Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

Starring: Fredric March, Miriam Hopkins, Rose Hobart, Holmes Herbert
Director: Rouben Mamoulian
Rating: Passed
Genre: Horror, Science Fiction
1931

Times Seen:
Tim: 1

Summary: Dr. Jekyll (Fredric March) creates a potion that unleashes his primitive side, which wrecks havoc on his orderly life.

Review:

Tim: I would have to say that I liked Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde a bit less than I expected. It's certainly a decent movie that has some legitimate strengths, but I just didn't find it as compelling as many others. I will admit that for the time, much of this film was impressive.

The story was fairly interesting, as it examines both the good and the evil side of us as human beings. I don't feel like the story dug as deeply as it could on this issue. The character of Jekyll and his alter ego Hyde display very different traits and approaches, represented most visually in how they treat the women in their lives. I suppose this is an effective technique, but it seemed a little one-note to me. I wish there was more to explore in these characters than their relation to women (consequently, that statement flipped could be true about most portrayals of women in general in Hollywood).

There's a few elements of this film that are noteworthy. The first is that Fredric March won an Academy Award for Best Actor, I believe marking the first time a horror movie won an Academy Award. That is noteworthy, for sure. It's kind of surprising that he won for this role, because horror films rarely win the industry's top awards. I can see why March won- he has to convincingly pull off two very different roles- the civilized, intellectual Dr. Jekyll and the primitive, unrestrained Mr. Hyde (apparently he loses his PhD qualifications). This did require a great deal of range and March does a convincing job. His Hyde does stray into over-the-top territory a bit too much, but it's generally an effective role. I can't fault him too much. I'd imagine not a ton of actors had played duel roles to this extent in 1931, so there may have been a bit of a novelty as well. I may not have loved his performance, but he chews scenery as Hyde and makes the transition look effortless, so I can see why he won.

The other noteworthy aspect of this film is the transformation scene from Jekyll to Hyde. Even 80 years later, this is pretty impressive to watch. I won't go into the explanation of how they pulled this off, but it's worth researching if you are interested. It's innovative and it creates a compelling, memorable sequence every time we watch it. It draws the audience in and I very much appreciated it.

One other interesting aspect- the character of Ivy is surprisingly forward with her sexuality, far in excess of what I expected to see in a film from the early 1930s. The movie was made before the full enforcement of the Production Code, and so while still mild by today's standards, you just don't see that very often in these early films. It was interesting.

While this movie has some very strong elements, the film as a whole was only decent. It doesn't do enough to truly engage the audience. The transformation scene is amazing, Ivy is surprising, and March is fun to watch, but these individual elements never gel together to form an effective-enough film. The movie might not have been overly long at 98 minutes, but it felt long. I didn't care enough about Jekyll as a character to become invested in what I saw on screen. Ivy elicited some sympathy because she's so emotionally and physically abused. It's sad. I couldn't tell you much about Muriel- she's a sadly underdeveloped character (I had to google her name, because she's so unmemorable). Overall, I just wasn't invested enough in anything taking place on screen.

There's quite a few aspects of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde that I really respect. Unfortunately, I just didn't enjoy the overall movie. It wasn't entertaining enough. Others obviously feel differently and that's cool. I think this is a decent movie, but not much more than that.

Rating 1-10
Tim's Rating: 6.5



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