| Doctor Jekyll and Mister Hyde Released: 1931 (Or was it 1391?) MPAA Rating: PG! No…R! PG! NO…fuck! I can’t decide! Genre: Mad Scientist/Happy Scientist Nuts and Bolts: Another crackpot inventor figures that the only way to try out his fancy shmancy new formula is to drink the shit himself. Whatever happened to testing stuff out on mice and rabbits and other cute and fluffy things? Damn you PETA! Damn you all to Hell! Summary: Well, we begin in 19th century London England with a chap named Henry Jekyll (Fredric March). Now Henry is the most respected physician in all of London and his name on the lips of every commoner in sight. Which is odd really, since he appears to be no more than a general practitioner. He heals the elderly and steals crutches away from crippled children. Nothing that remarkable really. This was the industrial age after all, and science had long replaced religion. Jekyll’s accomplishments probably wouldn’t have caused any more raised eyebrows than if someone had claimed there was a whore tooling about Whitechapel. But I guess these 1930s filmmakers believed that every person living in England who had acquired a doctorate at some point were beholden to bandage a bruised knee at every given opportunity. There are multiple levels of doctorates ya know. Not everyone who is a doctor keeps a bevy of patients on hand. You don’t necessarily HAVE to treat the sick. Look at Doctor Dre. You won’t see him candy striping at Mercy General. But I digress. MC Doc Jekyll has this wild crazy theory about chemically separating man’s evil side from man’s good side. The idea being, the id, ego and super-ego can be quantified and expunged much like a zit giving up its viscous innards. Now this sounds suspiciously Freudian and I have a rough time believing a general practitioner would engage in such lofty pursuits. Grrr. Digressing again. Anyway, most of Jekyll’s colleagues don’t take his theories very seriously and they through a few smarmy remarks in his general direction. Poor sods. Don’t these guys know anything? You NEVER tell the crackpot mad scientist that he’s a crackpot mad scientist. That shit ALWAYS comes back to haunt you every damn time. Puff Daddy Jekyll leaves the company of his distinguished peers in order to score brownie points with his fiancée Muriel Carew. They both desperately want to marry each other and it’s quite obvious that the absence of sex is what’s driving this urge. It’s certainly not for their charm or personality. Why do you think couples were married so young back in these days? It’s because society dictated that you weren’t aloud to pound ass until you were properly adjoined in the eyes of God. So it stands to reason that Jekyll and Muriel would be pawing at each other like two rabid weasels in heat. Now this doesn’t go very well with Muriel’s father Daniel. He doesn’t truck with Jekyll’s “reckless ways” and wants a good solid stable man’s man to bed his daughter (Sorry Dad. But I think that Jekyll is more of a “Man’s Man” than you might realize). This of course puts undue strain on Henry and Muriel’s pending nuptials. Henry eventually leaves realizing that this has been a shit-fuck day from start to finish. So Jek-Lo returns to his spacious home to begin mucking about with his test tubes and beakers. He satisfactorily creates the serum that will separate his good side from his bad side. Now, as I alluded to earlier, Jekyll doesn’t have any errant lab rats or genetically altered chimpanzees lying about. But he does have a butler who is in the advanced stages of old age. Now the smart thing would be to test it on the butler right? After all, butlers are a dime a dozen and this old fuck’s got one foot in the grave to begin with. But alas, it is not meant to be. Instead, Dickface Jekyll decides to down the potion himself even though he realizes that it may cause his death. Some may find such a dedication to science as heroic. I personally feel that it’s moronic. Here you have a guy who is young, rich, a respected member of the community, and getting ready to lay some pipe with a sweet little piece of ass. But instead, he chooses to embark upon an untried formula, which may result in his death. Maybe they should call this movie Doctor Jackass and Mister Hyde. Well I suppose I don’t have to tell you what happens next right? Tough shit, I’m going to do it anyway. Jekyll drinks the juice and begins going into mad convulsions. His hair starts growing, his hands become disjointed, his teeth grow in size, and his jaw line juts out at a disproportionate level. In short; he transforms into John Leguizamo! Now playing the part of John Leguizamo for this