Dr. Jekyll and Sister Hyde

Last updated

Dr. Jekyll and Sister Hyde
Dr. Jekyll and Sister Hyde.jpg
U.S. theatrical release poster
Directed by Roy Ward Baker
Written by Brian Clemens
Produced byBrian Clemens
Albert Fennell
Starring Ralph Bates
Martine Beswick
Cinematography Norman Warwick
Edited by James Needs
Music by David Whitaker
Production
company
Distributed by MGM-EMI Distributors
Release date
  • October 17, 1971 (1971-10-17)
Running time
97 minutes
CountryUnited Kingdom
Language English

Dr. Jekyll and Sister Hyde is a 1971 British horror film directed by Roy Ward Baker and starring Ralph Bates and Martine Beswick. [1] It was based on the 1886 novella Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson. The film was made by British studio Hammer Film Productions and was their third adaptation of the story after The Ugly Duckling (1959) and The Two Faces of Dr. Jekyll . (1960) The film is notable for showing Jekyll transform into a female Hyde; it also incorporates into the plot aspects of the historical Jack the Ripper and Burke and Hare cases. [2]

Contents

Plot

Dr. Henry Jekyll dedicates his life to the curing of all known illnesses; however, his lecherous friend Professor Robertson remarks that Jekyll's experiments take so long to actually be discovered, he will no doubt be dead by the time he is able to achieve anything. Haunted by this remark, Jekyll abandons his studies and obsessively begins searching for an elixir of life, using female hormones taken from fresh cadavers supplied by murderers Burke and Hare, reasoning that these hormones will help him to extend his life since women traditionally live longer than men and have stronger systems.

In the apartment above Jekyll's lives a family: an elderly mother, her daughter Susan Spencer, and Susan's brother Howard. Susan is attracted to Jekyll, and he returns her affections, but is too obsessed with his work to make advances. Mixing the female hormones into a serum and drinking it has the effect of changing Jekyll's sex.

Advertisement from 1972 for Dr. Jekyll and Sister Hyde and co-feature, The Return of Count Yorga. Del Mar Theatre Ad - 10 May 1972, Santa Cruz, CA.jpg
Advertisement from 1972 for Dr. Jekyll and Sister Hyde and co-feature, The Return of Count Yorga .

Susan becomes jealous when she discovers this mysterious woman, but when she confronts Jekyll, to explain the sudden appearance of his female alter ego, he calls her Mrs. Edwina Hyde, saying she is his widowed sister who has come to live with him. Howard, on the other hand, develops a lust for Mrs. Hyde.

Jekyll soon finds that his serum requires a regular supply of female hormones to maintain its effect, necessitating the killing of young girls. Burke and Hare supply his needs, but their criminal activities are uncovered. Burke is lynched by a mob and Hare blinded by lime. The doctor decides to take matters into his own hands and commits the murders attributed to Jack the Ripper. Jekyll abhors this, but Mrs. Hyde relishes the killings as she begins to take control, even seducing and then killing Professor Robertson when he attempts to question her about the murders.

As Mrs. Hyde grows more powerful, the two personalities begin to struggle for dominance. Jekyll asks Susan to the opera; however, when he is getting dressed to go out, he unconsciously takes Mrs. Hyde's gown from the wardrobe instead of his own clothes, realizing that he no longer needs to drink the serum in order to transform.

Susan is heartbroken when Jekyll fails to take her out to the opera, and she decides to go alone. However, Mrs. Hyde decides that innocent, pure Susan's blood is just what she needs to finally take over Jekyll's body. She stalks Susan through the dark streets, but Jekyll's will only just manages to thwart Mrs. Hyde's attempt to kill Susan. He then commits one last murder to find a way to stabilize his condition, but he is interrupted by the police after a comment by Hare leads them to realize the similarity between Jekyll's earlier experiments on cadavers and the Ripper murders. As Jekyll tries to escape by climbing along the outside of a building, he transforms into Mrs. Hyde and falls to the ground — dying as an amalgamation of both male and female.

