First some cartoons—PRIZE PEST (1951) has Daffy Duck becoming an obnoxious guest at Porky Pig’s house, then avoiding eviction by faking “the Jekyll and Hyde routine” to persuade Porky not to upset him—said routine involving a wig of wild hair and fangs. A “name only” cartoon. “Have you got a convertible coop? Because I’m a convertible duck!”
HARE REMOVER (1954) is another No for the book — Elmer Fudd’s trying to create a drug that will turn a man into a fiend, and when a bear wanders into his lab, Bugs assumes it’s a transformed Fudd (Elmer makes the same mistake). Not Jekyll and Hyde at all.
DR. JERKYL’S HIDE (1955) definitely qualifies: a British Brute Dog and his bouncy sidekick chase Sylvester the cat into Dr. Jerkyl’s laboratory where the cat quaffs a fizzy drink for refreshment … as the effect on Sylvester come and go, the Brute becomes astonished when his sidekick handles the monster so easily. Another one I’ve seen before. “Alfie’s my hero, because he’s so big and strong.”
Watching multiple Looney Tunes takes on Jekyll and Hyde made me appreciate randomly flipping from Wimp to Monster is a staple comic shtick. In HYDE AND HARE (1955), kindly Dr. Jekyll invites Bugs into house but can’t resist his addiction to his favorite drink … and so we have Bugs running from Hyde (green skin, muscles, red eyes) while trying to protect Jekyll whenever Hyde turns back. “It’s funny you should call me a doctor because you know, I am one.”
HYDE AND GO TWEET (1960) has Sylvester napping outside Dr. Jekyll’s office when Tweety flies down and in the subsequent chase, hides inside a bottle of Hyde Potion. At this point, the comic effect of the switching is largely used up, a perennial problem with watching films for my books.
HYDE AND SNEAK (1962) is my first encounter with Inspector Willoughby, a supporting character in various Walter Lantz cartoons such as Woody Woodpecker but also starring in his own ‘toons. In this installment he’s hunting sexy criminal Vampira Hyde (presumably modeled on Vampira, the TV movie host, but she looks like Natasha Fatale) but keeps running afoul of her ability to turn into an innocuous little old lady. Forgettable. “Now to set the trap for Vampira Hyde.”
DR. DEVIL AND MR. HARE (1964) sounds like it’d be Jekyll and Hyde but no — it has Bugs thwarting the Tasmanian Devil by variously posing as a maternity nurse, a surgeon and a psychiatrist before building a Frankenstein creature that beats up both antagonists.
SPOOKS (1953) is a Three Stooges short (the Shemp/Moe/Larry era) with a Dr. Jekyll but he’s a generic mad scientist plotting to trade a girl’s brain with a gorilla’s. As I’m not a Three Stooges fan, the only thing of note was that it was very obviously shot in 3D — but it definitely qualifies. “Don’t be ridiculous — haunted houses have bats!”