feature will be a character called Edward Hyde. They never actually refer to him as Edward in this flick, but trust me; that’s his name. Mister Hyde scurries about a bit shouting, “I’m free! I’m free!” which further suggests to that his alter ego Henry Jekyll may be suppressing some pent up sexual aggression. But he really doesn’t do a whole lot here. Some time the following evening (Or maybe it’s the same evening), Hyde transforms back into Mac Daddy Jekyll who decides to take a stroll through the bowery. Jekyll is the philanthropic sort and routinely doles out band-aids and medical advice to those in need. He meets this filthy slut…ahem. I’m sorry. That wasn’t very PC. Let me try again. He meets this comely lady of the evening who claims to be suffering from all manners of illnesses. This is Ivy Pearson. Jekyll treats her, and she repays him by putting the moves on him. She gives him a good length of leg and even locks lips with the guy. Now Jekyll is a charitable type of guy, so he returns some passion-tongue back on Ivy. I guess all those sweet nothings he heaped upon Muriel were really just that; nothing. Jekyll is caught in the act, but he safely back peddles out of the boudoir and races back home. Later on, he takes his potion for a second time. This time however, NO ONE will be safe from the wrath of Leguizamo! Mister Hyde jaunts on down to a dingy little speakeasy where Ivy happens to be performing (She sings AND does tricks! Nyuk nyuk nyuk). Now Hyde is a total dick and he grunts and groans at damn near everybody in the place. He accosts Ivy after the show and professes his love to her. But naturally, she is forced to rebuff Hyde’s advances, for she is in love with another. Doctor Jekyll. Wait a minute. This is all starting to sound hauntingly familiar. Hmmm. Tell me if you’ve heard this one before. Down and out guy in 19th century Europe falls in love with a cabaret whore that he knows he can never have. All that and John Leguizamo. The only thing we’re missing is Bela Lugosi, Lon Chaney and Boris Karloff singing Lady Marmalade. Crap. I’m digressing again. Sorry about that. I guess you could say I’m of TWO MINDS tonight. Well, the movie plods along, and we get the typical old school horror mayhem. Jekyll flashes back and forth between personalities unable to control the passions of either. Everyone around him begins questioning his odd behavior including his butler, his colleague Lanyon and of course his girlfriend’s uptight father. As Hyde, he busts up into Ivy’s bordello and begins yelling at her to love him. Yeah, I know. It’s just as corny as it sounds. At this point, Ivy is just so flipped out by this ugly ape that all she can do is nod assuringly and say, “Yes sir” and “No sir”. The following day, Ivy seeks solace in the arms of Doctor Jekyll never realizing that he is the perpetuator of the monstrous Mister Hyde. Jekyll even gives her fifty pounds for her troubles (Which in those days, was probably the equivalent to about 20 bucks). He gives the wench his hard earned cash and doesn’t even get a blow job for his trouble. What a tool. Eventually, Jekyll gets to the point where he can no longer control the changes. That’s right kiddies. Henry’s inner penis has a mind of its own and it don’t need no steenking formula to prompt the change. He turns back into Hyde and breaks into Ivy’s room. Ivy of course tries to flee and Hyde throws a tantrum and breaks the poor girl’s neck. Hey, it could happen to any of us right? I remember once when I got really angry and tore the arm off my Stretch-Arm-Strong. His red jelly filling spilled all over the carpet forever staining it. Man, mom was pissed that day. I still have the bruises. Needless to say the only toys I ever received after that were Slinkies and Weeble Wobbles. Can’t do a lot of damage to the carpet with a goddamned Weeble Wobble now can you? Shit! I did it again, didn’t I? Anyway…back to the story. Jekyll is now completely ridden with guilt. He swears that he will never drink the serum again, but this doesn’t really matter any more. His old colleague Lanyon eventually discovers the doctor’s terrible secret. No, not THAT terrible secret! The OTHER terrible secret. The Mister Hyde thing! Jekyll races over to Muriel’s place to break up with her. The way he sees it, if he can no longer control the transformation, than he represents a physical threat to her. So it’s better for him to simply break off the engagement rather than risk her safety. He approaches Muriel and begins spouting off a bunch of poetic crap about ‘setting her free’. She of course, has little choice but to sit there and take it on the chin. Jekyll