More Hammer Films Horror from house director Terence Fisher and TechniColor enthusiast Jack Asher; with Wolf Mankiewicz in for regular scripter Jimmy Sangster. Look in vain to find book author Robert Lewis Stevenson credited; less hubris than truth in advertizing since so many of the book’s themes go topsy-turvy. Most noticeably Stevenson’s inspiration out of Genesis 27:11, NIV: Jacob said to Rebekah his mother, 'But my brother Esau is a hairy man while I have smooth skin.’ This is the one Jekyll & Hyde adaptation where scientific civilized Jekyll is hirsute and Hyde smooth as a baby’s bottom. Mankiewicz also has him already married rather than torn between Virgin & Whore. It’s Mrs. Jekyll who’s two-timing with a scoundrel while the Doctor labors in his lab. These reversals might have been pretty interesting, but the production just goes thru the motions, flooded with over-lit sets indoors & out. Dawn Addams’ shameless wife looks painted for a night at the Carnival while Paul Massie eyes turn bright blue whenever Hyde takes over. Not that we see the transitions. Too difficult, too expensive. Instead, simple edits for the changes. On the other hand, Christopher Lee has a fine old time as the debt-ridden hedonist ne’er-do-well diddling his friend’s wife. But in general, the film a missed opportunity.
WATCH THIS, NOT THAT: John Barrymore made a dream Jekyll & Hyde in 1920, but John Robertson's dull direction not up to the task. (Barrymore repeated his legendary makeup-free transformation to better effect in DON JUAN/’26.) The best JEKYLL & HYDE would be Rouben Mamoulian’s with Fredric March and Karl Struss’s still striking transformation photography. (Red filters on b&w stock.) If only March were able to enunciate around Hyde’s huge teeth. (Why his dialogue wasn’t looped a 1931 mystery.) But the most interesting has Victor Fleming directing miscast Spencer Tracy in a John Lee Mahin script; less Horror Film than Great Man Bio-Pic Gone Wrong. Fascinating. With great dream sequences for an incandescent Ingrid Bergman playing whore and horse for whipping.
ATTENTION MUST BE PAID: Look for a young Oliver Reed, improbably beat up by Hyde at a club. And listen for a score written by Monty Norman just before he wrote James Bond's DR. NO/’62.
SCREWY THOUGHT OF THE DAY: In spite of current cinematic freedoms no one has yet done the transformation scene nude. Surely Jekyll would wish to watch. Yes? And think of the CGI possibilities as smooth Jacob turns into hairy Esau. (Or the reverse as here.)
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