Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
Directed by Victor Fleming
Written by John Lee Mahin based on the novel by Robert Louis Stevenson
1941/USA
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Repeat viewing/Amazon Instant Video
[box] Dr. Henry Jekyll: [as Mr. Hyde] The World is yours, my darling, but the moment is mine![/box]
The Code watered down this version of Stevenson’s story from the more powerful 1931 Mamoulian version and apparently satisfied no one.
Dr. Jekyll (Spencer Tracy) is whatever the equivalent of a psychiatrist/psychologist would be in Victorian Engand. He wants to spend all of his time experimenting on distilling the evil in every one in order to eliminate it. (It is as unclear as in the previous version how this was supposed to work.) This meets the violent objections of the very proper father (Donald Crisp) of Jekyll’s fiance Beatrix (Lana Turner). He takes Beatrix on an extended trip to the Continent and leaves Jekyll to run amok in his lab.
A friend persuades Jekyll to take an night off from his experiments and he rescues Ivy Pearson (Ingrid Bergman) from ill treatment by a man she is walking with. He resists her efforts to seduce him. However, when his experimental potion turns him into the bestial Hyde he seeks her out and begins to terrorize her. With Ian Hunter, Barton MacLane, C. Aubrey Smith, and Sara Allgood in supporting roles.
This film was a notorious critical flop and Tracy’s own least favorite performance. It takes place in one of those movie Londons where everyone speaks with a different accent. Tracy is convincing as Hyde but no one could buy him as an upper-crust Harley Street doctor. I thought Bergman was miscast as the streetwise Ivy. There is something so sensual about Lana Turner’s mouth that I thought that she would have made a better bar maid, if she had the acting chops. Apparently the film makers originally thought so too as Bergman had to persuade them to switch her with Turner in the Ivy part. All that said, it’s not a terrible film and it’s nice to see Mr. Hyde without the ape-like make-up used in the 1931 version. The Waxman score is effective.
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde was nominated for Academy Awards in the categories of: Best Cinematography, Black and White; Best Film Editing and Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic Picture (Franz Waxman).
Trailer – cinematography by Joseph Ruttenberg
