DR. JEKYLL AND MR. HYDE (1941)

JEKYLL AND HYDE films lean one of two ways: Murdering Monster or Principled Doctor Goes Wrong. This rather stolid version, a big, handsome prestige piece from M-G-M, goes for the latter, actually past it, more like a Great Man bio-pic perverted into horror. Consistently interesting, and consistently disappointing, you can see what they’re aiming at, but never feel it. Starting with a miscast Spencer Tracy, neither dynamic as Jekyll nor demonic as Hyde, and with woefully unconvincing stunt doubling in the action scenes. Much more successful is the counter-intuitive casting that places Lana Turner (not bad, but hopelessly American) as his virginal fiancée and an utterly ravishing Ingrid Bergman as the tarty barmaid. She fought to get away from playing another saintly character. Director Victor Fleming tosses in some very Freudian dream sequences for the doctor (ladies as horses to be whipped!) and generally puts on the polish, but can only get so far on good intentions. Best work comes from Joseph Ruttenberg’s ultra-creamy cinematography and, whenever he’s given a bit of space, Franz Waxman’s score.

SCREWY THOUGHT OF THE DAY: With more permissive attitudes and modern CGI effects, it’s surprising no one’s tried to show Jekyll strip down to watch his own whole-body transformation. He’s that rare Dr. Frankenstein who’s also The Monster. Watching in horror and fascination as he morphs from ‘smooth man’ Jacob into ‘hairy man’ Esau, to give it a Biblical turn.

DOUBLE-BILL: In 1920, John Barrymore did the transformation without special effects or makeup, just lighting, facial contortion & imagination. Alas, his director, John S. Robertson, was a pretty dull fellow at the time. Luckily, Barrymore repeats the trick to far better effect in DON JUAN/’26, going in and out of his villain face as part of his rescue of Mary Astor. Rouben Mamoulian’s excellent 1931 version with Fredric March camouflages the effect using adjustable color filtering on b&w film stock to fine effect. If they’d only taken equal care with Hyde’s unfortunate simian teeth!