then becomes Hyde one final time and attacks Muriel. A bunch of servants and shit burst into the room and wrestle around with him, but Hyde beats them off with his walking stick. He crashes out the window and makes a mad dash for the laboratory. The police are called in and everyone raids the lab. Hyde is jumping around like a monkey on crack until Lanyon shows up and tells everyone that Hyde is Jekyll and Jekyll is Hyde who also goes by the alias of Vera, Chuck and Dave. (Lanyon knows that it was Jekyll who attacked Muriel by evidence of his broken cane at the scene of the crime) The Bobbies shoot him down off the wall and Hyde/Jekyll dies. Acting/Dialogue: I know you will find this hard to believe, but Fredric March actually won the 1931 Academy Award for Best Actor because of this turkey. All I can say is: It must have been one SHITTY year for movies. If this is what passes for a command performance, then I would hate to see what the Academy considers lackluster. This guy just sucks. He’s got absolutely zero charisma and every line of wretched dialogue is so forced and wooden that it actually makes my eardrums bleed. To his credit, March does succeed in distinguishing his two personas. Despite the makeup there is no way you could ever mistake Mister Hyde for Fredric March. This isn’t exactly a sign of versatility mind you. It just means he can grunt and change his voice. Big fucking deal. My ten-year-old nephew can do that. It’s true. I’ve seen him do it when he’s playing with his Harry Potter action figures. He’s got the accent down and everything. But I’m not about to give him a bloody Oscar for it. Sadly, the shit acting doesn’t end with March. Everyone in this flick pretty much sucks. Miriam Hopkins who plays Ivy Pearson is just as bad. Don’t let the pretty eyes and bouncing bosom full you. Miriam seems to have trouble deciding which accent she chooses to use. At some points, her voice is very obviously that of an American. Other times she almost teeters on the brink of a sublime English brogue. And other times, she bursts out into a full-bore Cockney dialect. This bitch has more friggin’ personalities than Jekyll himself. Rose Hobart (Muriel) is pretty awful as well. But I think she is more the victim of bad writing than anything else. The dialogue isn’t pretty here either folks. In fact, it is 100% monkey-fisted awful. You wanna know what passes for romantic dialogue in 1931? Here’s a sample. “Oh…I love you!” “And I love you.” “I so seriously love you. So much so…that I love you!” “And I love you. Most seriously.” Honestly, who fucking talks like this? Jekyll professes his love while pirouetting around talking about birds and rainbows and poems and dancing. Not very masculine there, Fred. Hardly going to sweep a girl off her feet with promises of poems and rainbows. Hey, I’ve got no beef if you wanna go off and explore other options, but don’t drag the poor girl along making her think that you are 100% heterosexual. That’s just cruel. Gore: None nil nadda zip bupkus. Guilty Pleasures: There’s a cut reel floating around somewhere that apparently has a quick flash of Miriam Hopkins nipple. It’s supposed to take place during her first scene with Doctor Jekyll. If anyone happens to come across the ever elusive “lost nipple” scene please do your civic duty and upload it on KaZaa so we can all enjoy the splendor ‘kay? Beyond that, this film is still pretty racy all things considered. Miriam shows off a LOT of leg, and we even get to see some side-breast cleavage. Quite risqué for 1931 don’t ya think? The Good: Much like its title character(s), Doctor Jekyll and Mister Hyde is equal parts genius and equal parts shit. Put em together and what do you get? Well…you get geeshit but that’s beside the point. One of the things that makes this movie particularly exceptional is the directing by Rouben Mamoulian. This frisky Russian introduces several innovative techniques with not only the camera but with lighting and framing as well. Within the first three minutes you become instantly aware that Mamoulian has a perfect understanding of the film he’s trying to represent; a trait that many directors seem to lack nowadays. We are introduced to Jekyll but we don’t exactly quite see him. We are looking through his eyes as his fingers dance along a piano keyboard and even as he issues instructions to his octogenarian butler Mister Poole. The first time we actually see Jekyll is when he is staring into a hallway mirror adjusting his hat and gloves. This automatically is suggestive of the dual nature that will become the primary theme of this picture. Mamoulian’s first person perspective