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The Two Faces of Dr. Jekyll | |
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Directed by | Terence Fisher |
Screenplay by | Wolf Mankowitz |
Based on | Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson |
Produced by | Michael Carreras |
Starring | |
Cinematography | Jack Asher |
Edited by |
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Music by | |
Production company | |
Distributed by |
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Release dates |
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Running time | 88 minutes |
Country | United Kingdom |
Language | English |
Budget | £146,417 [1] |
The Two Faces of Dr. Jekyll (also known as Doctor Jekyll & Mr. Hyde. U.S. titles: House of Fright and Jekyll's Inferno) is a 1960 British horror film directed by Terence Fisher and starring Paul Massie, Dawn Addams, Christopher Lee and David Kossoff. [2] It was produced by Michael Carreras for Hammer Film Productions. [3] [4] The screenplay was by Wolf Mankowitz, based on the 1886 novella Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson. [5]
In contrast to other film versions, Jekyll was portrayed as a rather bland and faceless person, while Hyde was presented as suave and handsome. This reflects director Fisher's belief in what critics (such as biographer Wheeler Winston Dixon) called "the charm of evil". [6] The film is unusual in that it was one of the few adaptations of the story where the Jekyll/Hyde character does not die in the story's conclusion. It is also set 12 years before the publication of Stevenson's novella.
The Two Faces of Dr. Jekyll was released in North America to theaters by American International Pictures under the titles House of Fright and Jekyll's Inferno and on American TV under its original British title.
In London in 1874, Dr. Henry Jekyll's wife, Kitty, is secretly involved with his friend Paul Allen (who frequently borrows money from Jekyll). Ignoring the warnings of his colleague and friend Dr. Ernst Littauer, the middle-aged, mild-mannered Jekyll concocts a chemical potion which he hopes will help him learn the depths of the human mind.
By testing the potion on himself, he transforms into Mr. Edward Hyde, a young and handsome but also murderous and lecherous man. Soon, Hyde becomes bored with conventional debauchery and when he sets his eyes on Kitty, he decides he must have her. When Kitty rejects him, Hyde rapes her and leaves her unconscious. When Kitty wakes up in the bed, she immediately notices that Hyde has scratched her neck in various places. Distressed, Kitty walks over to the table, where she finds a note written to her. When Kitty goes into the other room looking for Paul, she looks in to find out that her lover has been bitten by a venomous snake, which Hyde had locked in a room with him. To Kitty's misfortune, Paul is dead. Kitty walks over to the patio, puts her leg over the balcony, covers her ears in response to the loud music playing from the party and allows herself to fall off the balcony and through the glass roof covering the party guests. Hyde then kills Maria, an exotic dancer he had been having an affair with, in Jekyll's house.
The next day, Jekyll is horrified to learn of what Hyde has done. After speaking to his other half via a mirror, Jekyll turns uncontrollably into Hyde. Hyde then kills a man in Jekyll's laboratory by shooting him in the back and sets his body up at a desk in order to frame his other self for his crimes. Hyde then sets fire to the laboratory as the police arrive. Via a window, Hyde pretends that Jekyll is trying to kill him as the building burns. After escaping the building, Hyde claims Jekyll tried to kill Hyde and ended up shooting himself due to madness as the innocent man and Jekyll's laboratory burns.
Some time later, Hyde, Littauer and the police attend the coroner's court, where it is found that Jekyll was responsible for the deaths due to his dangerous experimentation with drugs, and that he then took his own life. Hyde tries to leave the building, but at the last minute Jekyll fights him from the inside and takes over again. As Dr Littauer recognises his old friend, Dr. Jekyll sits on a bench and is surrounded by astonished people. With tears in his eyes, he says that only he could stop Hyde, and that he has now destroyed him. The police move forward and arrest him for his alleged crimes.
The film was to star Louis Jourdan. [7] Argentinian actress Isabel Sarli was offered a role in the film. Filming occurred at Bray Studios in Berkshire. [8]
Dr. Jekyll has brown eyes and wears a full beard with rather long hair and bushy eyebrows, whereas Mr. Hyde is blue-eyed, clean shaven and has a shorter haircut. Beyond this, their physical appearance is nearly identical, making this portrayal different than the bulk of film adaptations of the novel. However, the story is presented as though Hyde looks different enough from Jekyll that even Mrs. Jekyll notices no resemblance.
