Rating: 4/5
Free! Free at last!
Dr. Jekyll dedicates his life to helping others — everyone sees the good in him except his fiancee’s father, who only sees his social indecencies.
Jekyll treats a bar singer, Ivy, and she tries to seduce him. His colleague, Dr. Lanyon, steps in. Jekyll laments the impulses he cannot control, hinting at the ability to separate good and evil desires.
In his lab, Jekyll misses sleep and dinner engagements to develop a drug to release his evil impulses. While looking into the mirror, he takes the elixir and watches it change his appearance, giving him an ape-like appearance. He names his new persona Hyde.
Hyde tracks down the woman who tried to seduce Dr. Jekyll. He offers to support her financially to have her company. Rather than help her, he locks her away in her boarding house, raping and torturing her.
When he finally becomes Jekyll again, his guilt overcomes him, and he swears never to become Hyde again. Little does he know he may not have control over it.
This film is a technical marvel. It uses first-person to highlight the contrasts between how the world sees Jekyll and Hyde. The transformation scenes use color filters to make makeup changes appear in real-time.
The cinematography is beautiful. The camera seeks images that bring out the emotions in every scene. There are transitions in which they splice the film in half, showing two moments simultaneously.
Ivy seducing Jekyll is horny! She slips off her garters and stockings, swinging her bare leg from underneath the sheets. We also see her naked frame when she sits up in bed. I’m still surprised at what Hollywood got away with pre-Hayes code!
This is an outstanding adaptation of the Robert Louis Stevenson story and the best adaptation I’ve seen.