The Robert Louis Stevenson Archive
Film Versions of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde
The list includes films with “Jekyll’ in the title or films what are about a person who makes originally-voluntary, later spontaneous, transformations to a character with no social repressions.
The list also includes (marked with an *asterisk before the year) parody and comic versions and films with similar transformations, or films in which Jekyll and Hyde appear as a characters in another story. However no attempt has been made to exhaustively list such films loosely inspired by JH, clearly an impossible task. For more loose adaptations,see G: 201-214 (136 titles).
Statistics: This page at present (end of 2012) contains 135 entries, of which 71 are *asterisked as parody/very loose versions (a number could vary according to definiton and information on the films), so we can say over sixy film adapations of JH have been made, making it probably the work of literature most often adapted to film.
Abbreviations
B = Barna, Tomás. “De Robert Louis Stevenson a Jean Renoir a través del Dr Jekyll y Mister Hyde”. La Máquina del Tempo 2 (“Stevenson”).
Bf = Barefoot, Guy (2009). “Lost and Found in Translation and Adaptation: Walerian Borowczyk and Docteur Jekyll et les Femmes (1981)”. In Ambrosini, Richard and Richard Dury (eds.) (2009). European Stevenson. Cambridge Scholars Publishing, pp. 241-252
Bo = Bordat, Francis (1997). “Hollywood au travail”. In Jean-Pierre Naugrette (ed.) (1997). Dr Jekyll & Mr. Hyde. Paris: Autrement. (1997), pp. 119-146.
C = Calanchi, Alessandra (1998). ““Others will follow”: lo strano caso di Jekyll, Hyde e Sherlock Holmes”. Rivista di Studi Vittoriani [Pescara, Italy] 3.v: 133-143.
DF = Mereghetti, Paolo (1997). Il Dizionario dei Film (Milano: Baldini & Castoldi).
Dx = Druxman, Michael B. (1975). Make It Again, Sam: A Survey of Movie Remakes. New York: A.S. Barnes.
G = Geduld, Harry M. (1983). The Definitive “Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde” Companion. New York/London: Garland
IMDb = Movie Databank (Internet).
J = Joyce, Steve (2016). ‘The obscure cinematic lore of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde: an updated silent era filmography’. Journal of StevensonStudies 13 (2016): 57-109.
JHIP = Jekyll and Hyde. The Musical Thriller. Internet site.
K = King, Charles (1997). “Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde. A Filmography”. Journal of Popular Film and Television 25i: 9-20.
L =Richard Llewellyn, Chronology of Animation. Internet site.
Lin= Linehan, Katherine (ed.) (2003). Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr. Hyde: an authoritative text, backgrounds and context, performance adaptations, criticism. New York/London: W.W. Norton & Company (Norton Critical Editions).
M&F = McNally, Raymond T. and Radu R. Florescu (2000). In Search of Dr Jekyll & Mr. Hyde. Los Angeles: Renaissance Books.
M = Miller, Renata Kobetts (2005). Recent Interpretations of Stevenson”s Dr Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Why and How This Novel Continues to Affect Us. Lewiston, NY: The Edwin Mellen Press.
ML = The Missing Link site dedicated to classic horror films.
N = Nollen, Scott Allen (1994). Robert Louis Stevenson: Life, Literature and the Silver Screen. New York: McFarland.
R = Rose, Brian A. (1996). Jekyll and Hyde Adapted: Dramatizations of Cultural Anxiety. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press.
S = listing in Swearingen, Roger (2000). “Robert Louis Stevenson”. In The Cambridge Bibliography of English Literature (3rd edition, 2000). Vol. 4: 1800–1900 (ed. Joanne Shattock). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
W = Wolf, Leonard (ed.). The Essential Dr Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. New York: Plume/Penguin USA.
Wiebe = Joshua Wiebe (2008). “These Films Sleep Well: Le Testament du Docteur Cordelier (1959, Jean Renoir)”. Blogcritics Magazine Oct. 15 2008.
See also:
Cohen , Alain J.-J. (2003). “Dr Jekyll et Mr Hyde de Mamoulian. Morphing postmoderne, portraiture baroque”. 393-406. In Menegaldo, Gilles and Jean-Pierre Naugrette (eds.). 2003. R. L. Stevenson & A. Conan Doyle. Aventures de la Fiction. (Actes du colloque de Cerisy, 11-18 sett., 2000). Rennes : Terre de Brume.
Menegaldo, Gilles (2003). “Deux lectures excentriques du mythe de Jekyll & Hyde au cinéma : Les deux visages du Dr Jekyll (1960) de Terence Fisher et Mary Reilly de Stephen Frears”. 367-392. In Menegaldo, Gilles and Jean-Pierre Naugrette (eds.). 2003. R. L. Stevenson & A. Conan Doyle. Aventures de la Fiction. (Actes du colloque de Cerisy, 11-18 sett., 2000). Rennes : Terre de Brume.
Wexman, Virginia Wright (1988). “Horrors of the Body: Hollywood’s Discourse on Beauty and Rouben Mamoulian’s Dr Jekyll and Mr. Hyde”. In William Veeder and Gordon Hirsch. Dr Jekyll and Mr. Hyde After One Hundred Years. University of Chicago Press, 1988: 283-307.
1901-1910
[1897 listed by S; probably a confusion with Turner’s 1908 version, based on the Forepaugh and Fish stage version, which is sometimes listed as being first staged in 1897]
1908 Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde (Turner)
Director: Otis Turner
Production: William N. Selig / Selig Polyscope
Cast: Hobart Bosworth (J/H), Betty Harte
Other listings: G2, K1
[adapted from the 1904 stage version by Forepaugh and Fish, using some of the same actors; Jekyll kills his fiancée’s father (a vicar). G and K assume this 1908 film is identical with Selig’s A Modern Mr Jekyll released in 1909, but Mark Griep has demonstrated that they are two separate films]
1908 Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde (Olcott)
Director: Sidney Olcott
Production: Kalem
Cast: Frank Oakes Rose (J/H), Gene Gauntier
Other listings: G1, K2, M47
[K says this was definitely the second Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde film from 1908; Steve A. Joyce suggests that the existence of an early Kalem Jekyll / Hyde film could be due to a misinterpreting of articles of the day (e.g. Variety December 21, 1908 and Billboard May 23, 1908) enumerating films (possibly just planned) in possible violation of copyright]
1909 A Modern Mr Jekyll (Kenyon)
Director: *** Kenyon
Production: William N. Selig / Selig Polyscope
Cast: Henry Arthur Barrows (J/H)
[first comedy version, including the first male-to-female transformation: Jekyll followed by a policeman, reaches home; a woman opens and sends the policeman away, and then transforms into J; escaping again, J is stopped by the cop and undergoes a series of transformations, including into a girl on a swing. A different work from the Selig 1908 Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde as has been demonstrated by Mark Griep in his Chemistry Movies Blog; 7 minsIMDb]
1910 Den Skaebnesvangre Opfindelse (= “The Fatal Invention”) / Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde / Jekyll and Hyde (Blom)
Director: August Blom
Production: Nordisk, Denmark
Cast: Alwin Neuss (J/H), Oda Alstrup
Screenplay: August Blom
Other listings: G3, K3
[N lists this as 1909; more faithful to Stevenson than the films that derive from stage plays, ML; Jekyll wakes at the end to find it was all a dream, N; see also Dx 50IMDb]
< p>1910 The Duality of Man
Production: Wrench Films, UK
Other listings: G4, K4
[J murders his fiancée’s father, N]
1911-1920
1912 Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde (Henderson)
Director: Lucius Henderson
Production: Thanhouser
Cast: James Cruze (J/H), Marguerite Snow (fiancée), Marie Eline (little girl knocked down)
Other listings: G5, K5, Dx 50
[N has 1911; ML says filmed in 1911, released in 1912; also listed as 1913; earliest surviving version; H attacks his fiancée’s father, N; introduces the dancing-hall girl for Hyde, R; “The credits list James Cruze in both parts, but Harry Benham played the crazed Hyde in several scenes in order to simplify production”, Thanouser site; 13 mins.]
1913 Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde (Brenon)
Director: Herbert Brenon
Production: Universal IMP
Cast: King Baggott (J/H), Jane Gail, Matt Snyder
Other listings: G6, K6
[first presented the transformation of J into H by means of a fast dissolve; 28 mins.]