is used quite a bit in this flick, most notably in scenes that directly precede the doctor’s transformation into the brutish Mister Hyde. Now you’re probably wondering, “What’s so flipping great about first person perspective”, right? The primary function of such a picture is to not only examine the character of Doctor Jekyll but to examine human nature as well. The first person POV pulls you in to the character’s head and forces one to view the world through Jekyll-colored-glasses. These shots are also necessary because they establish the foreshadowing of Jekyll’s catharsis and ultimate downfall. We see other examples of Mamoulian’s foreshadowing techniques in later shots. There’s a scene in the garden when Jekyll is swooning over Muriel. They belch out their respective pillow talk and succeed in thoroughly boring the audience. But rather than simply cut away from the scene, cinematographer Karl Strauss pulls the camera downward focusing on a patch of flowers which are slowly wilting and dying. This is another metaphor for the growth and death of Jekyll’s character (I actually have to credit Mrs. Headhunter with this little tidbit. She picked it out while I was drilling my hand into a bag of corn chips). Another interesting shot occurs while Jekyll is first perfecting his serum. His passion for science nearly overwhelms him, suggestive of the animal lust inherent in his nature. But just before downing the cocktail his eyes fall upon a medical skeleton hanging in the corner. Facing the representation of death, Jekyll’s pragmatism takes hold briefly, long enough for him to scratch out a letter to Muriel in the event of his death. Of course, we all know that pragmatic conscience and even common fucking sense go flying right out the goddamned window, because in the very next instant the dickhead swallows the goop. It’s not a particularly memorable shot, but I found it kind of intriguing nonetheless. Karl Strauss also addresses the duality of man in other ways. He utilizes several moments of split screen filming, the frames of which eerily match the action being presented in the alternative frame. One screen will focus on the actions of Mister Hyde while the other will center on the effects of Jekyll’s absence on the community. Interestingly enough, Doctor Jekyll and Mister Hyde will not be the LAST film to use such a technique to represent man’s dual nature. Even as recent as June of 2003, action director Ang Lee will mimic Strauss’ work in the summer blockbuster known as the Hulk. Now, there’s one final camera trick used here that I absolutely must comment on. This takes place during the death of Ivy Pearson. In the scene, Hyde breaks into her bedroom just as Ivy is feeling good about herself. She thinks that Jekyll has done away with Hyde and a great moment of relief passes over her. But within the mirror, we see Hyde enter the room. He grunts and grimaces and ultimately strikes her to the floor where he begins to choke the shit out her. Now this is where Strauss’ brilliant camerawork comes in to play. The scene itself is rather tame, since the actual moment of death takes place below the camera line. But what Strauss’ suggests with the camera is far more grisly than what I’m sure even the director had intended. We hear Hyde’s heavy breathing as well as Ivy’s panicked screams. But what the eye sees is a statue on a nightstand of two figures wrapped together in copulation. Now maybe I’m just a sick twist for noticing this, but I can’t help thinking that what Mamoulian and Strauss are suggesting here is that Hyde is actually raping Ivy before snapping her neck. I may be looking too deeply into this, but I find Mamoulian to be too competent of a director for this to be merely coincidence. The only thing left to really talk about here is the special effects. I joked around earlier about Hyde’s goofy buck-toothed appearance, but in all fairness the actual transformation sequence is really captivating. Having seen a lot of films, it was fairly easy for me to figure out how they did the shot, but that doesn’t diminish the accomplishment in any way. We see Jekyll writhing about in his chair and without a single editing cut, we watch his face and hands grow swarthy and wrinkled. His eyes darken and his lips shrivel up into a black grimace. Basically, all of the necessary makeup had been applied beforehand, but using camera filters and select lighting, it was unseen by the viewer. By simply shifting the filters and adjusting the light, Jekyll’s pale visage disappeared and Hyde’s darker features came into view. Now this is only the halfway point in the transformation. After this, the