Cast

Critical reception

The Monthly Film Bulletin wrote: "The idea of adapting Jekyll and Hyde for the age of the polymorphous perverse could easily have misfired in the wrong hands, but for the most part director Roy Ward Baker manages the whole thing superbly. The plot is a kind of pot-pourri of Victorian archetypes, containing not just the Jekyll mythos but Jack the Ripper as well as Burke and Hare; and although there are plenty of covert jokes on Psycho lines ("He hasn't been feeling himself lately"), the overall tone remains refreshingly straight. Ralph Bates is infinitely better at being Henry Jekyll than he was at being Baron Frankenstein, and the transformation sequences are stunning, with Bates appearing momentarily emasculated before being transformed into his seductive alter ego, Martine Beswick. Obviously the production suffers from the old Hammer problems of low budget and short schedule, but Baker and his cameraman Norman Warwick have done a lot to make the film visually attractive, and this goes some way towards compensating for the deficiencies of the script.  ... Admittedly, the conception is sacrificed to the usual formula, and it is Jekyll not Hyde who is hunted down in rather routine fashion by the authorities. But the film remains a welcome reminder that Hammer can still be highly enterprising myth-makers." [3]

Time Out called the film "enormous fun" and an "admirably successful attempt to ring new changes on an old theme". [4]

George R. Reis from DVD Drive-In gave the film a positive review, writing, "In the hands of most filmmakers of the time, such a gender-bending theme would call for maximum exploitation tactics, but not with Hammer. Clemens' script doesn't take itself too seriously, yet justly fuses the legends of Stevenson's titular character with Jack the Ripper and the graverobbers Burke and Hare". Reis commended the film's performances and Baker's direction. [5]

Variety called the film "highly imaginative", further writing, "Director Roy Ward Baker has set a good pace, built tension nicely and played it straight so that all seems credible. He tops chills and gruesome murders with quite a lot of subtle fun. Bates and Beswick, strong, attractive personalities, bear a strange resemblance to each other making the transitions entirely believable." [6]

John Higgins of Starburst Magazine awarded the film 8/10 stars, praising Beswick's performance and the script. [7]

Accolades

YearAward / Film FestivalCategoryRecipient(s)Result
1973 2nd French Fantastic Cinema Convention Best ScreenplayBrian ClemensWon

Home media

The film was first released on DVD in 2001 by Anchor Bay as part of The Hammer Collection [8] in the U.S. and has since been released on DVD in other territories. [9] [10] The film was released on Blu-ray in 2018. [11]

Related Research Articles

<i>Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde</i> (1931 film) 1931 film by Rouben Mamoulian

Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde is a 1931 American pre-Code horror film, directed by Rouben Mamoulian and starring Fredric March, who plays a possessed doctor who tests his new formula that can unleash people's inner demons. The film is an adaptation of The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, the 1886 Robert Louis Stevenson tale of a man who takes a potion which turns him from a mild-mannered man of science into a homicidal maniac.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (character)</span> Fictional character by Robert Louis Stevenson

Dr. Henry Jekyll and his alter ego, Mr. Edward Hyde, is the central character of Robert Louis Stevenson's 1886 novella Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde. In the story, he is a good friend of main protagonist Gabriel John Utterson.

<i>Mary Reilly</i> (film) 1996 film by Stephen Frears

Mary Reilly is a 1996 American gothic horror film directed by Stephen Frears and starring Julia Roberts and John Malkovich. It was written by Christopher Hampton and adapted from the 1990 novel of the same name by Valerie Martin.

<i>Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde</i> (1941 film) 1941 American horror film directed by Victor Fleming

Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde is a 1941 American horror film starring Spencer Tracy, Ingrid Bergman, and Lana Turner. The production also features Donald Crisp, Ian Hunter, Barton MacLane, C. Aubrey Smith, and Sara Allgood. Its storyline is based on the 1886 Gothic novella Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde written by Scottish author Robert Louis Stevenson. There have been many filmed adaptations of the novella. This movie was a remake of the Oscar-winning 1931 version starring Fredric March.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Martine Beswick</span> English actress and model (born 1941)

Martine Beswick is a Jamaican-born British actress and model perhaps best known for her roles in two James Bond films, From Russia with Love (1963) and Thunderball (1965), who went on to appear in several other notable films in the 1960s. In 2019, she was inducted into the Rondo Hatton Classic Horror Awards' Monster Kid Hall of Fame.

