Main Cast: Fredric March, Miriam Hopkins, Rose Hobart, Holmes Herbert, Edgar Norton
Release Year: 1931
Country: US
Run Time: 96 minutes
Plot
This first sound version of Robert Louis Stevenson's classic morality tale starred Fredric March as the kindly, philanthropic Dr. Jekyll, who makes the fatal mistake of delving into secrets that Man Should Never Know. Fascinated with the notion that within each man lurk impulses for both Good and Evil, Jekyll develops a drug to release the wickedness in himself. The result: the lecherous, lycanthropic Mr. Hyde (one has to keep reminding oneself that the handsome, soft-spoken March plays both roles; small wonder that he won the Academy Award). Jekyll is the honorable suitor of the virtuous Muriel Carew (Rose Hobart), while Hyde is the brutish pursuer of the sluttish "Champagne Ivy" Pearson (Miriam Hopkins, as sexy as she'd ever be in films). It isn't long before the kindly Jekyll is unable to control the wicked Hyde, with tragic results. Director Rouben Mamoulian could often seem like the Brian De Palma of his time, showing off like a first-year film student instead of telling a story. But Mamoulian's excesses work beautifully in Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, notably the dizzying first transformation scene (that heartbeat you hear on the soundtrack belongs to Mamoulian himself). Withdrawn from circulation when MGM refilmed the Stevenson novel in 1941, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde resurfaced in the early 1970s, albeit only in the heavily censored version prepared for the 1938 reissue. The current video version restores most of the missing scenes--including the famous opening reel, photographed from Jekyll's point of view with a subjective camera. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Review
Director Rouben Mamoulian had already proved, with his earlier Applause and City Streets, that it was possible to make a sound film that was not enslaved by the limitations that most accepted as part and parcel of the new sound technology. Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde was even more impressive in its use of a fluid camera, interesting shots and angles, and (for the most part) quality sound reproduction. Mamoulian has a field day telling this familiar story; he uses the subjective point-of-view to make the viewer complicit in Jekyll's sins and seems to be having a love affair with close-ups of characters' eyes (the windows of the soul). Through clever use of lighting and careful editing, his transformation sequences are also startling and effective (helped enormously, of course, by Wally Westmore's superb makeup for Hyde). Mamoulian's work is, thankfully, not an example of mere egotism, but rather is used in support of a very good script that, while it overemphasizes the sexual decadence of Hyde at the expense of his overall innate evilness, has been written with the demands of the cinema in mind. Mamoulian is also helped by a first-rate cast, led by Fredric March's irreplaceable turn as the title characters. March captures both the extremes of civility and savagery that are demanded of him; he also manages to inject humor into the proceedings and to make Jekyll a fully rounded individual, even to the point of letting the audience see what an ignoble coward he can be. Rose Hobart makes Muriel's love for Jekyll touching and believable, and in the showy role of the tart, Miriam Hopkins is splendid. Mamoulian would continue to show his versatility with his next release, the enchanting Love Me Tonight. ~ Craig Butler, All Movie Guide
