A literally soul-searching doctor splits the good and evil natures within his own personality. A creditable adaptation (by Gore Vidal) of the horror perennial is undermined by pedestrian handling – and a leading man, Michael Rennie, whose physiognomy is far too prominent to be mistaken (especially under the scarce make-up employed). Having said that, the sheer presence of such veteran cast members like Cedric Hardwicke (as Dr. Lanyon – through whose eyes we see the narrative as he lies reading Jekyll's journal after his death) and John Hoyt (as Poole) keeps one watching. This episode of CLIMAX! was the earliest TV adaptation of the tale and, like other entries in this series, the show is frequently interrupted by "Your Host William Lundigan"'s tedious salesman pitch on the newest car models! In addition, I have previously watched Jean Renoir's splendid take on the material, THE TESTAMENT OF DR. CORDELIER (1959); Dan Curtis' 1968 production with Jack Palance; Giorgio Albertazzi's superlative modernization in the four-part mini-series, JEKYLL (1969); and the 1990 one with Michael Caine. Furthermore, I have another two other small screen adaptations I will be catching up with during this ongoing Halloween Challenge.
6 Reviews
Decent Adaptation with Strong Cast
Reviews_of_the_Dead22 May 2020
This is a version of the classic tale from Robert Louis Stevenson that I'm not entirely sure where I found it. It has been close to a decade that I've owned it and finally decided to give it a viewing. I was pretty excited that when looking into this before starting it that it starred Michael Rennie and Cedric Hardwicke, who are both actors I'm pretty familiar with. There's not much in the way of synopsis aside from a little known adaptation of the classic tale.
We start with Poole (John Hoyt) seeking out Mr. Utterson (Hardwicke) to relay his fears about his boss. The both of them return to the house of Dr. Henry Jekyll (Michael Rennie) and end up finding Mr. Hyde (Rennie). At this point, his crimes are well known throughout London and Mr. Utterson shoots him. Poole is told to go get the police. Mr. Utterson sits down and decides to go through a journal that has a note for him to go through it if Dr. Jekyll dies or goes missing.
The movie then goes into what lead them here. Dr. Jekyll wants to use science to find the soul. This seems to upset his friend Dr. Lanyon (Lowell Gilmore). He feels this is trying to play God and Mr. Utterson shows up during the debate. It seems like he tends to agree with Dr. Lanyon on this.
We then see Dr. Jekyll going about his research. He is his own guinea pig here and by happenstance, he mixes the right chemicals and salts together. It does the opposite of what he wanted and this transforms him into Mr. Hyde, a man who explores worldly pleasures and has a violent streak. He doesn't consider or care for the ramifications of things that he does. Mr. Hyde also likes to spend his time in a bar where he encounters Mary Sinclair. He ruins her life in the process of enjoying his.
Dr. Jekyll realizes the deeper he goes, the more he's addicted to the feeling and that he needs to stop. He does set up safeguards and tries to do charity work to make up for it. The problem is that the darkness he has awoken inside him is stronger than he knows.
That's where I'm going to leave this recap as this is technically an episode of a show called Climax! It only runs an hour long and assuming this was something that was aired on television in a primetime slot. When I learned this information, it does make a lot of sense as this feels similar to that of a Hitchcock Presents or The Twilight Zone where they flesh out a story in a shorter amount of time and is kind of like a stage play at times.
What I did really like were the two stars of this. Rennie is someone I first got introduced to the name from The Rocky Horror Picture Show since his name is in the opening musical number 'Science Fiction Double Feature'. I've seen a few of his movies and I think he was perfect in this role of Dr. Jekyll. He seems like a man of science with good intentions, but the corruption of the soul is something that you can't just fix. Playing opposite him is Hardwicke who I know from a bunch of classic Universal horror films. His performance here is solid and I'd say no one else stood out, but they help round out for what is needed.
Since this has such a low run time, they really don't do great at fleshing things out. It is a story that has been told a few times and it feels a lot like the novel from what I remember in just telling the story. I do like the religious angle they use here. Dr. Jekyll believes that he can find the soul, but what he does is find the evil that hides in all men. This is even a line that is spoken in the movie. Dr. Lanyon won't help him when he comes there during a scene where Mr. Hyde comes out unexpectedly. Lanyon really wants him to be punished for his crimes, which I did think was an interesting angle.