<i>The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde</i> (2006 film) 2006 American film

The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde is a 2006 adaptation of Robert Louis Stevenson's 1886 novella. It was directed by John Carl Buechler, and produced by Peter Davy, British American film producer. The film is set in modern times instead of Victorian England.

<i>The Horror of Frankenstein</i> 1970 British film by Jimmy Sangster

The Horror of Frankenstein is a 1970 British horror film by Hammer Film Productions that is both a semi-parody and semi-remake of the 1957 film The Curse of Frankenstein, of Hammer's Frankenstein series. It was produced and directed by Jimmy Sangster, starring Ralph Bates, Kate O'Mara, Veronica Carlson and David Prowse as the monster. It was the only film in the Frankenstein series which did not star Peter Cushing. The original music score was composed by Malcolm Williamson.

<i>The Two Faces of Dr. Jekyll</i> 1960 British film by Terence Fisher

The Two Faces of Dr. Jekyll is a 1960 British horror film directed by Terence Fisher and starring Paul Massie, Dawn Addams, Christopher Lee and David Kossoff. It was produced by Michael Carreras for Hammer Film Productions. The screenplay was by Wolf Mankowitz, based on the 1886 novella Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson.

<i>Van Helsing: The London Assignment</i> 2004 American film

Van Helsing: The London Assignment is a 2004 American anime-influenced adult action horror animated short film by Universal Studios Home Video. It features the voices of Hugh Jackman, Tress MacNeille, Robbie Coltrane and David Wenham. The London Assignment is an animated prequel to the 2004 motion picture Van Helsing. It tells of the events before the film. It was animated by Universal Cartoon Studios, Production I.G, and Sunwoo Entertainment.

<i>Abbott and Costello Meet Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde</i> 1953 American film directed by Charles Lamont

Abbott and Costello Meet Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde is a 1953 American horror comedy film starring the comedy team of Abbott and Costello, co-starring Boris Karloff, and directed by Charles Lamont.

<i>Dr. Jekyll and Ms. Hyde</i> 1995 film by David Price

Dr. Jekyll and Ms. Hyde is a 1995 science fiction comedy film directed by David Price, based on Robert Louis Stevenson's 1886 horror novella Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde. It stars Sean Young, Tim Daly, and Lysette Anthony. The story takes place in modern times and concerns a bumbling chemist who tampers with his great-grandfather's formula, accidentally transforming himself into a beautiful businesswoman who is determined to take over his life. This marked the second collaboration between Young and Daly after both previously starring in TV movie Witness to the Execution (1994).

<i>The Flesh and the Fiends</i> 1960 British film by John Gilling

The Flesh and the Fiends is a 1960 British horror film directed by John Gilling and starring Peter Cushing, June Laverick and Donald Pleasence. It was written by John Gilling and Leon Griffiths.

Adaptations of <i>Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde</i> Adaptations of 1886 novella

Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde is an 1886 novella written by the Scottish author Robert Louis Stevenson. It is about a London lawyer, Gabriel John Utterson, who investigates strange occurrences between his old friend, Dr. Henry Jekyll and the misanthropic Mr. Hyde. In a twist ending, it is revealed that Jekyll and Hyde were the same person, and that Jekyll had regularly transformed himself into Hyde by drinking a serum.

<i>Jack the Ripper</i> (miniseries) 1988 British crime drama TV serial

Jack the Ripper is a drama television miniseries produced for Thames Television and CBS based on the notorious Jack the Ripper murder spree in Victorian London. It was first broadcast on ITV.