1913 Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde
Production: Kineto-Kinemacolour, UK
Other listings: G7, K7, Dx 50
[2-reel colour film]
1913 A Modern Jekyll And Hyde (Broderick)
Director: Robert Broderick
Production: Kalem production
Other listings: G8, K8
*1913 Der Andere
Director: Max Mack
Production: Vitascope, Germany
Cast: Albert Basserman (Dr Hallers)
[from a stageplay by Paul Lindau based loosely on JH; Dr Hallers falls from his horse and the shock causes a change of personality of which he is unaware; in appropriate clothes he starts a parallel nocturnal life among low companions and even burgles his own house; there is also another version dir. Robert Wiene, 1930]
*1914 Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde Done to a Frazzle
Production: Warner Brothers
Cast: Charlie de Forrest (J/H)
Other listings: G10, K10
[comedy version; released in Nov 1914]
*1914 Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde (Starlight)
Production: Starlight
Other listings: G9, K9, Dx 50
[parody version, N; possibly the same as ‘Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde Done to a Frazzle’: (i) released in the same month, (ii) Starlight released their films through the same company: Warner’s Features]
1914 Ein seltsamer Fall / Sein eigner Mörder
Director: Max Mack
Production: Vitascope, Germany
Cast: Alwin Neuss (Silas/Allen), Lotte Neumann, Hanni Weisse
Screenplay: Richard Oswald
Other listings: K11
[based on the play produced in Vienna in 1908; the Munich Filmmuseum has produced a restored copy of what remains. Max Mack introduces the work, shows the film poster to the Production company and produces the main actor out of his pocket (who he builds up from parts like dummy). The story begins with a society soirée. The rich American, Mr Silas, breaks off his engagement in order to dedicate himself to science (he has found a composition that can change an individual into another). In his study, Silas takes the potion and transforms into the larger, more primitive-looking (but not ape-like) Frank Allen. The latter buys a pub in a low quarter of town with barmaid Eliza to help. The pair go to Silas’s soirée and are thrown out. Next day Frank is cornered in the laboratory by police who want to arrest him as the murderer of Silas. Silas wakes up in the soirée and finds it was all a dream. In the last few minutes there seems to be a primitive split-screen effect (screen divided diagonally between society soirée and pub). Most of the film is about the Hyde figure. 30 mins.]
*1915 Horrible Hyde
Director: Howell Hansell
Production: Lubin
Cast: Jerold T. Horner (J/H), Billy Reeves, Mae Hotely
Other listings: G11, K12
[the director is disputed, but King decides in favour of Hansell rather than Hotaling or Hevener; “directed and starring Jerold T. Hevener as Mr. Hyde”, ML]
1915 Miss Jekyll and Madame Hyde
Director: Charles L. Gaskill
Production: Vitagraph
Cast: Helen Gardner (J/H), Paul Scardon
Other listings: G12, K13
[“the first female variation of the theme”, K; “Faustian tale starring Paul Scardon as Satan attempting to claim an evil-doer’s soul with a title hoping to cash in on the story’s popularity”, ML]
*1916 Luke’s Double
Production: Pathé Phunfilm
Cast: Harold Lloyd (J/H)
Other listings: K14
[short comedy: nightmare after reading Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde]
[1917 Dr Jekyll: listed as G14, K14a, but “probably never existed”, K]
*1918 Dr Jekyll and Mr Zip
[animated parody, M&F]
1920 Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde (Robertson)
Director: John Stuart Robertson
Production: Adolf Zukor / Famous Players-Lasky / Paramount (Paramount-Artcraft, N)
Cast: John Barrymore (J/H), Martha Mansfield (Millicent Carew), Brandon Hurst (Sir George Carew)
Screenplay: Clara S. Beranger
Other listings: G19, K15
[basically follows the Sullivan stage plot; includes Jekyll’s will and Hyde’s housekeeper; Carew suggests J should “go on the town”, encourages an exotic dancer to seduce him – this introduction of a more libidinous female in addition to the chaste fiancée is an innovation of Beranger (N), though R remarks that such a character is also found in the 1912 film; J moved by morbid curiosity; Barrymore’s J is the first to indulge in sexual depravity (N) and lacks the virtuous justification added by later Hollywood versions (Bo); H kills Carew; Millicent (as in earlier stage versions from Mansfield onwards) calls for justice against H; H has a pointed head and long fingers (taken up in Murnau’s 1922 vampire film Nosferatu) and the transformation is achieved by acting and body-language rather than make-up and special effects; “deviates considerably from the novella, yet it… ranks as one of the definitive interpretations of a Stevenson work” (N); Bo praises the spider sequence and the comparison between the hand and the spider; J’s suicide is commented as “his atonement” (and Millicent is told that Hyde has killed Jekyll); adds the final transformation from dead Hyde to Jekyll, finally at peace, which becomes a standard film addition; 7 reels, 63 mins; see Tim Lussier’s Silents are Golden page devoted to this film]
1920 Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde (Hayden)
Director: Charles J. Hayden
Production: Louis B. Mayer / Pioneer Film
Cast: Sheldon Lewis (J/H)
Other listings: G18, K16
[director sometimes wrongly given as George Edwardes Hall, K; “a cheap travesty of the Robertson-Barrymore” film, updated and moved to America; “arguably the worst cinematic adaptation” of JH , N; J neglects his fiancée, Beatrice Lanyon, to look after a sick child (M 48, citing Dx 52); later wakes to find it was all a dream and leads Jekyll back to the human love and happiness (so comfortingly removes the threat of Hyde), as in the 1910 and 1914 versions with Alwin Neuss]
1920 Der Januskopf / Janus-Faced / Love’s Mockery / Head of Janus / Janus Head
Director: Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau
Production: Lipow-Film / Decla-Bioskop, Germany
Cast: Conrad Veidt (Dr Warren/Mr O’Connor), Bella Lugosi (butler, but not absolutely proven that BL in the film), Margarete Schlegel (Grace/Jane), Magnus Stifter (Utterson)
Photography: Karl Freund, Carl Weiss and Carl Hoffmann
Screenplay: Hans Janowitz
Other listings: G16, K18
[Names changed because Murnau couldn’t obtain the rights; set in early 20th century; Dr Warren is fascinated by a Janus-headed statue with divine/devilish faces which leads to obsession and then transformation; apparently lost (IMDb), but the script and a few stills survive (N); S also gives prod. company as Lipow; 75 mins.]
*1920 Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde (Arrow Film)
Production: Arrow Film Corp.
Cast: Hank Mann (J/H)
Other listings: G17, K17
[A Hank Mann comedy version]
*1920 When Quackel Did Hyde
Director: Charles Gramlich
Production: Aywon comedy
Cast: Charles Gramlich (J/H)
Other listings: G20, K19
[short comedy]
*1920 Dr Jekyll and Mr Zip / Happy Hooligan in Dr Jekyll and Mr Zip
Director: Gregory La Cava
Production: William Randolph Hearst / IFS
Other listings: K20
[animated short; Happy Hooligan was a character in a comic strip in Hearst’s newspapers]
1921-1930
*1925 Dr Pyckle and Mr Pride
Director: Percy Pembroke
Production: Joe Rock / Standard
Cast: Stan Laurel
Other listings: G21, K21, Dx 54
[short comedy; Stan Laurel lampoons Barrymore’s performance]
[1925 Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde (Standard); though listed separately by G and K (G22, K22) it seems unlikely that the Standard Film Company made two short comedy versions in the same year – more likely that the “Dr Pyckle and Mr Pride” has also been listed as “Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde” – more information required]
1931-1940
1931 Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde (Mamoulian)
Director: Rouben Mamoulian
Production: Paramount Pictures
Cast: Frederic March (J/H), Holmes Herbert (Lanyon), Halliwell Hobbes (Brig. Gen. Danvers Carew), Rose Hobart (Muriel Carew), Miriam Hopkins (Ivy Pierson)
Screenplay: Samuel Hoffenstein and Percy Heath; screenplay published 1976 (ed. Richard Anobil)
Photography: Karl Strauss
Sets: Hans Dreier
Makeup: Wally Westmore
Other listings: G23, K23
[listed as 1932 by G, W and IMDb, but issued on New Year’s Eve 1931; earliest sound version; basically follows the Sullivan stage plot; Jekyll changes to Hyde in the last scene and is shot by the police; includes many innovative cinematic ideas (subjective camera, diagonally split screens, voice-overs (for thoughts), spinning camera and wipes for scene transitions); apparently a nephew of RLS with the same name appears in a bit part as a cockney; German expressionist quality of sets and lighting; the usual two female leads: prostitute Ivy Pierson and J’s fiancée Muriel Carew (who no longer calls for justice against Hyde, as in previous versions); H is youthful and exuberant (but “primitive”) at first; juxtaposition of Hyde and classical scuptures suggests civilization’s fragility; 97 mins. (W has 90 mins.). “Usually regarded as the best version”, K; “one of the classic American cinema’s true masterpieces”, N; 10 mins removed by censor on reissue in late 1930s – these are restored in the 1988 video except for Ivy’s removal of her clothes behind a blanket in the seduction scene (S says 17 mins. restored); MGM bought the rights in 1941 and hid the film away to avoid competition with their remake – it was not screened again until 1967]
*1932 Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde (Vance)
Director: William Vance
Production: William Vance
Cast: William Vance (J/H)
Other listings: G25, K24
[amateur short]
*1932 Dr Jekyll’s Hide
Director: Albert De Mond
Production: Snappy / Universal
Other listings: G24, K25
[short 10m film including footage from the 1913 version with King Baggott]
*1932 Betty Boop M.D.
Director: Dave Fleischer
Production: Paramount
[animated short, 7 min; Betty Boop, Koko, and Bimbo are part of a medicine show hawking a product called Jippo: at the end a baby takes a swig and metamorphoses into a Fredric March-like Mr. Hyde].
*1932 Parade of the Award Nominees
Director: Walt Disney
[animated short, 2 min; Mickey Mouse and friends emcee a parade of the 1932 Academy Award nominees for best actor and actress. The parade includes Fredric March for “Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde”]
*1932 Three’s A Crowd
Director: Rudolf Ising
[animated short, 7 min; book-cover characters climb off their volumes, dance to a song on the radio, Alice from Wonderland is kidnapped by Mr Hyde and then saved by literary heroes].
