Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

1931 "Put yourself in her place! The dreaded night when her lover became a madman!"
7.6| 1h38m| NR| en| More Info
Released: 24 December 1931 Released
Producted By: Paramount
Country: United States of America
Budget: 0
Revenue: 0
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Dr. Henry Jekyll believes that there are two distinct sides to men - a good and an evil side. He believes that by separating the two, man can become liberated. He succeeds in his experiments with chemicals to accomplish this and transforms into Hyde to commit horrendous crimes. When he discontinues use of the drug, it is already too late.

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Director

Rouben Mamoulian

Production Companies

Paramount

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Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde Audience Reviews

Konterr Brilliant and touching
Odelecol Pretty good movie overall. First half was nothing special but it got better as it went along.
Siflutter It's easily one of the freshest, sharpest and most enjoyable films of this year.
Frances Chung Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable
christopher-underwood Yes, it creaks a bit here and there and has sometimes the look more of a silent film, but this is an easy talkie and a pre-code one at that. In fact there is much innovation here with audacious camera work and bold wipes from one scene to another. It is some time since I last saw this but it still retains its power. And its vigour! I was surprised all over again at the near nakedness of Miriam Hopkins in her scenes of seduction - that is seduction by her of all things. Later she will suffer as her resonating call to return echoes in the mind of Jekyll/Hyde. There is much talk at first of the true nature of man, the seeming duality of the noble and the base and the social hypocrisies and if in the end it becomes a little more farcical it still retains its power. It will be many years until the issues of sex and violence are so vividly portrayed or explored and this version of the book, albeit more based upon an early stage play will forever remain an essential cinema classic.
MonsterVision99 One of my favorite horror films, everything in this movie is great, the cinematography, the acting, the writing, the characters, the direction, everything, there are some ambitious camera angles, and a great opening.This is a pre-code horror film, so there are some disturbing moments in the film, such as the abuse that Hyde shows to the woman, even some of the violence in the film, but it has a point to it.The movie is about the duality of man, the good side of a man, the one that chooses to do the right thing, the one that chooses to be polite and educated, while the other side its more like an animal, it only follows its primal instincts, the film its surrounded with symbolism about this duality, and what happens if the animal side of a man takes complete control over him.Overall, its a great film, I definitely recommend it.
begob Through experiment a scientist reaches the dark side of his character, unleashing hell on the women in his life.Early talkie with a lot of novelty in the use of the camera. Opening scene is about 3 mins of first person POV, with a bit of shaky cam. There's time-lapse special effects, plenty monkey-jump stunts, and a really good shot of the villain being pursued by shadows. Screen swipes were clunky, many excellent close ups. Also a racy scene early on that shows the director's ambition, and some interesting cut aways to sex symbols.Negatives: stodgy dialogue, slow editing, and the completely conservative story. A lot of issues raised, but really we're stuck with a sanitised fairy tale where the status quo must be restored. Britain (ie. America) - land of opportunity where nothing changes.Performances were overworked, but that may be down to the dialogue. Some really bad accents, and an unconvincing version of late Victorian London.Music nothing special - a bit of Beethoven (not Bach) at the start on an irrelevant organ.Overall - interesting, but slow story and dull moralism.
TheRedDeath30 The novella THE STRANGE CASE OF DR. JEKYLL AND MR. HYDE by Robert Louis Stevenson has become of a classic of horror literature. As a result, it has become fertile territory for Hollywood to mine this book again and again as numerous versions have been filmed, while still dozens of other films borrow heavily from its' themes and central premise. Most in the critical community, though, would agree that this is the best version of the Jekyll and Hyde story and I would wholeheartedly agree.The film is shocking for its' time in history, before the censorship codes would prevent Hollywood from making movies like this for decades to come. Still, even when compared to other pre-code horror, this movie attempts to go places that no other horror film does in terms of its' raw portrayals of sexual aggression. Dr. Jekyll is, after all, a good man. A scientist of some intellect, we meet him as he's on his way to speak to a crowd which has gathered to hear his ideas. The lecture he gives is of the possibly of splitting man in two. While many in the audience have a laugh at him as they take him literally, Jekyll is speaking not of a physical splitting, but of a splitting of personality. The story doesn't need much more exposition than that, as we all know the tale by now. Eventually, Jekyll succeeds in his experiment to disastrous results, as he unleashes the beast within himself.That's where this version succeeds so triumphantly. Where other versions from this era, including the Spencer Tracy version a decade later, hint at the sexual repression, this movie makes it the central focus. Jekyll is obviously struggling with the morals of his society, as well as an overbearing future father-in-law, as those forces conspire to keep him from wedding his love and, thus, from releasing his sexual frustration. When he splits Mr. Hyde from his personality, Hyde becomes a primal force of sexual aggression, doing all of the things that Jekyll cannot. Hyde goes straight to a prostitute that Jekyll could only innocently flirt with and takes it to places Jekyll could never go. Initially, he "keeps" her in luxury to win her favors, but the evil in Hyde begins to torment and abuse the woman. Eventually, Jekyll loses control and Hyde begins to destroy his life in more ways that one.Fredrich March won an Oscar for his role and it is well deserved. He brilliantly pulls off both sides of this man. He is charming, intelligent and loving as Dr. Jekyll, as much as he is crude, evil and deviant as Mr. Hyde. One might believe they were two different actors, he puts that much effort into wildly disparate personalities. March's physical acting as Hyde is excellent, as well. He takes on an almost simian nature, as he regresses to an earlier evolution, free of society's morals, but also of it's refinement.The makeup goes a long way to portray this, as well. They give March the look of a Neanderthal, complete with animalistic teeth. A big part of that makeup is the transformation scenes, which are very well done for the time, a decade before Universal tried anything similar in THE WOLFMAN, March undergoes a gradual progression from man to animal through some excellent camera-work. While we are on that subject, the camera framing by Mamoulian is spot on in helping to lend weight to this movie. The POV shots that he continually explores help the viewer put themselves more firmly into the shoes of Jekyll. We, often, see things in this movie from his perspective, so the audience is all the more invested in Jekyll as his life falls apart under the influence of the evil Hyde.Universal was the king of horror in the 30s, but could easily stand amongst those horror classics and gives us another outstanding movie villain from the golden age of the horror film.