<i>The Ugly Duckling</i> (1959 film) 1959 British film by Lance Comfort

The Ugly Duckling is a 1959 British science fiction comedy film, directed by Lance Comfort and starring Bernard Bresslaw, Jon Pertwee and Reginald Beckwith. The screenplay was by Sid Colin and Jack Davies. The film is a comic adaptation of Robert Louis Stevenson's 1886 Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde storyline and the opening credits include "with ideas stolen from Robert Louis Stevenson". The film has no connection to the Hans Christian Andersen story. The tagline on posters was "He's a changed man after taking Jekyll's family remedy."

<i>Docteur Jekyll et les femmes</i> 1981 film

Docteur Jekyll et les femmes is a 1981 horror film directed by Walerian Borowczyk. The film is a variation on Robert Louis Stevenson's 1886 novella Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde and stars Udo Kier, Marina Pierro, Patrick Magee, Howard Vernon, and Gérard Zalcberg.

<i>Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde</i> 1886 novella by Robert Louis Stevenson

Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde is an 1886 Gothic horror novella by Scottish author Robert Louis Stevenson. It follows Gabriel John Utterson, a London-based legal practitioner who investigates a series of strange occurrences between his old friend, Dr Henry Jekyll, and a murderous criminal named Edward Hyde.

<i>Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde</i> (1887 play) Stage play by Thomas Russell Sullivan

Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde is a four-act play written by Thomas Russell Sullivan in collaboration with the actor Richard Mansfield. It is an adaptation of Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, an 1886 novella by the Scottish author Robert Louis Stevenson. The story focuses on the respected London doctor Henry Jekyll and his involvement with Edward Hyde, a loathsome criminal. After Hyde murders the father of Jekyll's fiancée, Jekyll's friends discover that he and Jekyll are the same person; Jekyll has developed a potion that allows him to transform himself into Hyde and back again. When he runs out of the potion, he is trapped as Hyde and commits suicide before he can be arrested.

<i>Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde</i> (2002 film) 2002 British film

Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde is a British film adaptation of Robert Louis Stevenson's novella, directed by Maurice Phillips and starring John Hannah. Set in Victorian England, it was filmed in 2002 and released in Britain in that year. As the result of its release in the US in 2003, that date is sometimes attached to it.

<i>Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde</i> (2008 film) 2008 Canadian film

Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde is a Canadian film directed by Paolo Barzman and starring Dougray Scott in the title role. Set and shot in Montréal, Québec, Canada, it was released theatrically in both the US and UK in 2008, and then on DVD in 2009. It was given as "second-tier premiere" on the ION network on May 17, 2008.

References

  1. ↑ "Dr. Jekyll and Sister Hyde". British Film Institute Collections Search. Retrieved 25 August 2024.
  2. ↑ "Dr Jekyll and Sister Hyde". Radio Times . Archived from the original on 6 July 2015. Retrieved 6 July 2015.
  3. ↑ "Dr. Jekyll and Sister Hyde". The Monthly Film Bulletin . 38 (444): 218. 1 January 1971 – via ProQuest.
  4. ↑ "Dr Jekyll and Sister Hyde Review. Movie Reviews - Film - Time Out London". timeout.com . Archived from the original on 19 October 2016. Retrieved 19 August 2012.
  5. ↑ Reis, George. "Dr. Jekyll and Sister Hyde". DVD Drive-In.com. George R. Reis. Retrieved 21 May 2019.
  6. ↑ "Dr. Jekyll & Sister Hyde – Variety". Variety . January 1971. Retrieved 21 May 2019.
  7. ↑ Higgins, John. "DR JEKYLL AND SISTER HYDE (1971) - STARBURST Magazine". Starburst Magazine.com. John Higgins. Retrieved 21 May 2019.
  8. ↑ ASIN   B00005OSJV , Dr. Jekyll and Sister Hyde
  9. ↑ "Sumogorilla Resources and Information". Stores.sumogorilla.com. Archived from the original on 18 July 2019. Retrieved 31 October 2021.
  10. ↑ ASIN   B0039LAPSE , Dr. Jekyll and Sister Hyde [DVD]
  11. ↑ ASIN   B0753Q3JYS , Dr. Jekyll and Sister Hyde (Double Play) [Blu-ray] [2017]
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.