This version does well at displaying the toxic masculinity of Mr. Hyde. He pretty much ruins Sinclair's character life from the first time he meets her and even more the deeper we get into this story when he gets into an altercation with her fiancé. It is hard to judge the film as it is taking place in Victorian times as she doesn't seem to have much say in their first encounter, but I do like that they're depicting what Mr. Hyde is doing as bad, even after their initial meeting.
The last aspect of the story is actually how it is told. I don't mind that they're showing us how it ends. Especially with a tale I've seen multiple versions of throughout the years. Mr. Utterson is getting into the mind of Jekyll by reading the journal explaining everything. This comes with voice-over narration a few times so we get to delve more into what he's thinking about things that are playing out before us.
Lastly will be the effects of the film. At first, I thought they weren't going to be giving us a transformation. This is hard for me rate higher if they didn't give us something. We don't get a great one here, but I'm also thinking that with the budget for making this as a part of a television series, they wanted to focus more on the characterization and acting. The screen has an effect of waves as they use cuts throughout different stages of the make-up. We do get to see it go from Hyde to Jekyll in front of Mr. Utterson and then front of Sinclair's character the other way. It isn't great, but it isn't horrible either. As for the look of Hyde, they do give him a unibrow and make a mole more pronounced. They also add what I'm assuming is prosthetics to make him look darker. Aside from that, the cinematography is solid.
Now with that said, this isn't a bad take on the classic tale from Stevenson. Being that this was made for a television show, with probably most of the budget going to the two star actors. That's not to say this is bad, because their performances do carry this for sure. I think they flesh out Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde pretty well with Mr. Utterson and Dr. Lanyon to fill in what we needed. It has a runtime of close to an hour and to be honest, I would have been fine with it being longer. The effects we get aren't great. There are better transformations and looks of Hyde in version before this. The soundtrack did fit for what they needed as well. I'd say this is just over average though and can't really go higher than that for what we're given.
We start with Poole (John Hoyt) seeking out Mr. Utterson (Hardwicke) to relay his fears about his boss. The both of them return to the house of Dr. Henry Jekyll (Michael Rennie) and end up finding Mr. Hyde (Rennie). At this point, his crimes are well known throughout London and Mr. Utterson shoots him. Poole is told to go get the police. Mr. Utterson sits down and decides to go through a journal that has a note for him to go through it if Dr. Jekyll dies or goes missing.
The movie then goes into what lead them here. Dr. Jekyll wants to use science to find the soul. This seems to upset his friend Dr. Lanyon (Lowell Gilmore). He feels this is trying to play God and Mr. Utterson shows up during the debate. It seems like he tends to agree with Dr. Lanyon on this.
We then see Dr. Jekyll going about his research. He is his own guinea pig here and by happenstance, he mixes the right chemicals and salts together. It does the opposite of what he wanted and this transforms him into Mr. Hyde, a man who explores worldly pleasures and has a violent streak. He doesn't consider or care for the ramifications of things that he does. Mr. Hyde also likes to spend his time in a bar where he encounters Mary Sinclair. He ruins her life in the process of enjoying his.
Dr. Jekyll realizes the deeper he goes, the more he's addicted to the feeling and that he needs to stop. He does set up safeguards and tries to do charity work to make up for it. The problem is that the darkness he has awoken inside him is stronger than he knows.
That's where I'm going to leave this recap as this is technically an episode of a show called Climax! It only runs an hour long and assuming this was something that was aired on television in a primetime slot. When I learned this information, it does make a lot of sense as this feels similar to that of a Hitchcock Presents or The Twilight Zone where they flesh out a story in a shorter amount of time and is kind of like a stage play at times.
What I did really like were the two stars of this. Rennie is someone I first got introduced to the name from The Rocky Horror Picture Show since his name is in the opening musical number 'Science Fiction Double Feature'. I've seen a few of his movies and I think he was perfect in this role of Dr. Jekyll. He seems like a man of science with good intentions, but the corruption of the soul is something that you can't just fix. Playing opposite him is Hardwicke who I know from a bunch of classic Universal horror films. His performance here is solid and I'd say no one else stood out, but they help round out for what is needed.
