THE NUTTY PROFESSOR - Les Brown - "The Greatest Drink Since Dracula Discovered Bloody Marys" (1963)

Welcome to yet another Saturday Night Special in The Dungeon! Tonight's feature is the classic 1963 adaptation of Robert Lewis Stevenson's "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde" as portrayed  by one of the most popular guys in France, Jerry Lewis! Pre-ratings, "The Nutty Professor" is like a Disney movie for adults! It's insipidly stupid, but just plain fun to watch!

I watched "The Nutty Professor" a couple of weeks ago and it was the reason I got sidetracked on the whole lengthy film history of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

 The great Jerry Lewis is Professor Julius Kelp, the Dr. Jekyll character in the movie!

 The Professor is trying to get into shape, but the workout is not working out too well!

 In a literal walk through scene, Dungeon Super Hero Richard (Eegah!!) Kiel, strolls through the gym just to set up....

 .........this short but uncomfortable encounter with Julius!!

Without his thick glasses on, Julius bowls over a group of kids he thought were bowling pins and is very excited that he got a strike!

 In the older Dr. Jekyll movies, the transformation would have stopped here, but in the hipper 1963 version, there's time for one more change!

Who shows up after that? The ultra cool Mr. Buddy Love!

 The Hyde character is no killer, but he does have quite an attitude problem! I've often heard that Jerry Lewis wasn't always the nicest guy in the world, and Buddy Love might be a little closer to the real Jerry than the goofball we all grew to love! Comedian/Actor Buddy Lester is the sarcastic bartender feeding it back to him.

 Lucky Jerry gets to have Stella Stevens as his love interest!
Maybe he did the casting himself!

 I think you get the point! The poster besieged me not to give out too much information, so I think I've gone too far already!

 This is a great shot!!

 The music by Les Brown and his Band of Renown swings from start to finish, and makes the party complete! Here's about a minute and a half from the ending credits! Pretty sweet!

 When Mr. Cool Buddy Love's voice starts reverting back to the nerdy squeak of Professor Kelp, the crowd of new and adoring fans are shocked back to their senses when he reveals the truth and changes back completely to his former self!

In an otherwise classic tale, the 1960's nerdy guy wins the gorgeous gal in technicolor with cool music! It's about three bikinis, and two surf bands short of being a beach movie, 

but that's all right with me! I liked it almost as much as when I was fifteen!

THE GHOST GOES WEST / Denham Studios - 1935

Last Friday I posted THE SMILING GHOST, well today, THE GHOST GOES WEST and goes like this... An American businessman's family convinces him to buy a Scottish castle, disassemble it and ship it to America, brick by brick, where it will be put it back together!! But, the castle isn't the only part of the deal, it comes with the several-hundred year old ghost who haunts it.

Look at this beautiful title card, nice!.. Robert Donat was a popular actor in England, he worked up to his death in 1958 at age 53. Hitchcock attempted to get Robert for three roles, SABOTAGE (1936), SECRET AGENT (1936) and REBECCA (1940), but illness, commitments, and more illness kept him from accepting them. Elsa Lanchester also has a role.

After a brief setup from the past, we head to the year 1935...

The castle, which is for sale, is visited by American Peggy Martin, she's there to buy the place for her father who has big plans for it.

Peggy tries to sit down in a chair but the thing has a broken leg! This is a pretty wild looking still I captured as she tries to catch her balance!

Here's Robert as Donald Glourie, ancestor of the ghost, Murdoch Glourie. He hears the ghost's voice and cannot find where it's coming from. Of course, Robert plays both roles...

On the cruise to America, with the castle in the hold, Murdoch decides to mingle with the passengers, especially the pretty ones!

It's a freakin' insane ticker tape parade for the incoming Brits. Man, that's damn crazy, wouldn't want to be part of the cleanup crew!!

Check out this scene using a miniature set of New York City, a lot of work for a 10 second shot!

The Ghost appears at the warehouse where the pieces of the castle are being stored. About fifteen dudes show up and shoot at him a hundred times before they run away, because, he's a scary old GHOST!!

