Abbott And Costello Meet Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde (1953)

Starring Bud Abbott, Lou Costello, Boris Karloff, Craig Stevens, Helen Westcott
Directed by Charles Lamont
(actor & director credits courtesy IMDB.com)

A pair of bumbling policemen in 19th century London are kicked off the force, and try to get their jobs back by catching the murdering monster on the loose, actually Dr. Jekyll's gruesome alter ego.

This entry in the "Abbott & Costello Meet The Monsters" series of films pulls its villain not from the Universal horror library, but the classic Robert Louis Stevenson story of good and evil, although there's not much of Stevenson's tale that makes it to the screen.  Karloff is welcome as Jekyll, but isn't given the opportunity to give a layered performance to Hyde as well, with a stuntman (Eddie Parker, according to IMDB) in a grotesque mask, playing all the Hyde scenes as a mute brute in topcoat and hat.  Most of the gags and routines for Abbott & Costello are ones we've seen before, and none really elicit any laughter on my part today, but the film is lively paced and the sets and costumes convincing of the period.  I still had fun with it, even if it's not one of the better A & C monster outings.

Invisible Avenger (1958)

Starring Richard Derr, Mark Daniels, Helen Westcott, Jack Doner, Jeanne Neher
Directed by James Wong Howe & John Sledge
(actor & director credits courtesy IMDB.com)

Lamont Cranston, who can cloud men's minds so they can only see his shadow, and his mystic trainer Jogendra, travel to New Orleans where they discover an exiled Latin American leader is in danger. 

The film is of course based on The Shadow, the popular character of the pulps and radio, and according to Wikipedia, it's actually a theatrical repackaging of a two part television pilot.  Those expecting to see the character in his familiar slouch hat and crimson scarf will be disappointed, as Derr (playing the Shadow's alter ego Lamont Cranston) never dons that garb, and I'm not sure if he even does The Shadow's voice or laugh.  Derr is all right in the role but lacks the hard edge of the pulp hero, as well as the smoothness in vocal delivery that highlighted the Shadow's portrayers on radio.  He's also missing the character's familiar supporting cast with Daniels' Jogendra an apparently new character replacing Margo Lane, Moe Shrevnitz, et al.  The story and screenplay are okay, but for the most part lack enough excitement or suspense, although the sequences in which Derr vanishes when clouding men's minds are well-done, perhaps due to the presence of James Wong Howe as director of one of the episodes, who of course had a long and distinguished career as an innovative cinematographer.