*1936 Sing, Baby, Sing
Director: Sidney Lanfield
Production: 20th Century Fox
Cast: The Ritz Brothers
Other listings: G26, K26
[contains a JH routine that parodies the 1920 film with John Barrymore]
*1937 The Case of the Stuttering Pig
Director: Frank Tashlin
Production: Warner Bros.
Other listings: G67, K27
[Looney Tunes animated short; the Pigs’ Uncle leaves them his fortune, but according to a clause in the will, it reverts to evil lawyer Goodwill if they die. The lawyer drinks a potion, turns into a monster and snatches them one by one until only Porky is left]
1939 Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde (Pixilated Pictures)
Production: Pixilated Pictures
Other listings: G27 and G66, K 28
[amateur production, G; stop-frame animation, unavailable for viewing, K]
1940 Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde (Wade)
Director: Warren Wade
Production: NBC
Cast: Winfield Hoeny (J/H)
Other listings: K29
[1-hour TV drama]
1941-1950
1941 Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde (Fleming)
Director: Victor Fleming
Production: Victor Fleming / MGM
Cast: Spencer Tracy (J/H), Ingrid Bergman (Ivy Peterson), Lana Turner (Beatrix Emery), C. Aubrey Smith (Sir Charles Emery)
Screenplay: John Lee Mahin
Photography: J. Ruttenberg
Other listings: G29, K30
[remake of the Mamoulian version with more emphasis on Victorian repression and psychological interpretation (cf. the sequence of sexual fantasies during the transformation); J takes potion for a scientific reason – because he is not allowed to try it on the madman who interrupts the initial church service; H is not a total transformation of J, but quite similar; at the end Hyde is shot by Lanyon; ends with Poole praying the 23rd Psalm (ct. Mamoulian’s version that ends with the cauldron boiling over); many critics regard the Mamoulian version as superior, K; “a pretentious, overlong, and dramatically bankrupt imitation” of the Mamoulian version, N; it is “truly bad”, M&F; but Bo (p. 143) says it makes a subtle contribution to the myth in the unusual density of oppositions and correspondences among the characters; 127 mins, also listed as 113 mins. (W and N)]
*1941 Il Dottor Churkill
Production: Sandro Pallavicini / Industrie Corti Metraggi (INCOM)
Animation: Luigi Liberio Pensuti
[animated short; Italian propaganda cartoon portraying Churchill as a Jekyll and Hyde figure, a two-faced demon eventually destroyed by Nazi and Fascist bombs. An animalistic monster (close-up of hairy hand with claws) haunts the cellars of the Bank of England where he hoards stolen gold. In his laboratory he concocts “highly dangerous” mixtures of democracy, fraternity and liberty which enable him to turn from monstrous Hyde figure to a debonair Winston Churchill form (with cane and caped overcoat going out on the town—so we have a mixture here of stereotyped Jekyll and Hyde characteristics). He visits his subjects in a private aeroplane pretending to be friendly but really only to seize their gold. He goes to Suez where his exploitation reaps one of its biggest harvests. Eventually he is chased by German and Italians planes which bomb London. Pensuti was one of the most active Italian animators before WW2. The first 90 seconds can be seen on YouTube]
*1942 Impatient Patient
Director: Norm McCabe
Production: Warner Bros.
Other listings: G30, K31
[animated short: Daffy Duck meets Dr Jerkill]
*1944 Mighty Mouse Meets Jekyll and Hyde Cat / Jekyll and Hyde Cat
Director: Mannie Davis
Production: Paul Terry / Terrytoon
Other listings: G31, K32
[G has 1942 ; animated short]
*1947 Dr Jekyll and Mr Mouse
Director: William Hanna and Joseph Barbara
Production: MGM / UA
Other listings: G32 (also probably G28), K33
[animated short; Tom (cat) concocts a mixture to get rid of Jerry (mouse), but when Jerry drinks it, he becomes extremely strong…until the formula wears off. Jerry then prepares the mixture for himself, but forgetting a vital ingredient. Tom finds him out, drinks the mixture, grows big, but then the process suddenly reverses and he shrinks to be much smaller than Jerry]
1949 Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde (Stephens)
Director: Robert Stephens
Production: CBS
Cast: Ralph Bell (J/H)
Other listings: K34
[episode in the TV “Suspense” series; 60 mins.]
1950 El Hombre y la Bestia / The Man and the Beast / The Doctor Jekyll (Soffici)
Director: Mario Soffici
Production: Sono / Azteca, Argentina
Cast: Mario Soffici (J/H), Olga Zubarry, Anna Maria Campo, José Cibrián
Photography: Antonio Merayo
Screenplay: Gori Muñoz
Other listings: G33 and G46, K35 (G46 is the same film as G33 but with the Italian title, K)
[1951 for N and B – possibly the date of US release; B calls this an “excelente adaptación”]
1950 The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde (O’Donovan)
Production: Fred O’Donovan
Cast: Alan Judd (J/H)
Screenplay: John Keir Cross
[US TV version, N (p. 222); but M (p. 51) lists it as a BBC production first aired 14 Nov. 1950, and Alan Judd was indeed an English actor]
*1950 Gentleman Jekyll and Driver Hyde
Director: David Bairstow
[8 min short – listed as “documentary” so possibly a road-safety film with little connection with JH]
1951-1960
1951 Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde (Stephens)
Director: Robert Stephens
Production: CBS
Cast: Basil Rathbone (J/H)
Other listings: K36
[an episode (season 2, episode 3) of the TV Suspense series but different from the 1949 version, K; though with the same director, M&F]
1951 Son of Dr Jekyll
Director: Seymour Friedman
Production: Columbia Pictures
Cast: Lewis Hayward (J/H)
Screenplay: Mortimer Braus and Jack Pollexfen
Other listings: G34, K37
[While trying to prove that his infamous father was not merely insane, the young Jekyll becomes the unwitting pawn of his father’s old enemies and jealous rivals, who try to convince him that he is mad so that someone else can have the family fortune; “comic-book plot”, “incredibly dull”, N; 72 mins. (77 for N)]
*1951 The Prize Pest
Director: Robert McKimsom
Voice: Mel Blanc
[animation; Porky Pig wins Daffy Duck as a prize; the latter convinces Porky not to make him angry because he has a Jekyll-and-Hyde personality; not listed by G]
1953 Abbott and Costello Meet Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde
Director: Charles Lamont
Production: Universal Pictures
Cast: Bud Abbott, Lou Costello, Boris Karloff (Jekyll), Eddie Parker (Hyde)
Screenplay: Lee Loeb and John Grant, based on stories by Sidney Fields and Grant Garrett
Other listings: G35, K38
[K has 1952; parodies of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, Frankenstein and Dracula; J experiments on animals before injecting himself with the serum (perhaps first use of a syringe for administration of the potion); J as H tries to kill the fiancé of a girl he desires but is foiled by detectives A and C.; Hyde dies by falling of a roof while being pursued (a solution reminiscent of Bill Sykes and taken up by other films); “despite a sometimes silly script, it is visually a good movie”, M&F; Karloff plays Jekyll as a distinguished ageing bachelor who can’t admit to his own desires; 77 mins.]
1953 Sada-Kalo / Shada Kalo / Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde (Basu)
Director: Amal Kumar Basu
Production: Basu Mitra, India
Cast: Sipra, Sisir, Gurudas
Other listings: G36, K39
[K takes his information from Rajadhyaksha and Willemen’s Encyclopedia of Indian Cinema, “which lists the film in its index but does not offer a review”]
*1954 Dr Jerkyll’s Hyde
Director: Fritz Freling
Production: Warner Bros.
Other listings: G37, K40, Dx 56
[K has 1954; G has 1955; animated short: Tweety Bird and Sylvester the Cat; Sylvester drinks a potion and changes into wild cat who tears the dog Spike to pieces]
*1955 Hyde and Hare
Director: Fritz Freling
Production: Warner Bros.
Other listings: K41
[animated short: Bugs Bunny pretends to be a primitive rabbit in order to get carrots offered by kindly Dr Jekyll in the park; he is then adopted by J, who at home gives in to temptation and drinks the potion that transforms him back and forth to Hyde; Bugs drinks some of the potion, returns to the park, and changes into monstrous green rabbit]
1955 Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde (Reisner)
Director: Allen Reisner (K and N; R has Allan, M has Alan)
Production: CBS
Cast: Michael Rennie (J/H), Sir Cedric Hardwicke
Screenplay: Gore Vidal
Other listings: K42
[episode in the TV Climax! Series aired 28 July 1955; more faithful to the original story than many other versions: no fiancée for J, who is not totally good, no disapproving father-in-law, no sexual temptation before the first transformation, and Utterson plays an important role; Hyde is a stylish man-about-town; 60 mins.]
1956 Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde (Saville)
Director: Philip Saville
Production: BBC
Cast: Dennis Price, Ian Fleming (the actor)
Screenplay: James Parish
[6-part TV serial, broadcast 3 Nov-8 Dec 1956, M]
1957 Daughter of Dr Jekyll
Director: Edgar G. Ulmer
Production: Allied Artists
Cast: Gloria Talbott (the daughter), Arthur Shields (Dr Lomas)
Screenplay: Jack Pollexfen
Other listings: G39, K43
[Dr Lomas tells J’s daughter of her father’s secret in order to disturb her and accuse her of the crimes he in fact commits; variant of Pollexfen’s previous Son of script; “badly written, directed, photographed, and acted… the nadir of the Jekyll-and-Hyde offshoots”, N; 70 mins., also listed as 74 mins.]