camera begins spinning around like a dervish allowing time for the obligatory wig and prosthetics to be applied. The end product is an oafish looking chimp-boy who could never be confused for the resigned Doctor Jekyll. In closing it should be noted that this movie was based on a 19th century novel written by Robert Louis Stevenson known as The Strange Case of Doctor Jekyll and Mister Hyde. It’s been a long time since I’ve read it, so I can’t recall any of the finer details, but the 1931 version of this film seems suitable as a more than adequate adaptation despite whatever liberties the production crew may have taken with the screenplay. Ten years after this, the story would be regurgitated, but this time with Spencer Tracy in the lead roles(s). Interestingly enough, both Fredric March and Spencer Tracy would later go on to battle their respective moral cunnundrums in the 1960 Stanley Kramer classic Inherit The Wind. The Bad: Why is it no one can make a decent Doctor Jekyll flick? This is Robert Louis Stevenson for fuck’s sake! A literary giant! This is the ultimate story of man’s inner struggle against his innate primal desire to beat small children; a vice we all must wrestle with at some point in our lives. How do you fuck this up? Don’t let my earlier praise fool you. Rouben Mamoulian’s direction is the ONLY thing that saves this flick from falling into the bowels of obscurity. And for that reason alone, its worth checking out. The screenplay is piss-poor, the acting is atrocious and the dialogue is nauseating. Now you’re probably thinking that I’m being hard on the film because it’s from the 1930s right? Well, I’m not. I’m being hard on the film because it fucking blows. For good examples of classic horror filming, check out Todd Browning’s Freaks or Dracula. There’s also James Whales untouchable work with Frankenstein, Bride of Frankenstein and the Invisible Man. Not to mention Murnau’s Nosferatu and the chart-topping Phantom of the Opera. Fredric March isn’t worthy of wiping the dew off of Lon Chaney’s balls let alone starring as one of the most famous literary figures of all time. Despite the excellent transformation sequences, the end product is pretty much a joke. As I referenced earlier above, Edward Hyde could easily pass for the bastard child of John Leguizamo and Jerry Lewis. He’s not very intimidating and I’m quite surprised that the periphery cast was so horrified by him. He doesn’t look so much like a monster as he does a contender in the Special Olympics. The buck-teeth and ape head thing doesn’t work and March obviously had a difficult time with the prosthetics as indicated by the fact that he keeps twisting and contorting his mouth like a 90 year old man trying to keep his dentures in place. He’s not even really that much of a monster. He makes an off-color remark here and there but in the end, Mister Hyde is really a big pussy. Hell, in some scenes he is almost downright polite. Where’s the repulsive letch from Stevenson’s novel? Where’s the Mister Hyde that would beat children with sticks and stomp on old ladies with his boot? Well, he’s not here I’ll tell you that much. Oh yeah…this is just a nitpick but I can’t let it slip by. They continuously mispronounce Jekyll’s name in this flick. Now I’m not one to challenge the artistic merit of Robert Louis Stevenson but I’ve always thought that the good doctor’s name was supposed to be pronounced Jeck-ull (Rhymes with Heckle). Here however, they pronounce his name as Doctor Jeeekill. That just sounds silly. I can’t take a guy seriously if his name sounds like a character from the Muppet Show. I also have to question the editing in some scenes with this movie. At times, it becomes really choppy and amateurish. There are scenes where a character will be in one location at one instance and then instantly reappear in another. Movements are jerky and uncoordinated and the whole thing looks rather rushed. This is one flick that is in need of some serious restoration. Maybe the Criterion people can takes this one and clean it up a bit for the DVD release. At least then, you will be able to enjoy excellent direction and cinematography despite the unintentionally camp moments this feature provides. Great Lines: “Oh, God. This I did not intend. I saw a light but did not know where it was headed. I have trespassed on your domain. I've gone further than man should go. Forgive me. Help me! I have no soul. I'm beyond the pale. I'm one of the living dead!” –This of course is Doctor Jekyll. Melodramatic little fuck isn’t he? Overall Rating: 5 out of 10 severed heads |
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