DR JEKYLL AND MR HYDE (1920). This fourth version based on Robert
Louis Stevenson’s novella ‘The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde’ was
released through Paramount and starred the highly-regarded stage actor John
Barrymore as Jekyll and his bestial counterpoint. Barrymore was known as ‘the
Great Profile’ for his screen handsomeness but for his hugely-acclaimed theatre
HAMLET was dubbed ‘the greatest living American tragedian’. He was part of the
distinguished Drew and Barrymore acting dynasties whose bloodline has continued
to the present day with busy screen actor Drew Barrymore. It was after his run as
Shakespeare’s Dane that Barrymore quit the theatre for a long time, preferring
to work in film.
DR JEKYLL
AND MR HYDE was one (well, two) of his earliest screen roles made back in the
silent era. It was filmed in New York in the day-time while at night he was
appearing on stage in THE JEST. The film opens with a quoted theme of
self-determinism that “…what we most want
to be - we are”. The film, as the novella, posits that if we have a baser
nature, and the desire to express it, it must not be denied expression.
Barrymore is an urbane Henry Jekyll, a scientist possessed of an insufferably
good nature according to Sir George Carew (Brandon Hirst), the somewhat
unfairly suspicious father to his fiancé Millicent played by Martha Mansfield. Carew
argues that: “A man cannot destroy the
savage in him by denying its impulses. The only way to get rid of a temptation
is to yield to it”. This inadvertently reveals more about him than his
future son-in-law if one thinks about it, but no matter. The provocative
discussion and the sexy gyrations of Nita Naldi on stage stir up ponderings in
Jekyll that soon have him into his silk dressing gown and out of his comfort zone
making a flask of steaming serum in his laboratory. He is obsessed with the
idea of dual identities being allowed separate freedom: "Wouldn't it be marvellous if the two natures in man could be
separated - housed in different bodies?
One draught
of Potion Number One and he’s transformed into his buried evil alter ago - Mr
Hyde.
Barrymore
excels in the Hyde scenes. Here manages his metamorphosis almost entirely by
physically changing his expression and assuming a hunched, monstrous bearing.
The only real augmentation is the use of double-exposure photography to show
his fingers and nails elongating – aside from later where we see his exposed bare
head raised to a grotesque point . His cross-eyed anguish is a little comical
during his trial-run ‘birth pains’ but after this, his Hyde is a bravura
sinister brute. He slopes off to the local music-hall, a Dickensian den of
ne’er-do-wells, sneering lasciviously under a long mane of stringy hair. “Set forth upon a sea of license”, he
embarks upon a campaign of vice, most of which is only suggested, protected as
the delicate sensibilities of a 1920 audience were even before the Hays Code. Eventually,
the acts on stage don’t prove to be as depraved as the ones festering in his
mind, so in search of the harder stuff this Burlington Bertie of depravity soon
shows up banging his gnarled cudgel on the door of a Chinese opium den. There
we see a pitiable casualty of the pipe, ferociously scratching his skin,
imagining he is being consumed by red ants.
Jekyll’s
consumption of the catalyst serum gradually intensifies to the point where he
turns into Hyde without even taking it. A hair-raisingly effective symbolic
nightmare sequence illustrates this - a giant, hideously human-headed spider
crawls across his bedroom floor, mounts his four-poster and makes for his face,
fading as he metamorphosises into his demonic twin in his sleep.
Whilst
temporarily under control as Jekyll, his prospective father-in-law demands to
know about his unsavoury public association with Hyde, unwitting as to their
true connection. Sir George threatens to stop the intended wedding unless his
intentions are revealed. This invasion of privacy infuriates Jekyll: "What right have you to question me -
you who first tempted me?" He no longer recognises any responsibility
for the danger he is unleashing on London. This rage triggers another Hyde
transformation, after which Hyde bludgeons Sir George to death with his cudgel.
Returned to
Jekyll mode, the good doctor is horrified to discover there is no more of his
drug available to buy in the whole city. (This is a perplexing moment in the
plot as surely Jekyll was concocting it from ingredients? If not, what were
people using it for in its ready-made state? Hopefully it contained the kind of
normally fatuous ‘Do not drink’ warning label we find on modern printer
cartridges!). Nevertheless, Jekyll is now forced to hide in his lab out of fear
of uncontrolled Hyde rampages. Unfortunately the visiting Millicent will not
leave him in his hour of need. The pressure on the doctor reaches
transformation point, but he manages to down poison taken from the ring of Nita
Naldi’s dancer character just as the effects take hold and dies sacrificing
himself to save his betrothed. Millicent is heartbroken. Jekyll’s friends and
his butler Poole conclude that Hyde had killed Jekyll, not knowing the truth of
how right they are…
DR JEKYLL
AND MR HYDE is an excellent adaptation of the novella for thrill-seeking horror
fans of the bygone era and now. The London sets have a cramped, atmospheric
foggy look denoting a decent studio budget spent, the performances are good and
Barrymore accounts himself well. The material also serves him well as the title
cards have a much more literary quality inspired by Stevenson’s original text
than a typical horror film, adding to the quality lustre of the production.
Barrymore
was assured of an easy transition later to sound by virtue of his
classically-trained voice. What he could not perhaps have predicted was the
gradual decline of his career later in life as his alcohol addiction sabotaged
his work, reducing him to playing parodies of his real life problems in such
admittedly renowned films as TWENTIETH CENTURY (1934) and struggling with
multiple marriages and financial issues before his sad death at age 60…
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