1957 Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde (NBC)
Production: NBC
Cast: Douglas Montgomery (J/H)
Other listings: K44
[episode of the “Matinée Theater” TV series; 60 mins.]
*1958 La mujer y la bestia
Director: Alfonso Corona Blake
Production: Brooks y Enriquez, Mexico
Cast: Anna Luisa Peluffo
Other listings: K45
[female transformation-to-beast story]
*1958 Grip of the Strangler / The Haunted Strangler
Director: Robin Day
Production: Hammer, UK
Cast: Boris Karloff
[listed in W’s filmography p. 286, but not really a JH film: novelist James Rankin wants to solve murder mysteries and suspects a Dr Tennant; after digging up a victim he finds the knife that was used, touches it and transforms into a monster who goes to a night club and murders a dancer; Rankin is in fact Dr Tennant…]
1959 Le Testament du Docteur Cordelier / The Testament of Dr Cordelier / The Doctor’s Horrible Experiment / Experiment in Evil (US title)
Director: Jean Renoir
Production: RTF / Sofirad / Compagnie Jean Renoir
Cast: Jean-Louis Barrault (Cordelier/Opale), Teddy Bilis (Maître Joly = Utterson)
Screenplay: Jean Renoir
Photography: Georges Leclerc
Music: Joseph Kosma
Other listings: G 40, K46
[French TV production. “A fascinating experiment adapting TV techniques–direct recording, multiple cameras, long takes, thorough pre-rehearsal–to the cinema”; present-day Dr Cordelier turns into M. Opale (not physically repulsive); subtle psychological interpretation and excellent distinction of acting styles for Jekyll and Hyde; set in 1950s Paris; one of the best versions of the Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde story with a magnificent performance by Barrault, it follows the narrative sequence closely (the precise relation between Cordelier and Opale is uncertain till the end); N criticizes “the static and murky visual style” (possibly because he doesn’t like the limitations of TV productions) but Jean-Luc Godard (perhaps a greater authority) considers it one of the six best French films since the Liberation (Jan. 1965 issue of Cahiers du Cinema). Wiebe judges it the best JH adaptation and “Reminiscent of Fritz Lang’s haunting masterpiece M”; he notes that “Renoir’s famous class conscience is also heavily at play here, where servants, maids, and gardeners play out significant roles within the narrative” and the way Renoir uses “a playful score, dynamic editing, and oppressive lighting in order to overthrow the audience’s expectations”. 95 mins.]
*1959 The Ugly Duckling
Director: Lance Comfort
Production: Hammer / Colombia, UK
Cast: Bernard Bresslaw (J/H)
Screenplay: Sid Collin and Jack Davies
Other listings: G41, K47, Dx 56
[comedy version; bungling Henry Jekell (sic) discovers a medical formula developed by a dead uncle and is transformed into suave, sophisticated and highly desirable Teddy Hyde (as in The Nutty Professor, 1963); “lame attempt at parody”, N]
1960 The Two Faces of Dr Jekyll (UK) / House of Fright (USA) / Jekyll’s Inferno (USA) / Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde (Fisher)
Director: Terence Fisher
Production: Hammer, UK
Cast: Paul Massie (J/H), Christopher Lee (Mrs Hyde’s lover), Dawn Addams (Mrs Hyde), David Kossoff, Oliver Reed
Screenplay: Wolf Mankowitz
Other listings: K48, not listed by G
[unlike other film versions, J is not a charming philanthropist, but already old and socially marginalized; H is young, suave and clean-shaven (perhaps an influence of Dorian Gray and perhaps influencing in its turn the Jerry Lewis version); J injects the potion (as in the 1952 Abbott and Costello version); spontaneous transformations are of H back to J (another point taken up by Lewis); J as H kills his wife and her lover; N praises Massie’s “admirable performance”; “a lurid extravaganza with a brashly enterprising conceptual twist”, “the final battle is, as in Stevenson’s text, on the cunning battle Hyde wages against Jekyll himself for rights of bodily ownership”, Lin; colour, 88 mins.]
1960 Il mio amico Jekyll / My Friend, Dr Jekyll / Casanova Jekyll / My Friend Jekyll / My Pal, Dr Jekyll
Director: Marino Girolami
Production: Union / CEI, Italy
Cast: Ugo Tognazzi (Fabius/Floria), Raimondo Vianello (Jekyll)
Other listings: G42, K49
[Jekyll secretly experiments on gentle Prof. Floria who turns into a libidinous seducer of female students; unsubtle comedy version exploiting the popularity of two TV comics; 100 mins.]
*1960 Hyde and Go Tweet
Director: Fritz Freling
Production: Warner Bros.
Other listings: K50
[animated short: Tweety Bird and Sylvester the Cat, the second dedicated to the JH theme, see 1954 above; Tiny, innocent-eyed Tweety changes into a mean-tempered, evil-eyed, vicious bird of prey similar to his prehistoric ancestor and chases Sylvester, who then wakes to find it was all a dream]
1961-70
*1961 The Ordeal of Dr Cordell
Director: Laslo Benedek
Production: Hubbell Robinson Production / NBC
Cast: Robert Vaughan (J/H)
Other listings: K51
[K, citing Gene Wright, says this should be a version of the JH story; an episode in the Thriller TV series; after being exposed to an unknown gas, the homicidal tendencies inside Dr Frank Cordell’s mind are suddenly let loose whenever he happens to hear a bell ringing. Now Dr Cordell is fighting against time, desperate to recreate the gas in hopes of finding a cure.]
*1962 Hyde and Sneak
Director: Paul J. Smith
Voice: Dal McKennon
[colour animation featuring Inspector Willoughby (spoof secret agent); 7-10 minutes]
1963 The Nutty Professor / Dr Jerkyll and Mr Hyde / Dr Jekyll and Mr Love
Director: Jerry Lewis
Production: Paramount
Cast: Jerry Lewis (Kelp/Love), Stella Stevens, Del Moore
Screenplay: Jerry Lewis and Bill Richmond
Other listings: G44, K52
[ugly, awkward but good Prof. Kelp drinks potion and becomes handsome but vulgar and aggressive Billy Love (characterization based on Dean Martin) in order to conquer student; for DF, the best comic version of JH; not close to Stevenson’s text, but there are the laboratory, transformation scenes, increasingly uncontrollable spontaneous transformations (but here from “H” back to “J”), and even a “trampled girl” (Stevens knocked sprawling when Kelp opens a door); here (according to Prof. Kelp) it is the brash Buddy Love who is hiding his inner self; colour, 107 mins.]
*1964 El Segreto del Dr Orloff / Dr Orloff’s Monster (US title) / Mistresses of Dr Jekyll / Brides of Dr Jekyll
Director: Jesus Franco
Production: American International-Leo, Spain / Austria
Cast: Marcelo Arroita-Jauregui, Agnes Spaak, Hugo Blanco, Perla Cristal
Other listings: G45, not listed by K
[Dr Conrad Fisherman achieves robotic control over a recently deceased human subject (his own murdered brother), which is sent out to strangle a series of young women, mainly nightclub singers and strippers; not really a JH film]
1964 Il dottor Jeckill e mister Hide (Falqui)
Director: Antonello Falqui
Production: RAI-TV, Italy
Cast: Virgilio Savona (J/H)
Other listings: not listed by G or K
[Italian TV version, musical; Studio Uno episode]
*1964 Paris when it Sizzle
Director: Richard Quine
Production: Paramount
Cast: William Holden, Audrey Hepburn, Noel Coward, Marlene Dietrich
Other listings: G47, K53
[“This fantasy about a screenwriter includes a scene in which the cast acts out a Jekyll and Hyde story that the writer is working on”, K]
*1966 Mad Monster Party
Director: Jules Bass
Production: Videocraft-International
Voice: Boris Karloff
Other listings: G48, K54
[G has 1967; animated puppets; Jekyll is one of a group of popular film monsters]
*1966 And Then There were None
Director: Jerry Hopper
Production: Gladasya Productions / UATV / CBS
Cast: Bob Denver
Other listings: K55
[an episode of the TV comedy series Gilligan’s Island; “Gilligan dreams he has become Mr Hyde and is murdering his fellow castaways”, K]
1968 Robert Louis Stevenson’s “The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde” / The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde (Jarrott)
Director: Charles Jarrott
Production: Dan Curtis Productions / CBC / ABC
Cast: Jack Palance (J/H), Denholm Eliott (Devlin = Utterson), Leo Glenn (Lanyon), Billie Whitelaw (Gwyn)
Screenplay: Ian McLellan Hunter
Other listings: G55, K56, R
[Canadian 2-part TV drama, aired 7 January 1968 by ABC, USA; nominated for an Emmy Award for “Outstanding Dramatic Program”, K; follows the tradition started by the 1931 film of including a prostitute character; “a thriller element is added as we wait to see where and how Hyde will strike next”, Lin.; Hyde combines attractive stylishness with “the jittery, taunting laugh of the psychopath”, Lin.; N (who doesn’t like TV films) doesn’t like the “claustrophobic” TV drama style, cf the added characters and traditional accretions (J as humanitarian researcher, final chase etc.) but praises the excellent cast and Palance’s “surprisingly effective performance”: “a gentle, understated, asexual scientist” as J, and emphasizing “the joyful glee” as H (cf. also the Hydes of March and Lee), J hopes to separate man’s animal nature (rather than evil)]
*1968 Pacto diabolico / Diabolical Pact / Satanic Pact / Jekyll and Hyde (Salvador)
Director: Jaime Salvador
Production: Filmica Verara, Mexico
Cast: John Carradine, Miguel Angel Alvarez, Regina Torne
Other listings: G49, K57
[loose variation; a mad scientist (Carradine) develops a serum from women’s body parts, and becomes a young murderer (Alvarez) after drinking it]
*1969 The Comic
Director: Carl Reiner
Production: Acre Enterprises / Colombia
Cast: Dick Van Dyke (J/H), Mickey Rooney
Other listings: G49a, K58
[contains a parody of John Barrymore’s 1920 Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, G; “contains a film-within-a film, Dr Jerk and Mr Hyde, which is a parody of silent versions of the Jekyll and Hyde story”, K]
1969 Il dottor Jekyll / Jekyll (Albertazzi)
Director: Giorgio Albertazzi
Production: RAI-TV, Italy
Cast: Giorgio Albertazzi (J/H), Ugo Cardfea, Claudio Gora, Massimo Girotti (Utterson), Bianca Toccafondi
Screenplay: G. Albertazzi and Ghigo De Chiara
Other listings: not listed by G or K
[set in a contemporary university; molecular biologist Dr Jekyll experiments on the human brain; Tullio Kezich calls this a “memorable” production (Corriere della Sera 13..5.2002: 25)]
1969 The Thirteen Chairs (1969)f
Director: Nicolas Gessner and Luciano Lucignani
In this unsuccessful farce (based on the Russian Novel “The Twelve Chairs” by Ilf and Petrov), Orson Welles plays a cameo role as a melodramatic actor in a production of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde. The scene is on YouTube https://youtu.be/ws7EtBdop6c.
