DR JEKYLL AND MR HYDE
1920, 81 minutes, Black-and-white.
John Barrymore, Martha Mansfield, Brandon Hurst, Charles Lane, Cecil Clovelly, Nita Naldi, Louis Woldheim.
Directed by John S.Robertson.
While there had been about five short film versions of Robert Louis Stevenson’s novella between 1908 and 1913, this version was the first full-length film version, coming only four or five years after DW Griffiths Birth of a Nation and Intolerance. It is a very early full-length feature film from the US and was directed by Canadian John S. Robertson who had quite a prolific career in silent films and the transition to sound until 1935.
John Barrymore, from the celebrated Barrymore family, with brother and sister Ethel and Lionel, moved into films giving quite a theatrical performance, rather sombre and stolid as Dr Jekyll, bizarre, stooped and disfigured as his alter ego, Mr Hyde.
The film follows the novella in quite some detail, but dramatised (as the original story was with Stevenson with his stage version soon after the novel’s publication).
The opening credits speak of the conflict between good and evil, later referring to human baser nature, including the word depravity.
The film moves very quickly with establishing the character of Dr Jekyll, his experiments, his disagreement with his friend, Dr Lanyon. The intertitles referred to Dr Jekyll’s progressive approach and Dr Lanyon’s conservative. Other characters include the lawyer, Utterston and, friend Enfield, his servant Poole, and the aristocratic Sir George Carewe, his daughter Millicent is attracted to Dr Jekyll.
Jekyll is tempted after he is taken to a music all (with Nita Naldi as the dancer) and is tempted to explore his baser nature. Mr Hyde is something of a monster creature, taking up residence in Soho, mixing with the poor and criminal element.
Ultimately, Dr Jekyll loses control, medication not available to him, a physical conflict with Sir George Carewe and Hyde brutally killing him. Friends are puzzled about the absences of Dr Jekyll, the final revelation when Jekyll transforms into Mr Hyde and dies.
Fredric March was Dr Jekyll in 1931, Spencer Tracy in 1941, and there have been many films, television series, television films (and many a spoof and variation) in the hundred years or more since this version.
