Whenever I see this I see it through Rose-tinted Spectacles: because I first saw it as a kid nostalgia kicks in and all faults are forgiven. There's quite a few of A&C's in that list, The Lost World (1960) springs to my mind as a different another. It certainly helps because in places this is laughably bad, but of course those bits were likely thrown in just for the kids! On the other hand there are some effective atmospheric moments, the set pieces usually work and the overall production values were good. You know the story - good cop bad cop. The classic 4-round-the-chimney routine still holds up, and the very last gag in the film should leave you smiling - unless you have watched this movie all the way through against your will.
Over here, it's fashionable and even de rigueur for film critics (and buffs) to denigrate the entire A&C canon as anything from utterly worthless to as unfunny as death (no kidding!) along with Britain's wartime box office no.1, George Formby. Without watching a single film sometimes. Pity the blinkered high brows as not being quite complete human beings, at always having to view such harmless fun in an Artistic light. Or maybe pity ordinary people who hate A&C but feel they have to force themselves to sit through this and then unload their bile.
Sure, times change (from innocent to cynical) - Jekyll/Karloff passionately says to Vicky that he'd loved her since she was a child - putting a whole new psychological slant on his persona. Has that been cut out yet? And any comedic aspect of animal experimentation has thankfully gone of course - hasn't it? A&C haven't changed, these are typical late performances from them, only with not so many memorable lines.
If you can see this simply as knockabout Jekyll and Hyde with 2 bumbling American policemen in London and nothing more you'll do OK like me.