After the castle is rebuilt, Murdoch appears again to cause havoc with his entrance. The butler gets to show off his comedy chops as he reacts to the turmoil!

Murdoch shows himself and everyone is amazed. He has a few words about the transition.

He singles out Mr. Martin, the new owner of his castle. He has some demands that he wants to make perfectly clear, and, Mr. Martin complies after being chased around by the Ghost.

Then, Murdoch disappears forever before giving his blessing to Donald, and, we gots a happy ending... Tune in tomorrow for a very special treat!

OVER A 100 YEARS OF DR. JEKYLL AND MR. HYDE VARIATIONS!

"Strange Case Of Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde" was written by Robert Lewis Stevenson and published in 1886. In the upcoming years after that, the movie making business was just getting started, and the strange story of Dr. Jekyll was a popular subject. As far as I can tell, the first filmed version of "Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde"was in 1908 starring Hobart Bosworth! It was followed by more films in 1910 with Alwin Neuß in the lead role, 1912 starring James Cruze, and in 1913, two versions, one with King Baggot as the star, and one with Murdock MacQuarrie as the good Doctor with a split personality! What a bunch of household names today! Makes it real clear how fickle fame really is! But the ongoing tales of Dr. Jekyll didn't really get going until.....

 .......this version came out starring Johnny Barrymore in 1920!

The 1931 version starring Frederick March was a monsterpiece!
Who or what was the greatest monster of all time in the movies? Here are the choices, and you have to consider the variations like "Son of..." and "Cousin of....," Frankenstein, Dracula and/or any vampire variation, a Lycanthrope, a Mummified person, somebody Invisible, or the Doctor with a severe disorder when he drinks too much?
I think Dr. Jekyll is right up there at the top of the list!

I'm not going to attempt to list all the Dr. Jekyll movies, but here's a group of interesting variations I have compiled. This 1941 version starring Spencer Tracy, Ingrid Bergman, and Lana Turner, probably had the most star power of them all!

So in 1951, Dr. Jekyll managed to have a son. Happy Mother's Day!

In 1953, Abbott and  Costello met "Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde," as they had previously with Frankenstein and The Invisible Man, and after this, they would also meet The Mummy!

 In 1957 it was revealed that Dr. Jekyll not only had a son, but a daughter too!

Hammer Studios came out with a comic variation called THE UGLY DUCKLING in 1959!
Just for the record, this movie is impossible to find today as far as I can tell in any way, shape, or form!

 Also in 1959, Jean Renoir's "Le Testament Du Docteur Cordelier" aka "THE DOCTOR'S HORRIBLE EXPERIMENT came out, and it might be the last serious version for quite a while!

  The nerdy Jerry Lewis Dr. Jekyll turns into rico suave Mr. Hyde in the 1963 version called "The Nutty Professor" (which was remade in itself in the 1996 Eddie Murphy version)!

In 1964, influenced by bad grades and nicotine, The Bitsko Brothers filmed their short version in 8 millimeter! Seen by only a handful of people, all footage is lost forever!

 

 

More family woes, first the brother, then the daughter, and now the sister! "Dr. Jekyll And Sister Hyde" escaped from the loony bin in 1971!

This one gets both a poster and a lobby card because Martine Beswick is in it!

 

 Let no angle be unturned, in 1976, they came out with "Dr. Black and Mr. Hyde" starring Bernie Casey! Killer Poster from Thailand I think!

 DOTTOR JEKYLL E GENTILE SIGNORA (Doctor Jekyll Likes Them Hot) was directed by Steno, and came out in 1979! Edwige Fenech has all the angles in this one!

 DR. HECKLE and MR. HYPE (1980)

I've never seen this one, and I'm not really sure I want to, even though I'm a huge Oliver Reed fan!

I mean it is supposed to be "Horribly Hilarious!"

There have been many many many more versions made over the years like this 1995 comedy, many Warner Brothers cartoons, TV shows as varied as Dobie Gillis, The Dukes Of Hazard, and The Partridge Family, and why not? "Strange Case Of Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde" is a classic tale of the inner struggles of good and bad and dark and light! It's pretty freakin' simple, and until deemed politically incorrect, will continue until there are only two people left, and then they get into a fight!