Meet the Mummy, Abbott and Costello Meet the Invisible Man, Africa Screams, Abbott and Costello Meet the Killer, Who Done It?, and Abbott and Costello Meet Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, a list of films longer than that of some modern Hollywood A-listers, yet only a portion of the Abbott and Costello films. Bud and Lou took their routine into the backdrops of these frightening horror films, using many of the actual cast members from the real movies themselves.

In Meet Frankenstein, they meet Lon Chaney, Jr. as the Wolf Man, Bela Lugosi as Dracula, and Glenn Strange as Frankenstein's monster. In Meet the Killer, they team up with a frightening Boris Karloff and do so again when he plays the other lead role in Meet Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. The films Meet the Mummy and Meet the Invisible Man do not use actual actors from the film, though some original footage is used in Meet The Invisible Man. These two films are strictly parodies of the originals. Africa Screams could easily be a King Kong parody, but instead has Bud and Lou mining for diamonds and encounter lions, headhunters, and giant apes. Who Done It? is a radio mystery near scary movie where Bud and Lou have to solve the murder committed at the station they hope to work at in a climatic, almost Hitchcock style ending filled with drama and suspense.

To me personally, Bud and Lou are the end-all, be-all of comedic teams. I love all of their films, but since it is Fright Fest and all, I can only focus on these select horror films. Somehow, they manage to make these films frightening and at the same time, laugh your pants of funny, which is a difficult thing for any film to do. Comedy and horror are genres that never really seem to exist, except when something is so horrible its funny or so funny its horrifying. These films I mentioned manage to cross genre lines and at the same time, be excellent examples of film. I could probably do an entire blog on the comedy of Bud Abbott and Lou Costello, but I will limit myself to this one post for the time being.

Those of you who want to know more about Bud and Lou or are big fans yourself can check out the excellent web page their families created here, which totes itself as helping "Abbot and Costello Meet the Internet". The movie Africa Screams is public domain and can be watched here. The other films you will have to track down yourself. And just because, here is the entire "Who's On First Routine", since I cannot mention Bud and Lou without thinking of the routine of theirs that everyone recognizes.

The Doctor With Two Faces

Perhaps one of the best and most forgotten horror films of all time, The Two Faces of Dr. Jekyll is one of, if not the best, retelling in film Robert Louis Stevenson's classic tale of The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, the text of which can be found here. The story is a wonderful delve into the dark side of human nature, psychology, behavior and how sometimes scientific experimentation can take mankind too far. Horror buffs, such as the ones at Hollywood Gothique, since the praise the work of this little known film from 1961, which remains very popular with those continuing to be exposed to it.

The movie stars Paul Massie in the lead role of Dr. Jekyll with Dawn Adams as Dr. Jekyll's wife, Kitty. The character of Dr. Jekyll's alcoholic gambling friend, Paul Allen, who is cheating on Jekyll with Kitty goes to Christopher Lee, of Lord of the Rings Fame. Meanwhile, Jekyll is continuing on with his famous experiment, which colleagues have warned him against and has caused him to be disowned from the scientific community he was once the center of. Upon the injection of the chemical he has been working on, the introverted, antisocial Jekyll becomes the self-assured, brusque, suave, and violent Mr. Hyde. He goes to the dinner party his wife is attending with Paul and stirs up trouble. The effects of the injection soon wears off and Hyde transforms back into the quiet doctor. The typical story we all know and love follows afterwards: Jekyll's coming to grips with his new identity and personality of Mr. Hyde as well as Mr. Hyde making Jekyll to cross the lines of human decency inevitably causing him to prove his own horrible theories about human behavior. As he becomes more and more intrigued with the personality of Hyde, Jekyll becomes more and more depraved, leading to his downfall.

The movie is done in vibrant color and uses a lot of color and lighting effects to help show the changes in Jekyll's personality. Music is very essential in helping to create background and atmosphere in any movie, horrors and suspenses particularly. The music in his film syncs up perfectly and really helps to portray the mood of the film. The costumes are so exquisite and help to shape the excess of the characters. Luxury is exuded in this film, making you wonder how big of a budget the film had and how much of that budget it exceeded.
Being that it is an early Sixties British film, around the rise of the Mod Squad Era and pre-Hippie counterculture, the film is somewhat exotic and tries to push the bounds a little for the time period. This is definitely not a Doris Day or Sandra Dee film for sure. A word of warning to those of you that are concerned about this sort of thing, there is some sex and violence in this film, though most of it is implied and off screen. I would recommend for all of you, not just the horror buffs and Jekyll/Hyde fans, to track down a copy of this movie and watch it.