Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1920/I)

User Rating:

7.0/10   

Director:

John S. Robertson

Writers:

Robert Louis Stevenson (story)
Clara Beranger (scenario)

Release Date:

April 1920 (USA)

Genre:

Drama | Horror | Sci-Fi

Tagline:

The world's greatest actor in a tremendous story of man at his best and worst!

Plot:

Dr. Henry Jekyll experiments with scientific means of revealing the hidden, dark side of man and releases a murderer from within himself.

Plot Keywords:

Personality | Experiment | Doctor | Dancer | Laboratory

Cast

John Barrymore	...	Dr. Henry Jekyll / Mr. Edward Hyde
Charles Lane	...	Dr. Richard Lanyon
Brandon Hurst	...	Sir George Carew
Cecil Clovelly	...	Edward Enfield
Nita Naldi	...	Miss Gina - Italian Singer

Runtime:

67 min (1971 alternate version) | 80 min (Kino Print)

Country:

USA

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Sound Mix:

Silent

Certification:

USA:Passed (National Board of Review) | UK:A | UK:PG (video rating) | USA:TV-PG (TV rating) | Canada:G (Ontario) | Finland:K-18 (unrated: 2009) | Portugal:17 (director's cut) | USA:Unrated | Finland:K-16

Filming Locations:

Long Island, New York, USA

Company:

Famous Players-Lasky Corporation

Trivia:

John Barrymore hauled many of his prized potted plants from his apartment to the set to appear in scenery in the movie.

Goofs:

Revealing mistakes: After the first transformation scene when Hyde attempts to change back into Jekyll, as he throws himself onto the floor, you can see one of his prosthetic fingers fly off.

Movie Connections:

Featured in Return to Edge City (2005) (V)

John Barrymore's Double Feature or The Two Faces of Dr. Jekyll

DR. JEKYLL AND MR. HYDE (Paramount, 1920), directed by John S. Robertson, ranks the best known silent screen version adapted from the famous 1886 story by Robert Louis Stevenson and the 1897 stage play starring Richard Mansfield. Featuring the then unlikely John Barrymore, a matinée idol better known as "The Great Profile," this early horror film displays the young actor to good advantage in portraying two entirely different characters in one motion picture. Those familiar with the Stevenson story, especially with its latter remakes during the sound era, whether starring Fredric March in 1931 (for which he won an Academy Award as best actor) or Spencer Tracy in 1941 (a very good film which was dismissed and panned upon release), the story itself has its alterations.

Set in 19th century England, Henry Jekyll (John Barrymore), as the title card indicates, "an idealist and philanthropist, by profession a doctor of medicine," who not only spends his time conducting experiments in his laboratory attached to his home, but treats his patients at a free clinic for the poor at his own expense. He is engaged to Millicent Carewe (Martha Mansfield), but their relationship appears to be mainly platonic. Arriving late at a dinner gathering at the Carewe home, Sir George Carewe, (Brandon Hurst), Millicent's father and Jekyll's mentor, soon becomes Jekyll's evil influence when he suggests the possibilities of man living by his instincts, yet having another side to his nature. Carewe later accompanies Jekyll to a London music hall where they are not only surrounded by a class of patrons beneath their status, but watch a flirtatious young dancer named Gina (Nita Naldi) perform. "For the first time in his life, Jekyll had awakened to the sense of his baser nature." Spending days and nights in his lab with his experiments, Jekyll, after drinking down his invented formula, soon transforms into his evil self. Becoming the uncontrollable person he names Edward Hyde, Jekyll's evil self begins a relationship with the sultry Gina, eventually making her life a miserable hell. Hyde goes on a murderous rampage and takes control over Jekyll's immortal soul. But Jekyll's experiment gets the better of him when he keeps changing into the evil Hyde against his will, returning to his gentler self through an antidote, becoming a recluse and spending more time away from Millicent. When Jekyll's antidote supply runs out, he tries to fight the urge of evil, but after murdering a child of the streets in the poor district of town, and later Sir George after witnessing the evil change in his future son-in-law, by breaking a cane in half over his head and clubbing him to death, Jekyll realizes that he is unable to undo his evil deeds, and suffers more when he tries to prevent himself from making Millicent his upcoming victim.

Supporting Barrymore in the cast are Charles Lane as Doctor Richard Lanyon; Cecil Clovelly as Edward Enfield; Louis Wolheim as the music hall proprietor; and George Stevens as Poole, Jekyll's butler, among others.

Produced a few years before what future star Lon Chaney would have achieved with a role such as this, Barrymore's performs his most memorable moments with his transformation scenes. Every transformation shown on screen shows the viewer a more hideous manifestation of Jekyll's other self. Quite theatrical to say the least, but what's amazing is Barrymore's constant jerking of his body with his hair flopping about before the closeup of that hideous facial expression, which must have been quite intense for 1920 audiences. It's been reported that Barrymore changed into the evil Mr. Hyde without the use of makeup, unlike Chaney, who would have done his transformation similar to Fredric March's 1931 sound version, looking more like a hideous animal than a grotesque human creature. For Spencer Tracy 1941 performance, like Barrymore, he's still in human form but his facial gestures appear inhuman. More added touches of evil include Jekyll's somewhat pointed head as well as close up of Jekyll's hand becoming a withered claw. Another memorable moment on screen is watching Jekyll sleeping in his bed dreaming of being attacked by a ghostly giant spider crawling upon him. Because of Barrymore's "great profile" image and matinée idol reputation, the camera does take several advantages in focusing on the profiled closeups of this legendary actor, particularly during the final fadeout. But it was with this film that firmly establish John Barrymore's movie career.

DR. JEKYLL AND MR. HYDE became one of the final thirteen movies aired on public television's THE SILENT YEARS (1971) as hosted by Orson Welles. Accompanied by an organ score by Gaylord Carter, the film runs at length to about 62 minutes. In later years, the silent version to DR. JEKYLL AND MR. HYDE was distributed on video cassette, with the print shown on THE SILENT YEARS released through Blackhawk Video in the 1980s. At present, the length of the movie varies. It could be as long as 75 minutes or more, depending on the projection speed. Shorter prints could be the possibility of a deleted sequence or two taken from reissue copies. For the Blackhawk Video copy, a sudden cut is noticeable when Millicent (Martha Mansfield) is seen sitting sadly alone, longing for her fiancé, Henry Jekyll, followed by an immediate cut showing Millicent, surrounded by some people, suddenly running happily up the stairs with a letter clasped in her hand. Besides JEKYLL AND HYDE's availability on video, it's also been recently distributed on DVD.

DR. JEKYLL AND MR. HYDE consisted of several earlier American-made versions (1912, 1913, and another in 1920 to compete with the Barrymore film), but for whatever copy is available for viewing, this 1920 production featuring Barrymore not only remains the best of the adaptations produced during the silent era, but the most famous. Out of circulation on the TV markets for quite some time now, it finally resurfaced on Turner Classic Movies October 24, 2004, as part of its annual Halloween fright feast.