*1970 “Nowhere to Hyde”
Director: William Hanna / Hanna-Barbara productions
Screenplay: Joseph Barbara
[animated film: Scooby Doo episode The Scooby-Doo team follow a thief (actually the ghost of Mr. Hyde). through eerie marshes to a sinister house where Scooby and crew are tricked into falling through a trap door leading to the underground laboratory of Dr Jekyll, great-grandson of the original Dr Henry Jekyll. The kids’ only hope is that Jekyll will lend a hand to destroy his ghostly alter ego. 30 mins. ]
1971-1980
1971 I, Monster
Director: Stephen Weeks
Productions: Amicus-British Lion, UK (W has Cannon Films, USA; S has Amicus 1971 and Cannon Films 1973)
Cast: Christopher Lee (Marlowe/Blake), Peter Cushing (Utterson), Mike Raven (Enfield), Richard Hurndall (Hearndell, N; Lanyon), George Merritt (Poole)
Screenplay: Milton Subotsky
Other listings: G52, K59, Dx p. 56
[G and N have 1970, K has 1971. Setting shifted to 1906 “to support an overtly Freudian framework”, Lin.; Dr Marlowe becomes Mr Blake, accent on horror and Freudianism; J has no romantic involvement; Hyde catches fire and then falls to his death (as in the 1952 Abbott and Costello film); produced in 3D but released in 2D; “the film is highly successful on several levels”, especially the “intelligent screenplay” and “Lee’s credible acting”; it includes most of Stevenson’s characters and much of the dialogue, N; Lin praises “Lee’s flamboyant acting out of his id-release”; 75 mins.]
1971 Dr Jekyll y el hombre lobo / Dr Jekyll and the Werewolf / Dr Jekyll and the Wolfman / Dr Jekyll vs the Wolfman
Director: Leon Klimovsky
Production: Arturo Gonzalez, Spain
Cast: Jack Taylor (Jekyll), Paul Naschy (aka Jacinto Molina, wolfman, Hyde)
Screenplay: Jacinto Molina (M has “Paul Naschy”)
Other listings: G58 and G60, K60, IMDb, M
[J turns into wolfman Hyde (Molina in his customary role); b&w, 92 mins.]
1971 Dr Jekyll and Sister Hyde
Director: Roy Ward Baker
Production: EMI Films / Hammer Films, UK
Cast: Ralph Bates (J), Martine Beswick (H), Gerald Sim, Lewis Fiander, Susan Broderick
Screenplay: Brian Clemens
Other listings: G51, K61
[IMDb has 1972, prob. date of US release; W has 1970. Dr J searching for a toxin that will wipe out all common diseases stumbles on a formula that turns him into beautiful but evil young woman; 94 mins. The two similar-titled films, Dr Jekyll and Miss Hyde and Dr Jekyll and Mrs Hyde, G53 and G56, are discounted by K as announced titles that were never made; good performances from Bates and Beswick, “atmospheric direction”, but screenplay “a patchwork” of JH, Jack the Ripper and Burke and Hare with “a few snippets from the novella”, N; Hyde falls to her death (as in 1952 Abbott and Costello film and the 1971 Weeks version); “the earliest and most interestingly rendered version of the Jekyll-to-Hyde transformation as a sex-change”, despite the “cooked-up sensationalism” of the plot, Lin.; much emphasis on the gaslit East End familiar from Oliver! musical and Jack the Ripper films; some tongue-in-cheek dialogue]
1971 The Adult Version of Jekyll and Hide
Director: Lee Raymond and B. Ron Eliot
Production: Entertainment Ventures
Cast: Jack Buddliner (Leeder), Jane Tsentas (Hyde)
Other listings: G50 and 61, K62
[oversexed Dr Leeder steals J’s notebooks and uses them to change into a female Miss Hyde, a homicidal nymphomaniac (so close in concept to Roy Ward Baker’s film, though it has more soft-core sex); 91 mins.]
*1971 Dr Sexual and Mr Hyde
Director: Tony Brzezinski
Other listings: G57, K63
[possibly a pornographic film]
*1971 With Apologies to Mr Hyde
Director: Jeannot Szwate
Production: Universal TV / NBC
Cast: Adam West (Jekyll/lab assistant)
Other listings: G59, K64
[episode in TV “Night Gallery” series; more of a comic sketch: J drinks a potion and to his annoyance turns into his lab assistant]
*1972 The Man with Two Heads / Dr Jekyll and Mr Blood
Director: Andy Milligan
Production: Constitution / William Mishkin Pictures
Cast: Denis de Marne (J/H), Julia Stratton, Gay Field Screenplay: Andy Milligan
Other listings: G54 and G63, K65
[crusading Dr Jekyll in 1830s London has developed a serum to isolate the antisocial aspect of the brain and another for blocking this completely; but his assistant copies out the formulas wrong and when Jekyll experiments on himself the antidote doesn’t work and he becomes a sadistic, lustful creature with grey-green skin and ferocious eyebrows; he starts a homicidal spree with a nightclub girl familiar from other film versions, and continues on a gory sadistic career reminiscent of Jack the Ripper (prostitutes are victims); Andy Milligan is also responsible for other gory, Gothic shockers, described as “grade-Z, no-budget, never-seen abominations” (Andy Milligan, horror-wood.com); 80 mins.]
*1972 The Jekyll and Hyde Portfolio / Jekyll and Hyde Unleashed
Director: Eric Jeffrey Haims
Production: Xerxes
Cast: Sebastian Brook (J/H), Mady Maguire, Donn Greer, Rene Bond, Jane Tsentas
Screenplay: Donn Greer based on a story by Bonnie Jean
Other listings: G62, K66, M
[low-budget gore and nudity film; cf. The Man with Two Heads]
1972 El hombre y la bestia
Director: Julián Soler
Production: Estudios América, Mexico
Cast: Enrique Lazalde
Other listings: K67
[“a Mexican remake of Mario Soffici’s 1950 Argentinian film of the same title”, K]
[1972 Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde (BBC1); TV production; only listed by N and doesn’t turn up on Internet searches, so may be spurious]
1973 Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde (Winters)
Director: David Winters
Production: Burt Rosen / NBC (M has Timex / NBC)
Cast: Kirk Douglas (J/H), Susan Hampshire (J’s fiancée Isobel), Susan George (sensuous prostitute), Donald Pleasance (pickpocket), Stanley Holloway (Poole), John Moore (Utterson), Sir Michael Redgrave (Carew);
Screenplay: Sherman Yellen
Music and lyrics: Lionel Bart, Mel Mandel and Norman Sachs
Other listings: K68
[feature-length musical TV version; “ludicrous adaptation… a farcical remake of the 1931 film… fatuous musical numbers and inane situations” “Arguably Kirk Douglas gives the worst performance of his career”, N; based on a 1968 musical After You, Mr Hyde, M&F]
*1974 The Switch / Oversexed
Director: Joe Sarno
Production: Magenta Films
Cast: Veronica Parrish
Other listings: G64, K69
[shy, withdrawn female scientist invents a formula that turns her into a nymphomaniac (sounds like a pornographic film)]
1975 Dr Black, Mr Hyde / The Watts Monster / Dr Black and Mr Hyde
Director: William Crain
Production: Dimension Pictures / Hyde Productions
Cast: Bernie Casey J/H)
Other listings: G65, K70
[N has 1976; black scientist experiments with serum to regenerate dying liver cells and transforms into a white man with murderous instincts; 87 mins.]
