This movie is the second of 3 versions of the classic story I'm seeing in chronological order. The first version was made in 1912, a year before this movie came out, but despite this slight difference in years this movie is highly improved, and is much more involved than the other one. The run-time is longer (26 min, very long for the day) it sticks to the original story much more than the other one (including the characters Utterson and Lanyon, which the 1912 version failed to do) and, while it has a new ending, this new addition is actually an improvement on the story.
The film gets off to a slow start. We're introduced to Jekyll, his girlfriend and stuff and told how he cars for the poor. Then the action starts, where Jekyll drinks the antidote and turns into Mr. Hyde. As several other reviewers pointed out, the Hyde here is actually a bit lame. The 1912 version's Hyde had some good makeup and acting, but here there isn't much of that so Hyde pretty much crouches on his knees like an idiot. Then, he goes around scaring people and murdering and stuff until the finale occurs, which I'm not giving away, because it really comes off as surprising.
Overall, it is interesting comparing both versions of the story, because they vary a lot. While the Hyde here is envisioned differently than you'd normally think, it makes his appearance new and interesting. Even with 26 minutes of screen-time, Herbert Brenon was really able to stick to the novella. It's definitely worth checking out.
The film gets off to a slow start. We're introduced to Jekyll, his girlfriend and stuff and told how he cars for the poor. Then the action starts, where Jekyll drinks the antidote and turns into Mr. Hyde. As several other reviewers pointed out, the Hyde here is actually a bit lame. The 1912 version's Hyde had some good makeup and acting, but here there isn't much of that so Hyde pretty much crouches on his knees like an idiot. Then, he goes around scaring people and murdering and stuff until the finale occurs, which I'm not giving away, because it really comes off as surprising.
Overall, it is interesting comparing both versions of the story, because they vary a lot. While the Hyde here is envisioned differently than you'd normally think, it makes his appearance new and interesting. Even with 26 minutes of screen-time, Herbert Brenon was really able to stick to the novella. It's definitely worth checking out.