There’s an old, now defunct genre of cartoon where characters from various popular books rush out and intermingle. A lot of the books are classics — the studios of the 1930s were always happy to burnish their literary cred — and unsurprisingly several included Jekyll and Hyde (mostly Hye)
1932’s THREE’S A CROWD, for, instance, has Alice in Wonderland gathers everyone from Robinson Crusoe to Antony and Cleopatra for a singalong, the highlights being Cleopatra’s belly dance and Uncle Tom crooning a spiritual. Then Mr. Hyde bursts out of Stevenson’s book and kidnaps Alice only to be countered by the combined force of Tarzan, the Three Musketeers and Robin Hood! A very Fredric March Hyde, both visually and in the heavy breathing (something March does when he first transforms) though I don’t think it comes across in the illustration below.
In HAVE YOU GOT ANY CASTLES (1938) imost of the action involves the Three Musketeers liberating the Prisoner of Zenda while for some reason Robinson Crusoe and other good-guy literary characters try to stop them. Mr. Hyde appears at the beginning dancing a minuet with Fu Manchu, Frankenstein’s monster and the Phantom of the Opera.
THE BOOKWORM (1939) has more of a plot: Macbeth’s witches charge Poe’s Raven to get them a worm for their cauldron brew. He picks a bespectacled bookworm unhappy that nothing exciting ever happens to him … Mr. Hyde’s supposed to be somewhere among the evil characters who get involved but I don’t see either the book nor Hyde (assuming they use the usual top hat and cape visual markers). And lord, Paul Revere riding a Mammy figure for a horse (popping out of Black Beauty) is one of those Oh God moments you get in old movies.
THE BOOKWORM TURNS (1940) was a sequel in which the crow, troubled by being so stupid, turns to kindly Dr. Jekyll for advice; Jekyll’s solution is to have him capture the bookworm so the doctor can transfer the latter’s intellect into the corvid. Amusing but ultimately loses its way — Mr. Hyde’s experiment does nothing for plot but does provide some freaky visuals
BOOK REVUE (1946) wasn’t listed as having a Jekyll/Hyde elements but I figured I’d check it out just in case — one I know I’ve seen before as I remember the gag of every female fictional character swooning when Sinatra sings.
Now, onto other cartoons — FLY FROLIC (1932) has a spider kidnap a girl fly from a night club, find an angry fly mob pursuing him and whips up a formula to turn himself into a suave mustachioed figure to send his pursuers off on a forced trail. While that does resemble the climax of the 1932 Jekyll and Hyde, it would qualify for an appendix at best.
BETTY BOOP, MD (1932) was listed but also goes in the appendix, at best: Betty sells Jippo patent medicine (“Flattens feet! Grows tonsils!”) whose side effects include turning a baby into Mr. Hyde.
THE CASE OF THE STUTTERING PIG (1937) qualifies for sure: Porky and Petunia Pig are among the heirs of old Solomon Swine, informed that if all the heirs disappear their lawyer inherits everything. The lawyer then downs a bottle of “Jekyll and Hyde juice” … A fun one.
THE IMPATIENT PATIENT (1942) has telegram delivery boy Daffy Duck turn to Dr. Jerkyl’s convenient office for a cure of his hiccups, only to end up chased around the lab by Hyde before whipping up a potion that turns the brute into a baby
MIGHTY MOUSE MEETS JEKYLL AND HYDE CAT (1944) has a foolish group of field mice who don’t realize you never shelter in creepy old mansions during a sudden storm. This one happens to be Jekyll’s former home (“It is, indeed, a hard house to rent.”), still occupied by the doctor’s cat. The mice easily outwit him until the cat takes his former master’s potion — but not even Hyde Cat can stand the power of Mighty Mouse!
Tom and Jerry were in endless syndication on TV when I arrived in the US and the Oscar nominated DR. JEKYLL AND MR. MOUSE (1947) is one of the many I’ve seen. Tom swipes a bottle of milk of his owner’s doorstep (this was back when milk delivery was a routine thing) only to discover Jerry wants to share. Tom whips up some poison to put in the milk only to discover a Few Side Effects … Note the visual Hyde signifiers such as the top hat in the opening credits.
GENTLEMAN JEKYLL AND DRIVER HYDE (1950) is a live-action short from Canada in which a couple of truckers discuss how, much as they’re villified as road hogs, they’re trained professionals and the real problem are reckless civilians. Here we see a mild-mannered homeowner transform into a rather lycanthropic Hyde —
on his daily commute, heedless of the damage he’s causing. One trucker complains to the other that guys like this would never cut in line at the cafeteria — why can’t they be civil when they’re queued up on the roads?
Disney’s MOTOR MANIA (1950) is an animated educational cartoon on the same theme, showing how Goofy transforms from kindly, thoughtful Mr. Walker into selfish jackhole Mr. Wheeler whenever he drives. Much more marginal a Jekyll/Hyde than the Canadian film — I do wonder if one of them was ripping off the other or if Jekyll/Hyde just make a natural fit for this sort of topic.
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IIRC, the kid’s PBS show Arthur had a Jekyll & Hyde episode with the Brain dreaming about becoming Hyde and singing a catchy song all about it: Jekyll Hyde. It’s still on you tube.
Thanks, I’ll check it out. I don’t attempt to list all individual TV episodes — too easy for one to slip by — but it’s better to see ’em than not.