*1976 The Erotic Dr Jekyll / The Amazing Dr Jekyll
Director: Tim McCoy
Cast: Zebedy Colt (“Hyde”).
[A hardcore pornographic film with a female Hyde]
1979 Dr Jekyll’s Dungeon of Death / Dr Jekyll’s Dungeon of Darkness / The Jekyll Experiment
Director: James Wood
Production: New American / Rochelle / Hyde Productions
Cast: James Mathers (J/H)
Screenplay: James Mathers
Other listings: K71
[In San Francisco in 1959, Jekyll’s grandson experiments with a serum for mind-control that he injects in criminals, but which brings out the animal in man; W lists this as 1982, M as 1978]
*1979 Dottor Jekyll e gentile signora / Il Dottor Jekyll / Jekyll Junior / Dr Jekyll Likes them Hot / Dr and Mrs Jekyll
Director: Steno (Stefano Vanzina)
Production: Medusa, Italy (M has Medusa / Dania Film)
Cast: Paolo Villaggio (J/H), Edwige Fenech, Gianrico Tedeschi
Other listings: K72
[The evil son of Dr Jekyll is now head of a multinational company based in London; he drinks a potion that he thinks will make him even more evil, but it has the opposite effect and he turns into the good Mr Hyde with whom his secretary falls in love; parody version; 107 mins.]
*1980 Dr Jekyll and Miss Hyde
Director: Rod Holcomb
Production: ABC Network, USA
Cast: Maureen McCormick (Dr Jennifer Griffin) and Rosemary Forsyth (Melanie Elizabeth Griffin).
[Half of episode 57 in the “Fantasy Island” TV series (1978-1984), aired Feb. 2 1980; two female roles: Dr Griffin, a drab and unfeminine lady psychiatrist makes a shocking discovery about her own nature and instincts].
*1980 Dr Jekyll and Ms Hyde
Director: David Saunders
Production: Monday/Wednesday/Friday Video Club
Cast: Penny White (J/H), Genie Chipps, J. Kathleen White (J’s maid).
[Psychological spoof; striking black and white sets (all the scenery and props are hand painted, see the David Saunders site; all female cast. “A myopic visionary, Dr Jekyll pursues her need for change and power through a labyrinth of falls, fires, transformations and escapes” (Brickhaus.com); shot on 16mm film; 34 mins.]
1980 Dr Heckyl and Mr Hype
Director: Charles B. Griffith
Production: Cannon, Israel/USA
Cast: Oliver Reed (J/H)
Screenplay: Charles B. Griffiths
Other listings: K73
[ugly J drinks potion but turns into H, handsome but violent; “black farce” version; 99 mins.]
1980 Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde (Reid)
Director: Alastair Reid
Production: BBC
Cast: David Hemmings (J/H)
Screenplay: Gerald Savory
Other listings: K74
[S has dir. “J. Powell”; first broadcast 20 Nov. 1981, BBC2; ran in the U.S. in the “Mystery!” series. Jekyll has been visiting brothels for years; Hyde is young and not physically repulsive; seduces J’s fiancée, who is also attracted to him; N (who dislikes TV films) dislikes the “claustrophobic” TV style; some memorable moments, such as the swinging lamp at the moment of first transformation]
1981-1990
1981 Docteur Jekyll et les femmes / Le Cas etrange du Dr Jekyll et Miss Osbourne / The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Miss Osbourne / Bloodlust / Dr Jekyll and his Women / The Blood of Dr Jekyll / The Bloodbath of Dr Jekyll
Director: Walerian Borowczyk
Production: Whodunit / Allegro / Multimedia, France
Cast: Udo Kier (J), Gérard Zalchberg (H), Patrick MageeMarina Pierro (Mrs Jekyll)
Other listings: K75
[“While the engagement of Dr Henry Jekyll and Miss Fanny Osbourne is being celebrated, a child is brutally murdered and raped in the backstreets. […] Henry pours some chemicals into his bath and emerges as Mr Hyde, a libidinous, murderous monster..” (British Film Institute synopsis, qu. M p. 56); unchained libido defeats the bourgeoisie, yet it contains most of the named characters in the novella and plays out Jekyll’s irresolvable dilemma (Bf); two actors for Jekyll and Hyde, 95 mins.]
*1982 Jekyll and Hyde… Together Again
Director: Jerry Belson
Production: Paramount Pictures
Cast: Mark Blankfield (J/H), George Chakiris
Other listings: K76
[comedy version (“Sophomoric comedy very loosely based on Dr Jekyll & Mr. Hyde”): a repressed J drinks aphrodisiac potion; “perfectly awful”, N; 87 mins.]
*1982 Dr Jekyll and Mrs Hyde (Scott)
Director: Peter Graham Scott
Cast: Chris Harris (incompetent magician Lazlo / Doctor Jekyll / Mr Hyde), Pamela Salem (evil witch Belor / Fanny Hyde), Simon Beal (Phil)
Screenplay: Robert Holmes
[Episode 16 of the British children’s TV series Into the Labyrinth; a freewheeling fantasy that merely incorporates Stevenson’s characters, first broadcast 11 August 1982. “Phil falls through the vortex and arrives in Victorian London, in the underground laboratory of Lazlo, who is now the guise of the famous scientist, Doctor Jekyll. As part of a scheme to locate the Scarabeus, Jekyll drinks a potion and transforms into the brutish creature known as Mr Hyde…”.clivebanks.co.uk]
1986 Jekyll and Hyde (Gilbert)
Director: Warwick Gilbert
Production: Tom Stacey / Burbank Films Australia
Screenplay: Marcia Hatfield
Music: John Stuart
Screenplay: Chris Hauge
[animated version; story inside a story told to children by a female servant; Carew is a random victim; Utterson expresses complicity in J’s secret (M p. 39); 75 mins.]
*1986 Cap’n O.G. Readmore Meets Dr Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
Production: Dave Bennett / Rick Reinert Productions (M has ABC Entertainment), USA
[animated version; Readmore, a well-read cat, starts to read the story of JH at a Book Club; one of the listeners is sucked into the story and Readmore follows in order to save him]
1987 Strannaya istoriya doktora Dzhekila i mistera Haida / The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (Orlov)
Director: Alexander Orlov
Cast: Innokenti Smoktunovsky (Jekyll), Alexander Feklistov (Hyde)
Screenplay: Georgi Kapralov, Alexander Orlov
Photography: Valeri Shuvalov
Other listings: K77
[1987 for K and N; IMDb has 1985; M has 1986; J and H played by different actors: J is “a drug addict with a split personality… who transforms into Mr Hyde” British Film Institute synopsis qu. M p. 239 n.82]
*1987 Dr Jekyll & Mr. McDuck
Production: Walt Disney
[IMDb has 1987; M has 1990; episode in “Duck Tales” animated TV series featuring detective Shedlock Jones in London who solves the cases of professor Hoodi-doodi and Jack the Tripper (who are the same person); 21 mins.]
*1988 El Aullulo del Diablo / Howl of the Devil
Director: “Paul Naschy” (Jacinto Molina)
Production: Freemont Nash International, Spain
Cast: “Paul Naschy” (Jacinto Molina)
Other listings: K78
[“child of a murdered horror actor imagines conversions with the characters that his father played on film… including Mr Hyde”, K, the role that Naschy himself had played in the 1971 Dr Jekyll y el hombre lobo (see above)]
1988 Journey into Fear / Edge of Sanity
Director: Gérard Kikoine
Production: Vision Pictures / Hungarofilm; UK / Hungary
Cast: Anthony Perkins (J/H)
Other listings: K79
[1989 for UK; merges Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde and Jack the Ripper stories, plus crack cocaine and sadistic sex; 90 mins.]
*1988 Jack the Ripper
Production: Thames TV, UK
Cast: Michael Caine
[includes recreated scenes from Mansfield’s stage version of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde]
1989 The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde (Lindsay-Hogg)
Director: Michael Lindsay-Hogg
Production: Showtime / Think Entertainment, USA
Cast: Anthony Andrews (J/H), Laura Dern (Rebecca, Jekyll’s fiancée), Denholm Elliott
Screenplay: J. Michael Straczynski
Other listings: K80, IMDb
[N has 1990; 1-hour TV version; psychological emphasis; adds many female victims of Hyde, “boring… a tasteless exercise in sadomasochism”, N]
1990 Jekyll and Hyde (Wickes)
Director: David Wickes
Production: David Wickes Television Ltd / London Weekend Television / King Phoenix Entertainment, UK
Cast: Michael Caine (J/H), Joss Ackland, Lionel Jeffies, Ronald Pickup, Cheryl Ladd (Sarah)
Screenplay: David Wickes
Other listings: K81
[widower J falls in love with Sarah, his deceased wife’s sister (who he can’t legally marry) and also daughter of his arch-rival, Lanyon; J transforms into H (bald-headed ghoul) and rapes Sarah; Hyde also tramples a flower-girl and murders Jekyll’s father; at the end J commits suicide; a son is born with the face of H; Hyde speaks in only one scene, which emphasizes his strangeness; “despite romantic schmaltz” this is an interesting adaptation because of the narrative frame via Utterson, H’s transformation in front of Lanyon and an evocation of “the science versus religion debate”, Lin.; R also sees it as interesting; the screenplay shows an understanding of “the Victorian taboo system”, Lin.; 100 mins.]
