Welcome to another round of That Was Then, This Is Now, as AYCYAS! again joins forces with The Good, The Bad, The Ugly and The Duck Speaks. Part 2 of our study of the cinematic evolution of one of horror’s classic stories, Robert Louis Stevenson’s “The Strange Case Of Dr Jekyll And Mr Hyde”, finds us examining the first two film versions produced after the coming of sound cinema:
Dr Jekyll And Mr Hyde (1931) at And You Call Yourself A Scientist!
Dr Jekyll And Mr Hyde (1941) at The Good, The Bad, The Ugly
1931 vs 1941 at The Duck Speaks
And finally, pull up a comfortable chair and pour yourself a good long drink (no, really) as Chad, Zack and I attempt to settle the issue of just who does emerge the winner, after one of Hollywood’s true clashes of the titans.
#1 by Baron Scarpia on November 11, 2008 - 2:58 pm
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Aha! I was wondering when you’d be dealing with these two.
I was also waiting for you to save yourself from the Amityville films. Honestly, with Nathan it’s Charles Band, with you it’s stuff like Amityville and Friday the 13th…
It would kill lesser men, that’s all I can say.
#2 by lyzard on November 12, 2008 - 6:55 pm
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Cough. Cough, cough, cough, COUGH….
#3 by MatthewF on November 13, 2008 - 2:08 am
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Dr Jekyll and Mrs Hyde? Gotta be done.
#4 by Blake Matthews on November 13, 2008 - 5:24 am
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Didn’t they make a parody with a white guy that takes a potion and become black, or vice-versa?
#5 by El Santo on November 13, 2008 - 9:37 am
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If you’re talking about Dr. Black, Mr. Hyde, it wasn’t a parody, but a more or less serious blaxploitation take on the premise. You want to see a parody— and an immensely stupid one, at that– then check out Jekyll and Hyde, Together Again. That movie justly concludes with the skeleton of Robert Louis Stevenson spinning frantically in its grave, bellowing “My story– ruined!!!!” It also implies that Jekyll’s drug is a hitherto unknown cocaine derivative, raising the curious prospect of a double feature pairing Jekyll and Hyde, Together Again with The Edge of Sanity, the latter of which plays the cocaine-as-Hyde-formula idea completely straight (and conflates Mr. Hyde with Jack the Ripper while it’s at it!).
#6 by lyzard on November 13, 2008 - 3:08 pm
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Without getting ahead of ourselves, I may say that one of the things that has been discussed for Part 3 is revisionist J&H, which would certainly embrace gender-bending takes like Dr Jekyll And Mrs Hyde (good film) and Dr Jekyll And Ms Hyde (bad film). That may end up being Part 4, though, because what this round has really made me keen to do is investigate who if anyone has ever tried actually to film the book. If anyone has some suggestions for that list (short list?), please offer them up. I, Monster is one that usually turns up at this point in the discussion, but I haven’t seen that yet.
#7 by Elizabeth the Ferret on November 13, 2008 - 3:57 pm
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I don’t know anything about making movies really, but your Jekyll and Hyde stuff always makes me want to make a movie of it. I’d use two different actors, and the one playing Hyde wouldn’t have a lot of make up or anything, but would still be able to convey a sense of wrongness. How would I pull that off? Well, I don’t know if any of you have seen Black Adder, but in one of the versions of it, it had a voice over thing saying something about “the slimy one” and Rowan Atkinson, with just a change of expression, really looked slimy.
So Hyde would have to be played by a really good actor who can give off a sense of repulsive wrongness without being a disgusting-looking beast.
#8 by lyzard on November 13, 2008 - 4:08 pm
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Tom Cruise?
#9 by Luke Blanchard on November 13, 2008 - 9:02 pm
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I took the 1959 Jean Renoir version with Jean-Louis Barrault to be an attempt to film the novel as a mystery. Hence the change of names. I’m avoiding naming it so as to not give things away to anyone who might manage to come to it cold.
The Canadian comics Johnny Wayne and Frank Shuster did a comic gender switch version for TV called “The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mrs. Hyde”. I saw it in two parts on one of their sketch shows in the 80s, but net information suggests it was recycled from a 1976 special. Jekyll becomes an evil old lady rather than a beautiful young one.
#10 by lyzard on November 14, 2008 - 2:34 pm
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That’s a good suggestion, Luke, thank you.
(Lordy, Wayne and Shuster – now there’s a blast from the past!)
#11 by KeithA on November 14, 2008 - 3:24 pm
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And let’s not forget Hammer’s “Dr. Jekyll and Sister Hyde” and Harry Novak’s “Adult Version of Jekyll and Hyde,” starring Renee Bond.
I thought Mr. Hyde was a fifteen foot tall CGI guy with a grotesquely out of proportion muscleman build.
#12 by El Santo on November 14, 2008 - 3:50 pm
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Regarding The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen‘s Mr. Hyde, do you remember the reason Stevenson gave in the novella for making Hyde practically a dwarf? It was because Jekyll was so deeply in the habit of repressing his evil impulses– essentially, Hyde never got any exercise, and all that idleness stunted his growth. By that reasoning, for Jekyll to Hulk out as part of turning into Hyde, he’d have to be an appalling rat-bastard even in his normal persona!
#13 by Dave Causey on November 15, 2008 - 3:18 pm
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Don’t forget “Dr. Jekyll & Mistress Hyde”,starring Misty Mundae & Julian Wells. Or am *I* the only one around here that watches Misty Mundae? *cough* ;D
#14 by Joshua on November 16, 2008 - 3:43 pm
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I seem to recall that, in the original novella, Hyde got bigger the longer he was able to run around, impling that Jekyll’s base impulses were getting stronger while his good side grew weaker. In LoEG, it’s sort of implied that Jekyll doesn’t get a whole lot of play time, leaving Hyde free to develop into that huge monster.
#15 by Tom Meade on November 16, 2008 - 10:46 pm
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That’s the way it plays-out in the comic, anyway.
Maybe not a very good film, but it did get me to read the comic, so there’s that. Plus I really want that movie’s Nautilus.
#16 by supersonic on November 17, 2008 - 12:43 am
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Don’t forget Jacqueline Hyde.
#17 by MatthewF on November 17, 2008 - 3:46 am
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Also, http://www.bbc.co.uk/drama/jekyll/abouttheshow.shtml
This was great and if it get’s shown in your region/territory/country/cell-block, I highly recommend it.
#18 by KeithA on November 19, 2008 - 12:11 pm
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Hmm, I notice everyone is defending LoEG’s version of Hyde, but no one seems to want to step up in defense of Van Helsing doing the same, but also giving him incredible monkey powers. Anyone? Anyone?
#19 by Blake Matthews on November 19, 2008 - 5:43 pm
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“And there was an eerie, resounding silence at that question. You could almost hear the sound of thumbs twiddling, as if they were waiting for some bravel soul to step up and defend it-whose-title-cannot-be-said-again.”
#20 by Alaric on November 20, 2008 - 9:52 am
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“And there was an eerie, resounding silence at that question. You could almost hear the sound of thumbs twiddling, as if they were waiting for some bravel soul to step up and defend it-whose-title-cannot-be-said-again.”
Are bravel souls anything like gambrel roofs?