Cinematography: Roy Overbaugh
Production: Famous Players-Lasky/Artcraft (United States)
Starring: John Barrymore, Martha Mansfield, Nita Naldi, Brandon Hurst, Charles Lane
Release: 3/1920 Duration: 82'
Dr. Jekyll invents a drug which allows him to separate into two individuals his good and bad characteristics. Under the guise of Mr. Hyde, he can yield to evil while leaving his soul untouched.
Click here to watch the film IMDB
Review
This fourth film adaptation of the story of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde is based, as the 1913 version, on the 1887 play by Thomas Russell Sullivan which adapted for the stage the novella by Robert Louis Stevenson. This means that we know at an early stage that Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde are the same person. The film also put the emphasis on a double sentimental relation: Dr. Jekyll's engagement to Sir George Carew's daughter Millicent and Mr. Hyde affair with the cabaret dancer Gina. Sir George thinks that the only way to get rid of a temptation is to yield to it and he arranges that Jekyll meets Gina. This encounter reveals Jekyll's base instincts and will entice him to create an alternate personality so that he can yield to his evil impulses while leaving his soul untouched.
The film is mostly remarkable for the acting by John Barrymore who plays two completely different roles with the help of elaborate make-up. The special effects are quite limited, involving only crossfading when the transformation takes place. Double exposure is also used to evoke Jekyll's double personality.
The sets with elaborate lighting successfully recreate a 19th century London atmosphere, contrasting upper and lower class environments. The narrative is strictly chronological with cross-cutting between the actions of the various characters. Only one brief scene is in another space-time, when Gina tells the story of the Italian ring with a secret poison compartment. For those who don't know the story, the film keeps a good suspense until the end.
Synopsis
Dr. Jekyll is criticised by his friend Dr. Lanyon who thinks that his research is tampering with the supra-natural. A philanthropist, he maintains at his own expenses a clinic to treat the poor.Sir George Carew, the father of Dr. Jekyll's beloved Millicent, does not believe a man can be entirely good. He takes Jekyll to a London Music Hall where he makes him meet Miss Gina, a dancer. For the first time, Jekyll wakes to a sense of his baser nature. This gives him the idea of separating the good and the bad in him into two separate bodies to yield to evil while leaving the soul untouched.
When he takes the potion he has produced transformed into an hideously evil creature he calls Edward Hyde. An antidote returns him to his normal state amongst horrible convulsions.
He orders his servant Poole to give Hyde full liberty and authority about the house and makes a will bequesting all his possession to Hyde. As Hyde, he looks for secret lodgings in a seedy place where he leads a life of vice with the dancer Gina. He takes from her ring with a secret compartment for poison and soon throws her away.
Because of his love for Millicent, Jekyll decided to put an end to his transformations but the demon in him bursts forth more malignant that before. Millicent's father tries to discover the secret of Dr. Jekyll's absences. He goes to his house but he is not at home and Poole does not know where he is.
Sir George sees in the street Hyde trampling a child and giving a check signed Jekyll to pay damages. Jekyll realises that the evil nature to which he has yielded threatens to dominate his life and he decides to stop his experiments. However, when Sir George asks him what he can have to do with Hyde, he answers "What right have you to question me - you who first tempted me?". Sir George angrily retorts that unless Jekyll is forthcoming with an explanation, he must object to his marriage to Millicent and Jekyll is so upset that he transforms into Hyde in front of him. Sir George, horrified, tries to run away but Jekyll catches him and kills him with his walking stick. Pooletells the police he thinks the murderer was Mr. Hyde. Dr. Lanyon breaks the new to Millicent while the police goes and search Hyde's lodgings. He goes back to his laboratory where he prepares some antidote and returns to normal. Seeing Millicent grieving in front of her father's corpse, he assures her that he will do everything he can to find the murderer.
During the night he sees a giant spider creep over his bed and he transforms into Hyde. Soon he has exhausted the drug that he needs to prepare the antidote and there is no way to find it in all of London. Jekyll locks himself in his laboratory and Poole goes to get Dr. Lanyon and Millicent . When she arrives, he has transformed again into Hyde. He starts attacking her but suddenly falls dead and she can run away. Dr. Lanyon comes in and sees Hyde's dead body who transforms back into Dr. Jekyll. Noting the open ring with the poison compartment on his finger, he understands he has taken his life for his atonement. He tells Millicent that Hyde has killed Dr. Jekyll.
