(1951)
Dir - Charles Lamont
Overall: GOOD
The second pairing of Bud Abbot and Lou Costello with one of Universal's classic monsters was Abbot and Costello Meet the Invisible Man. It was also the second time the duo worked under Charles Lamont's direction, who would go on to helm a handful more for them, including their next two monster character team-ups. In some ways, Meet the Invisible Man is a slight improvement over some of their other similar outings. For one, Costello does not spend the entire movie trying to convince everyone that somebody turned invisible, as one might logically guess based on their well established schtick at this point. It is instead rather nice that Abbott gets let in on the gag this time for most of the movie and in fact one of the best scenes involves him pretending to be drunk to cover for Arthur Franz' title character who really is getting drunk. The story is as cockamamie as any and for this go round, the duo get to be both incompetent private investigators and an incompetent boxer/manger team. The whole Invisible Man bit just kind of gets shoehorned in there more or less.
(1953)
Dir - Charles Lamont
Overall: GOOD
By all accounts, Abbott and Costello Meet Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde is exactly what you would expect from the duo at this point, being their third run-in with a classic movie monster. Jekyll and Hyde of course were not adapted by Universal before this, making it the studio's debut with the character(s). To see Boris Karloff in half of said title role is nice and all, (Hyde was in fact played by stunt double Eddie Parker, which is quite noticeable due to his agility), but the character is wildly different from any cinematic version beforehand. Jekyll just uses his own potion willingly because he is diabolically smitten with a young woman that he is a legal guardian for so there is no dual nature to him whatsoever, which completely misses the point to the original story. Once the Hyde transformation is complete, he just runs around as a grunting ape and of course there are several scenes where Costello is the only one who actually sees what is really going on. On that note though, the ending is rather a hoot where Costello likewise becomes a Hyde creature at the same time, (after becoming a mouse, long story), and all of London's police force is frantically trying to chase both of them. This one is harmlessly dumb and though the laughs were starting to wear thin, it is definitely still worth a gander.
(1955)
Dir - Charles Lamont
Overall: MEH
While there is not anything remotely bad or all that different with Abbott and Costello Meet the Mummy, this would be a good a point as any to wrap it up, (no pun intended). As the duo's final film for Universal and penultimate overall, (though Costello would appear solo in 1959's The 30 Foot Bride of Candy Rock), the studio would retire the Mummy character altogether here, four years before Hammer would start their own series with it. Though the classic monster and Abbot and Costello films were just about out of steam at this point, Meet the Mummy is still enjoyable and silly in all the predictable ways. Costello gets scared, there are misunderstandings, Costello gets scared again, there is a thoroughly convoluted plot, and then Costello gets scared some more. As always, what is going on in the story is hardly as important as all of the slapstick tomfoolery. The scenes where Lou eats a cursed Egyptian medallion and they have to x-ray him to decipher it and then when Bud and two other guys run around in mummy garb confusing everyone are ridiculous and fun enough to salvage the whole movie really.
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