The Monthly Film Bulletin of the U.K. wrote that the film "may be forgiven for tampering with a classic, but not for doing so with such a depressing lack of either wit or competence ...Silliness, in fact, has got the better of the film to such an extent that even its most calculatedly vicious episodes appear only mildly grotesque. The production, which uses up colour film lavishly on such episodes as a cancan sequence, is otherwise hard-up for ideas." [9]
Variety gave the film a good review, praising Paul Massie for an "interesting performance" and Jack Asher for "colorful and sure" camerawork. [10]
Eugene Archer of The New York Times called the film "lurid", and Massie "frankly ridiculous." [11]
Harrison's Reports graded the film as "Fair", adding, "Horror fans will hardly be scared by this well-mounted British import... Paul Massie does the best he can in the poorly written twin role." [12]
The film lost Hammer an estimated £30,000. [13]
In the mid-nineties, Denis Meikle wrote a potential remake under the suggestion of producer Michael Carreras. The script, titled Hyde: Monster of Desire, was briefly considered at 20th Century Fox before being revived at Dreamscape Pictures, with the idea of it being a $50 million picture with Sean Connery as Jekyll/Hyde. Ultimately, the critical and commercial flop of Mary Reilly (1996), TriStar Pictures' own Jekyll and Hyde film, and the dissolution of Dreamscape ended the project. The script is currently available on Meikle's website. [14]
The Face of Another (1966), another film about a man who has an affair with his estranged wife by changing his face.
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. The film was a critical and commercial success upon its release. Nominated for three Academy Awards, March won the award for Best Actor, sharing the award with Wallace Beery for The Champ.
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.
Terence Fisher was a British film director best known for his work for Hammer Films.
David Kossoff was a British actor. In 1954 he won the BAFTA Award for Most Promising Newcomer to Leading Film Roles for his appearance as Geza Szobek in The Young Lovers. He played Alf Larkin in TV sitcom The Larkins and Professor Kokintz in The Mouse that Roared (1959) and its sequel The Mouse on the Moon (1963).
The Gorgon is a 1964 British horror film directed by Terence Fisher and starring Christopher Lee, Peter Cushing, Richard Pasco and Barbara Shelley. The screenplay was by John Gilling and Anthony Nelson Keys. It was produced by Keys for Hammer Films.
The Brides of Dracula is a 1960 British supernatural gothic horror film produced by Hammer Film Productions. Directed by Terence Fisher, the film stars Peter Cushing, David Peel, Freda Jackson, Yvonne Monlaur, Andrée Melly, and Martita Hunt. The film is a sequel to the 1958 film Dracula, though the character of Count Dracula does not appear in the film, and is instead mentioned only twice. Christopher Lee would reprise his role as Dracula in the next film in the Dracula series, Dracula: Prince of Darkness (1966).
Jack the Ripper, an unidentified serial killer active in and around Whitechapel in 1888, has been featured in works of fiction ranging from gothic novels published at the time of the murders to modern motion pictures, televised dramas and video games.
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.
Dr. Jekyll and Sister Hyde is a 1971 British horror film directed by Roy Ward Baker and starring Ralph Bates and Martine Beswick. 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.
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.
Jack Asher B.S.C. was an English cinematographer. His brother Robert Asher was a film and TV director with whom he worked on several occasions.
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde is a 1920 American silent horror film produced by Famous Players–Lasky and released through Paramount/Artcraft. The film, which stars John Barrymore, is an adaptation of the 1886 novella Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson. John S. Robertson directed the production, and Clara Beranger wrote the screenplay, based on the 1887 stage play by Thomas Russell Sullivan that in turn was based on the novel.
Paul Massie was a Canadian actor and academic. He later became a theater professor for the University of South Florida during the 1970s. He remained with the faculty until his retirement as professor emeritus in 1996.
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.
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde is a 1912 horror film based on both Robert Louis Stevenson's novella Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde (1886) and on the 1887 play version written by Thomas Russell Sullivan. Directed by Lucius Henderson, the film stars actor James Cruze in the dual role of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, and co-starred his real life wife Marguerite Snow as well.
Dr. Pyckle and Mr. Pryde is a 1925 American silent, black-and-white comedy horror film, directed by Scott Pembroke and Joe Rock.
Gerald Grant Sim was an English television and film actor who is perhaps best known for having played the rector in To the Manor Born.
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.
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."
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.