DR. JEKYLL LIKES THEM HOT (1979) is a surprisingly funny Italian film based on a concept I’ve tried writing a few times over the years — what if Jekyll’s evil and Hyde’s the good guy?
Jekyll (Paolo Villaggio) is an evil fixer for the PANTAC corporation, currently trying to find a way to dispose of several tons of chemicals they have no use for. Jekyll’s solution: convert them into chewing gum. Sure, they’ll rot people’s teeth but think of the money to be made off the new false-teeth market! As if that wasn’t enough, he works out a blackmail scheme that will force Queen Elizabeth II to become the spokesmonarch for the project by getting her husband in a compromising position with Jekyll’s sexy, villainous assistant Barbara (Edwige Fenech).
Then it turns out Jekyll’s equally evil ancestor is still alive; for no reason other than evil he tricks Jekyll into downing a formula that brings out all the virtue he’s suppressed. Mr. Hyde saves the queen from the blackmail plot, turns back and Jekyll vows never to transform again. Only Barbara, who has no interest in him, thinks it would be soooo sexy if she could seduce that goody two shoes Hyde and turn him bad … and that’s enough to set Jekyll guzzling his formula again. The result is a clever little romp with touches I appreciate — in a reverse of the usual physical signs it’s Jekyll who has hairy hands that turn clean-shaven when he transforms. “What are you trying to do — bring my blood to the boil, then make tea with it?”
Donald Glut’s Classic Movie Monsters said 200 MOTELS (1971) as including a Jekyll and Hyde spoof so as it was free on Amazon … This makes me wonder if Zappa was an early Python fan as this tale of life on the road has some of the same anarchic tone, bouncing us between critical groupies (“He’s perverted — and English too.” “They’re all that way.”), possibly demonic Theodore Bikel (“You can’t be Satan. I saw the devil on TV and he had an English accent.”), angsty musicians and constant breaking of the fourth wall. The relevant scene has one of Zappa’s backup group The Mothers of Invention drinking a Sinister Foaming Potion to transform — though he doesn’t transform or do anything other than laugh maniacally. One for the appendix, but way more fun to watch than Ensign Pulver. “In a moment you’ll be able to get your hands on all the imaginary beer you want.”
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For many years a local storefront had a sign with this Frank Zappa quote:
You can’t always write a chord ugly enough to say what you want to say, so sometimes you have to rely on a giraffe filled with whipped cream.
From a limited knowledge of Frank Zappa, that sounds very much like him.