Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde
 

Just bought a double-sided DVD of the 1932 Fredric March version and the 1941 Spencer Tracy version. Only watched the March one so far. Not quite as good as I'd hoped. Typically my girlfriend laughed all the way through. :roll:

Re: Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde
 

My favorite adaptation of this masterpiece from Mr. Stevenson is the silent version from 1920 directed by John S. Robertson. John Barrymore's transformation from Dr. Jekyll to Mr. Hyde is brilliant!

I think "Mary Reilly" with Julia Roberts was a very successful film (at least in my opinion). The story being told from a different perspective was full of mystery and psychological atmosphere.

Mr Hyde (hide) is Jekyll's alter-nemo.

Re: Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde
 

s_weilh, not seen the Barrymore version. Actually I was surprised when I looked in my film guide how few film versions there were listed. Only five, I think. And one of them was the comedy Dr Jekyll and Ms Hyde. Surely there must be more versions than that?

Re: Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde
 

Don't forget the forgettable Abbott and Costello Meet Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1953) with Boris Karloff. How many times did Bud and Lou make the same movie under different titles?

Re: Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde
 

I have always loved this story. I have read it more than a few times. I just got done watching a documentary called Nightmare the Birth of Horror narrated by Christopher Frayling. It is a four hour documentary in four parts, each dealing with a famous Victorian horror novel. It discussed Frankenstein, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Dracula, and the Hound of the Baskervilles. I learned some interesting things about RLS's novel. During the London play based on this novel, the Jack the Ripper murders occurred. They even closed the play because of them, saying "There are enough horrors outside the theatre." There was some minor controversy about whether or not the story triggered the killings. Another interesting point, Stevenson wanted the name Jekyll pronounced Jeek el. Jeek to rhyme with seek, as in hide and seek. It was also an innovation to have the same actor play both characters. (There is a difference in size in the novel, Hyde is smaller). And the story idea came to RLS in a nightmare. All of the stories in the doc did, apparently, hence the name.

After watching this doc, I was searching the net to see if I could find a nice illustrated edition of the book. I found out that Mervyn Peake illustrated this novel. I admire his work very much. So I ordered a copy for $12, but I still haven't received it yet. A nice coincidence that Stu mentioned the movies. I have seen all three, but it has been a long time since I have seen them. I am pretty sure I like the Frederic March one the best - but I liked them all, even if Ingrid Bergman playing a prostitute is stretching things a bit.

Some more trivia:

I remember watching a movie as a kid called Dr Jekyll and Sister Hyde. This gender bender is from 1971. Hyde is played by Martine Beswick. She is alluring to say the least. To give you some idea how good looking she was, she was a Bond girl in Thunderball and was also in the camp classic One Million Years B.C. I need to track this down and watch it again. The only thing I remember about this movie is Miss Beswick's portrayal of Hyde. I am glad that I never thought through the implications of this attraction in the context of the film, I would probably be more screwed up than I am now.

I think the Auora model kit is based on the March version.

If you like Sherlock Holmes, Loren D. Estleman wrote a Holmes/Hyde pastiche that is very entertaining. He wrote one for Holmes/Dracula too. I even have the radio play for that one! Fun stuff.

Re: Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde
 

Stu,
Choosing the 1920 version as the best is certainly a very subjective choice. I just felt it was important not to omit this long-forgotten first adaptation.

Bendk,
You immediately reminded me of the 1988 version of Jack the Ripper where Chief Insp. Frederick Abberline (starring Michael Caine) during his search for the killer goes to a theatre to see the Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde play. The startling transformation of Dr. Jekyll into Mr. Hyde performed by the main actor inspires the Scotlandyard inspector to see some connection between Jekyll/Hyde and Jack the Ripper.

1888 was certainly a weird year for citizens of London. Actually, it is the only period when during one day you could go to see the Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde play, then for a change consult Dr. Frederick Treves to get a permission to visit John Merrick (the Elepant Man) at the London Hospital and finally in the middle of the night, on a way back home, get killed by the maniacal Jack the Ripper. What an opportunity! ;)

Re: Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde
 

G.S., I watched a bunch of Abbott and Costello films as a kid but I can't remember if that included any of their "horror" output.

bendk, the March version uses the Jeek ell pronounciation.

And Alan Moore has Holmes and Hyde both appear in The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen Volume 1 (although not in the same scene). And in Volume 2 he makes the point that in the original story Hyde was smaller than Jekyll but in LoEG Jekyll's guilt over his repressed desires has led to Hyde growing in stature. (Going off on a tangent I read somewhere that at one stage Superman used to be able to compress his spine when posing as Clark Kent, knocking about six inches off his height and making it slightly more credible that no one ever figured out that they were the same person. As far as I'm aware this super-slouching power is no longer used by the writers.)

And I've not seen Dr Jekyll and Sister Hyde but when I heard about it the thing that caught my attention was that Jekyll was played by Ralph Bates. At the time Bates was best known for playing the lead in the sitcom Dear John (if I remember rightly Judd Hirsch took the lead in the US remake). And as I've started typing this I've just realised that one of the supporting characters, Kirk (I think), was actually a pseudo-Jekyll and Hyde type. For most of the series he dressed like John Travolta in Saturday Night Fever and was a swaggering sexist idiot but in one episode John visits his home and discovers that Kirk is in reality a timid nerd who just dresses up as his swaggering alter ego to give himself more confidence. John encourages Kirk to meet their mutual friends for a drink in his true persona but upon arriving Kirk finds his friends being bullied by louts. After a moment's hesitation Kirk ducks into the pub's toilets and appears a few seconds later to the strains of the Superman theme, dressed in his medallion man outfit. He then goes into the bar and, after failing to talk the bullies down, dispatches them with his martial arts skills.

s_wielh, in Alan Moore's From Hell he has Abberline (or is it William Gull?) visit the Elephant Man during the height of the Ripper's reign. I think he mentions Jekyll and Hyde as well but possibly only in the comic's footnotes.

Re: Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde
 

Found a list of Jekyll and Hyde related films here.

Gasp at the knowledge that there was a musical version starring Kirk Douglas. Weep upon reading there was another musical version starring David Hasselhoff. :shock:

Re: Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde
 

I think this is the one I saw and liked so much:

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0062908

I was just a kid when I saw it on television. I watched it with my mother and after I went to bed I was petrified. I remember his lips and how scary they looked. I was probably around 10.

Re: Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde
 

Barry, I saw the Jack Palance version when I was a kid, too. Palance's face. Period. If I remember properly, this version was made for television, and aired in the US on ABC on a Sunday night. I must have been all of eleven or so. Thanks, mom, for letting the brood stay up.