*1990 Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde / The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde (Craig)
Director: Michael Craig
Production: Las Vegas Video
Cast: Mike Horner (J), Ashlyn Gere (H)
Other listings: K82
[a hardcore pornographic film: Jekyll changes into female Hyde]
1991-2000
*1992 Waxwork II: Lost in Time
Cast: Michael Viela (J/H)
[includes a Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde episode]
*1994 The Pagemaker
Director: Maurice Hunt and Joe Johnston
Production: 20th Century Fox
Cast: Leonard Nimoy, Macauley Culkin
Other listings: K83
[child protagonist (Culkin) interacts with various animated characters, including Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde]
1995 Dr Jekyll and Ms Hyde (Price)
Director: David Price
Production: Savoy Pictures
Cast: Tim Daly (Richard Jacks), Sean Young (Helen Hyde)
Screenplay: Tim John, Oliver Butcher, William Davies, William Osbourne
Music: Mark Mckenzie
[J takes potion and turns into beautiful young woman, who tries to take over his job; new sexual experiences of J cause sense of confusion; 90 mins. Hyde is shown out on a building ledge (as in the 1952 Abbott and Costello film); refers to the JH tradition: we see a segment of the Barrymore film and a signed fist edition of the text; the music by McKenzie has been highly praised]
*1995 Mixed Breeds
Director: Ken Harrison
Production: Big Feats Entertainment / PBS
Cast: Joe Nemmers
Other listings: K85
[episode in the Wishbone TV series; the talking dog Wishbone “guides young viewers through various stories derived from works of literature”, K; 30 mins.]
*1995 Julia Jekyll and Harriet Hyde
Production: Jeremy Swan / BBC1
Cast: Olivia Hallihan, John Asquith
[episode in children’s TV sitcom: star schoolgirl JJ drinks potion and transforms into fearsome furry giant HH; no-one knows they are the same person; spontaneous transformation occurs at the most inopportune moments; 15 mins.]
*1995 Brains Meets Brawn
Director: Michael Gerard
Production: Amblin Entertainment / Warner Brothers Television
Other listings: K86
[an episode in the Pinky and the Brain TV series about two laboratory mice; 9.5 minutes]
1996 Mary Reilly
Director: Stephen Frears
Production: Tristar Pictures
Cast: John Malkovich (J/H), Julia Roberts, Glen Close, Michael Gambon, George Cole
Screenplay: Christopher Hampton;
Photography: Philippe Rousselot
Sets: Stuart Craig
Other listings: K87
[Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde from the point-of-view of J’s maid, Mary Reilly. Following the 1990 novel by Valerie Martin, the film shows us incidents that occur “off-stage” in Stevenson’s tale; external sets suggest Edinburgh rather than London (and there are some location shots of Edinburgh: Regent Bridge and St Stephen’s Church); part Gothic fable, part psychodrama, part master-and-servant sociodrama; “full of Gothic gore”, Lin; Mary is attracted to both J and H; Lin. praises “Malkovich’s free-wheeeling rendering” of the double roles, the acting of Gambon and Close; “also interesting is the recreation of much of Utterson’s role in Mary”, Lin.; Bo praises the rhythm and suspense, the inclusion of elements often removed (trampling, transportation of the mirror, dissection theatre) and the magnificent sets of Stuart Craig which reproduce the labyrinth of Jekyll’s house and add the memorable suspended metal gangway; 109 mins.]
1996 The Nutty Professor
Director: Tom Shadyac
Production: Universal
Cast: Eddie Murphy
Other listings: K88
[remake of the 1963 Jerry Lewis film; the transformation from fat man allows the inclusion from Stevenson’s text of the transformed man in clothes too large for him]
1998 Ruffus the Dog: Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde
Producer: Robert Mills (also creator and voice of Ruffus)
Production: Hunky Dorey Entertainment
[animated short, 15 mins.; Ruffus discovers his dark side as he portrays both the kindhearted Dr. Ruffus and the nefarious Mr. Snide]
*1999 Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde (Budds)
Director: Colin Budds
Production: Action Adventure Network / American Zoetrope; Australia / Canada
Cast: Adam Baldwin (J/H)
[Very loose adaptation: a vain young doctor travels to Hong Kong with his new wife and is killed by feuding gangsters; a mysterious Kung Fu healer brings Jekyll back to life but the potion turns him into a rage-filled madman out to avenge the death of his wife; clearly the title merely indicates a transformation-into-wild-man-via-potion story]
1999 Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde (Goldhill Home Media)
Production: Roz Phillips, Tim Brooke-Hunt, Tom Stacey for Goldhill Home Media
Voices: Max Meldrum, David Nettheim, John Ewart, Carol Adams, Simeon Hawkins
[animation; for children but stays quite close to the story; 50 mins; internet images of the cover show a Jekyll that is the same as the 1986 Burbank version, so this may be a re-issue or a derived version]
1999 Fight Club
Director: David Fincher
Production: 20th Century Fox
Cast: Brad Pitt, Helena Bonham-Carter, Edward Norton
[Norton plays Jekyll to Pitt’s evil Hyde includes the lines “I know it seems there’s two sides to me..”, “Two sides? You’re Dr Jekyll and Mr Jackass”; based on the novel by Chuck Palahnuik; 134 mins; see Kirsten Stirling (2004). “Dr Jekyll and Mr Jackass: Fight Club as a Refraction of Hogg’s Justified Sinner and Stevenson’s Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde”. Postmodern Studies 35]
*2000 Nutty Professor II: The Klumps
Director: Peter Segal
Production: Universal
Cast: Eddy Murphy
[weak sequel of the 1996 Nutty Professor with EM in multiple roles]
2001-2010
*2001 Episodes from the Life of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde
Director: Paul Bush (also screenplay)
Production: Paul Bush / Ancient Mariner Productions
Cast: Ian Bourn and Gary Stevens (Jekyll/Hyde)
[A short (5’15”) 35mm animation film using still photographs. Trailer. Scenes from the Victor Fleming movie are restaged frame by frame with new performers occupying the body spaces of Spencer Tracy, Ingrid Bergman, etc… By morphing, two people play each role. “In each successive frame one body is replaced by another and then another, creating a stuttering, flickering, ghostly presence that is all at once Jekyll and Hyde.” Danny Birchall]
2002 Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde (Phillips)
Director: Maurice Phillips
Production: Clerkenwell Films
Cast: John Hannah (J/H), David Warner (Carew), Gerard Horan (Utterson), Kellie Shirley (Mabel Mercer), Elodie Kendall (Sarah Carew), Ellie Haddington (Florrie Bradley)
Music: David Ferguson
[Starts with the discovery of the dead Hyde, the film then takes the form of a series of flashbacks from Utterson as he reads Jekyll’s ‘confession’; London/Edinburgh night-time scenes: alleys and gaslight; the potion is a mind-altering drug that doesn’t cause any bodily transformation; Jekyll has fiancée and maidservant who is attracted to him; emphasis on socio-historical aspects (influence of the film Mary Reilly); has the same bridge from house to lab as found in the 1931 and 1941 films; Jekyll starts to hallucinate and has dialogues with Hyde (his identical double); 120 mins.]
2002 Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde (Redfield)
Director: Mark Redfield
Production: Redfield Arts
Cast: Mark Redfield (J/H)
Screenplay: Stuart Voytilla and Mark Redfield
[Though it has the familiar prostitute and fiancée roles, with an aging patriarch as the latter’s father, the film (updated to 1900, allowing self-references to moving film) restores the mystery element usually missing from cinematic versions; it starts with the trampling scene that prompts Utterson’s investigations, and continues with plot development via letters and multiple points-of-view and with characters linked in suggested Double-relationships. Though made on a low budget it has been praised as “a kind of Orson Welles virtuoso effort” (Redfield is writer, director, designer and actor), with special mentions of the performances, the effective surprise ending and the interesting montages and transitions. The film is based on a stage version performed at Redfield’s New Century Theater (Baltimore) in 1991]
2003 The Jekyll and Hyde Rock ‘n’ Roll Musical
Director: André Champagne
Production: Champagne / Berhoft productions
Cast: Alan Bernhoft (Jekyll/Hyde), Terence Marinan (Lanyon), Lisa Peterson (Anne, Jekyll’s fiancée), Robert Ricucci (Poole, Jekyll’s roommate)
Screenplay: Alan Bernhoft and Robert Ricucci
Music and lyrics: Alan Bernhoft
[See the official site; Based on the stage musical first performed at the “FM Station” nightclub in North Hollywood in 1990. The movie starts in Bournemouth, 1885, with Stevenson waking from a nightmare and starting to write his story, but is set in present-day Los Angeles where Dr Henry Jekyll is bringing his experiments to a conclusion with the fatal injection that produces the transformation to Hyde who commits a series of atacks and murders. Inspector McCree starts piecing together evidence; Lanyon and Utterson begin to suspect a connection between Hyde and their friend Jekyll; as the transformations begin to become spontaneous, Jekyll decides that he must commit suicide].
*2003 The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen
Director: Stephen Norrington
[The film version of Alan Moore’s comic-book League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (a group of “heroes” from late-Victorian fiction—including Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde—save the British Empire from perfidious Eastern threat; Hyde resembles The Incredible Hulk]
*2003 Misty Mundae – Dr Jekyll and Mistress Hyde
Director: Tony Marsiglia
Production: Seduction Cinema
[pornographic film; “Dr Jackie Stevenson […] has developed an experimental sex serum that frees women from their psychological and sexual inhibitions…”].
