Jekyll and Hyde...Together Again/Review

At the dawn of the 1980's, there was a nostaligic trend of re-visting recognizable cinematic horror icons...But a comedic twist was often added to these famous properties. The blueprint began much earlier with Young Frankenstein and appeared to have continued with Love at first bite. Adapting the tale of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde looked to be next in line, but the result turned out to be slightly more extreme in raunchy behavior than many could have imagined. In this version, Daniel Jekyll (Mark Blankfield) is a Los Angeles surgeon who wants to retire to spend more time on working on a secret project. By the way, from the opening frames of the movie, you already have it figured out that you're in store for massive, tongue-in-cheek comedy as you get bombarded with a joke occuring nearly every 25 seconds. Another thing is that all of the key players like Dr. Lanyon (Tim Thomerson), Dr. Carew (Michael McGuire) and love interest(s), Mary (Bess Armstrong) and Ivy (Krista Errickson) are all real characters from Robert Louis Stevenson's novel and from pervious filmed adaptations.

Okay, back to the story...Jekyll's in a bit of stress of being asked by Dr. Carew to perform one big, transplant surgery on a wealthy fossil named Hubert Howes (Peter Brocco). Jekyll's also in a dilemma about proposing to Carew's daughter, Mary. But first things first, let's let Jekyll get back to his secret project. I'm sure you're familiar with the story to know that the "Secret project" involves a potion that will transform Jekyll in to the diabolical Mr. Hyde, but (Since this is the 80's) what you didn't know was that the potion is now in the form of---Cocaine! I can't even describe to you how the potion ends up getting accidentally sniffed by Jekyll, but we get our much-anticipated introduction to Mr. Hyde! A wacky, perverted character complete with pimped-out attire (Hairy chest,Disco necklace,and extended pinky nail for coke sniffing!) From here on, the story (Somehow) eventually manages to unfold the way the usual Jekyll and Hyde story often does. Only this version is filled with erections, drug use, stereotypical jokes, bestiality, GI-NORMOUS breasts, internal organs served on a platter, a lively musical number and a corpse (Literally) rolling in his grave.

This was a movie that I was always anxious to see but never gave a chance. But being that Jekyll and Hyde... Together Again could have been a prime candidate for being an alternative for the action/horror-material that often played at grindhouses, now would be a good time to get a good idea on how it would fare if it had it's run at a grindhouse or a Drive-In. Even though I went in with low expectations (Since 80's comedies don't tend to age well at all) I was...Quite pleased with the results! Much of the humor still holds up well. Granted, nothing had me roaring out loud, but it got plenty of audible chuckles out of me.

What also helps is that I'm at the correct age to understand much of the risque material. Had I seen this at about age 8 (When I first knew of the movie) it would have been no surprise that an abundance of sex and drug-related jokes seen in the film would have completely gone over my head. Honestly, the only fault I had with the movie was it's final 10 minutes. Though the idea of having the movie switch to black and white (Fitting in with a traditional Jekyll/Hyde setting) was a neat choice, the rest of of the scripted material falls very flat. But luckily the movie suddenly ends here without having to endure of anything else bad happening. As far as performances go, I can't recall seeing Mark Blankfield in anything else, but he does a fine, energetic job here. However, one really strange occurence I noticed was as Jekyll, Blankfield's deadpan voice sounded a lot like Dustin Hoffman to me. Then when Blankfield morphs into Hyde, he resembles a coked-out version of Hoffman's Captain Hook in Hook! It's crazy! Also, B-movie fans might having a hard time recognizing Tim Thomerson playing the gay plastic surgeon, Dr. Lanyon. After all, his character is a bit made out of plastic himself! Last but not least, Cassandra Peterson (AKA Elvira, Mistress of The Dark) doesn't really get any face-time. But you can count on her getting cleavage-time! I recommend this one---Especially in this age where comedies of today are over-populated with poop and farty jokes.

Reviewed by Laydback