2004 Jekyll (Zakarin)
Director: Scott Zakarin
Production: Creative Light Entertainment
Cast: Matt Keeslar (J/H), Jonathan Silverman (Jelyll’s older colleague), Siena Goines (Christy, a stripper), Desmond Askew (Poole, lab assistant), Abigail Spencer (Jekyll’s fiancée), John Rubenstein
Screenplay: Scott Zakarin
[“While researching a cure for cancer, Dr Henry Jekyll creates a computer-generated alter-ego, Mr. Hyde, a creature of animal appetites and uncontrollable impulses who goes on a killing spree and ultimately destroys his own creator…”; elements of Hyde in Jekyll and vice-chancellor; Hyde is not repulsive]
*2004 Van Helsing
Director: Stephen Sommers
Production: Universal Studios
Cast: Hugh Jackman and Kate Beckinsale
[Van Helsing, “after hunting down and dispatching a murderous Dr Jekyll/Mr. Hyde in Paris” (Wikipedia) sets out to track down Dracula (the main subject of the film)]
*2004 Van Helsing: The London Assignment
Director: Sharon Bridgeman
Production: Universal Cartoon Studios
[30-minute animated film, presented as a prequel to the film Van Helsing. Official website summary: “On the winding and fog-enshrouded streets of London, the sinister being known only as Mr. Hyde terrorizes the city in a haunting spree of mayhem and murder. With the populace in a panic, the legendary monster hunter Van Helsing arrives in London on a mission to track down and capture the elusive Mr. Hyde.” Amazon.com reviewer: “Dr Jekyll …wants to marry old Queen Victoria … so he turns into Mr. Hyde … who is apparently doing the Jack the Ripper murders to get the life essences of his victims so that he can turn the queen into a young girl”. The portrayal of Hyde is similar to that in The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen but smaller]
*2005. Jacqueline Hyde
Director: Rolfe Kanefsky
Production: Pixie Flicks / Warner Bros.
Cast: Gabriella Hall (Jackie Hyde) and Blythe Metz (Jacqueline Hyde)
[“Granddaughter-of” movie, with potion-makes-shy-girl-sexy-and-also-violent plot, very loosely based on JH. “so incredibly stupid it challenges you not to actually turn it off at every turn” Rotten Tomatoes; 94 mins.]
2006 The Strange Case Of Dr Jekyll And Mr. Hyde (Buechler)
Director: John Carl Buechler
Screenplay: John Carl Buechler
Cast: Tony Todd (Jekyll/Hyde), Tracy Scoggins (Karen Utterson) and Vernon G. Wells
[“Dr Jekyll (Tony Todd) has successfully cured a higher primate of a dire heart condition, but could this treatment prove successful on humans as well? Upon testing the serum on himself, Dr Jekyll becomes a horrifying and primal beast that goes by the name Mr. Hyde.” “As Jekyll becomes increasingly tormented by his alter ego’s evil antics, his bride-to-be and some innocent co-eds suffer the wrath of Mr. Hyde”; 70 mins.]
*2006 Lo strano caso del Dottor Jekyll e Mr. Hyde (Italia 1)
Production: Italia 1 / Mediaset, Italy
Cast: Roberto Ciufoli (J/H)
[episode in the TV series Premiata Teleditta 4 by the quartet of comics “Premiata Ditta”; aired 11 September 2006; musical comedy parody; opens and closes with a drawing-room scene (as in the Sullivan play and the Hollywood films) where (as in the 1941 film) Jekyll makes his declaration of man’s double nature; Jekyll has hair over his face when he is Hyde (as in the Wildhorn musical). The plot inhabits a familiar Victorian and horror-classic inter-textual space (mixing in Jack the Ripper, Dr Frankenstein, Dracula, the Wolfman). Rather weak and self-indulgent hotch-potch]
2007 Jekyll (Mackinnon and Lipsey)
Director: Douglas Mackinnon and Matt Lipsey
Production: Hartswood Films for BBC One
Cast: James Nesbitt (Dr Tom Jackman/Hyde), Gina Bellman (Mrs. Claire Jackman), Denis Lawson (Peter Syme=Utterson)
Screenplay: Steven Moffat
[Six-part TV mini-series transmitted in June 2007 (July 2007 on BBC America). A sequel set in the present day; Dr Jackman tries to stop spontaneous transformations (no potion) into Hyde (a situation similar to “The Hulk” comicbooks). No dramatic transformation scenes: Nesbitt uses mainly body language and speech-style to show the difference between the two characters (Jackman is aging and strained by his condition, Hyde is energetic and violent but also a joker with dark charm). The plot of the series follows Jackman as he struggles to protect the world and his own family from Hyde whilst being hunted by some mysterious government agency who want Hyde for themselves. Script and Nesbitt’s performance praised in press reviews]
2007 Dr Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (Nihon)
Production: Nihon TV
[The Nihon TV series “Arasuji de Tanoshimu Sekai Meisaku Gekijo” (Theater of World Masterpieces That Can Be Enjoyed in Summary Form) runs through the basic plots of several of the world’s greatest novels using unexpected collaborators. Comedian Cunning Takayama does the voices in a computer-graphic animation version of JH.
*2007 Dr Ravi & Mr. Hyde
Director: Ravi Godse
[film about someone trying to make a film. The only link with JH is in the title, which alludes to a doctor (the director, an Indian doctor living in Pittsburgh) who has another and different side to his personality (in this case, a comically obsessed would-be film auteur). Ravi Hyde site]
2008 Dr Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (Barzman)
Director: Paolo Barzman
Production: Muse Productions, Canada
Cast: Dougray Scott (J/H)
Screenplay: Paul Margolis
[Made for TV and DVD distribution. The story is set in the present; J is a likeable and dedicated doctor researching into the psychic action of a rare Amazonian flower. But the experiments coincide with a series of brutal murders, and Jekyll knows the two are connected. Desperate to face punishment for his crimes and stay locked away for the public’s safety, Jekyll elicits the help of a compassionate attorney, Claire Wheaton (Krista Bridges). She wins the case, Jekyll is locked away in a mental asylum, but the murderous Hyde now emerges more frequently…]
*2008 My Own Worst Enemy
Production: NBC
Cast: Christian Slater (Henry Spivey/Edward Albright)
[Episode in TV series; Henry Spivey is a mid-level management consultant; when he is asleep, or thinks he is asleep, he becomes Edward Albright, a multilingual superspy and trained assassin. The choice of first names and the conflict for supremacy in the same body are the only elements from Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde plus the twist of Henry returning in the middle of Edward’s clandestine assignments, reminiscent of The Nutty Professor); the rest seems to be a spy thriller. ]
2011-2020
2011. Pinsara Dostara
Director: Sunil Costa
Production: Wijeratne Gamage, broadcast on ITN (Sri Lanka), March 2011
Cast: Tony Ranasinghe (J/H)
Screenplay: Saman Weeraman
[Sri Lankan TV adaptation of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde. Modernised and set in Sri Lanka.]
*2012. Do No Harm
Director: Michael Mayer
Production: Universal Television / Traugott Company
Cast: Steven Pasquale (Dr Jason Cole / Ian Price)
Screenplay: David Schulner
[TV series of an updated Jekyll story: ʻDr. Jason Cole… is a highly respected neurosurgeon who has it all… But he also has a deep, dark secret… Every night at the same hour, something inside Jason changes, leaving him almost unrecognizable – seductive, devious, borderline sociopathic. This new man is his dangerous alternate personality who goes by the name of “Ian Price”.ʼ For years he’s battled Ian, keeping him in check with a powerful experimental sedative. But now his – their – body has developed a resistance to the serum, setting Ian free once again. And to make matters worse, after being suppressed for so long, Ian’s hell-bent on taking revenge on his oppressor.ʼ To be broadcast by NBC in the USA in late 2012.]
2015. Jekyll and Hyde (Higson)
Director: Charlie Higson
Production: ITV
Cast: Tom Bateman (Robert Jekyll/Mr Hyde)
Screenplay: Charlie Higson
[10-part TV series of an updated sequel to the Jekyll story with the sprawling plot and mythical characters of a Victorian penny dreadful. The series is set in 1930s London and has many intertextual references (and weaves Stevenson into the plot); it focuses on Robert Jekyll, grandson of the doctor, who meets up with Garson, his grandfather’s old laboratory assistant; Hyde resembles the comic-book Hulk (strong, invulnerable, but out of control, yet ‘bad in the ways that a twelve-year-old child longs to be bad’ (Poore)); he is involved in Tenebrae. ‘an ancient organisation of monsters seeking world domination’]
2016 Madame Hyde (Mrs Hyde) (Bozon)
Director and screenplay: Serge Bozon
Production: Les Films Pelléas, Frakas Productions, Arte France
Cast: Isabelle Huppert (Marie Géquil/Madame Hyde)
[A shy physics teacher (‘Géquil’, pronounced ‘Jekyll’) in a difficult banlieu school in Marseille is hit by lightning, and undergoes a personality change to become intense and confident (The Nutty Professor twist) but at night dangerous to mix with (like Hulk). She inspires her pupils to face reality in a rational way (so the opposite of Dead Poets’ Society). Absurdist comedy, dark farce, discussion film with its own merits, though not really a version of JH.]