Since this has such a low run time, they really don't do great at fleshing things out. It is a story that has been told a few times and it feels a lot like the novel from what I remember in just telling the story. I do like the religious angle they use here. Dr. Jekyll believes that he can find the soul, but what he does is find the evil that hides in all men. This is even a line that is spoken in the movie. Dr. Lanyon won't help him when he comes there during a scene where Mr. Hyde comes out unexpectedly. Lanyon really wants him to be punished for his crimes, which I did think was an interesting angle.
This version does well at displaying the toxic masculinity of Mr. Hyde. He pretty much ruins Sinclair's character life from the first time he meets her and even more the deeper we get into this story when he gets into an altercation with her fiancé. It is hard to judge the film as it is taking place in Victorian times as she doesn't seem to have much say in their first encounter, but I do like that they're depicting what Mr. Hyde is doing as bad, even after their initial meeting.
The last aspect of the story is actually how it is told. I don't mind that they're showing us how it ends. Especially with a tale I've seen multiple versions of throughout the years. Mr. Utterson is getting into the mind of Jekyll by reading the journal explaining everything. This comes with voice-over narration a few times so we get to delve more into what he's thinking about things that are playing out before us.
Lastly will be the effects of the film. At first, I thought they weren't going to be giving us a transformation. This is hard for me rate higher if they didn't give us something. We don't get a great one here, but I'm also thinking that with the budget for making this as a part of a television series, they wanted to focus more on the characterization and acting. The screen has an effect of waves as they use cuts throughout different stages of the make-up. We do get to see it go from Hyde to Jekyll in front of Mr. Utterson and then front of Sinclair's character the other way. It isn't great, but it isn't horrible either. As for the look of Hyde, they do give him a unibrow and make a mole more pronounced. They also add what I'm assuming is prosthetics to make him look darker. Aside from that, the cinematography is solid.
Now with that said, this isn't a bad take on the classic tale from Stevenson. Being that this was made for a television show, with probably most of the budget going to the two star actors. That's not to say this is bad, because their performances do carry this for sure. I think they flesh out Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde pretty well with Mr. Utterson and Dr. Lanyon to fill in what we needed. It has a runtime of close to an hour and to be honest, I would have been fine with it being longer. The effects we get aren't great. There are better transformations and looks of Hyde in version before this. The soundtrack did fit for what they needed as well. I'd say this is just over average though and can't really go higher than that for what we're given.
Among the best of a bad lot of adaptations.
Irie21219 May 2008
First, the good: Gore Vidal, who wrote the script, has done justice to Robert Louis Stevenson's brilliantly structured and written novella, which does not boil down to good (Jekyll) vs. Evil (Hyde), as people who've heard the names but never read the original seem to think. (NB: upcoming quotes are from Stevenson.)
Vidal conveys the relentless cruelty of Hyde without giving us an angelic Jekyll, because he wasn't. Far from it. Jekyll was an ordinary man who craved beastly pleasures. He brews a drug that concentrates those "primitive" cravings into a reduction of his physical self, the "pale and dwarfish" Hyde, a creature of "complete moral insensibility and insensate readiness to evil," a man "who was without bowels of mercy." The drug works too well. After many doses, it takes control: "I had gone to bed Henry Jekyll, I had awakened Edward Hyde." The book gives me chills; no movie has equalled that yet.
Second, the acceptable: Michael Rennie is good in the dual role, though I doubt anyone will ever be better than John Barrymore was in 1920: he achieved part of the Jekyll-to-Hyde transformation without the use of make-up.
Third, the regrettable: The one-hour production from 1955 is minimal, to say the least. There are just a few stage sets with deplorable lighting and clunky sound-- well, with every technical drawback in plain sight. You can see for yourself on YouTube.
Vidal conveys the relentless cruelty of Hyde without giving us an angelic Jekyll, because he wasn't. Far from it. Jekyll was an ordinary man who craved beastly pleasures. He brews a drug that concentrates those "primitive" cravings into a reduction of his physical self, the "pale and dwarfish" Hyde, a creature of "complete moral insensibility and insensate readiness to evil," a man "who was without bowels of mercy." The drug works too well. After many doses, it takes control: "I had gone to bed Henry Jekyll, I had awakened Edward Hyde." The book gives me chills; no movie has equalled that yet.
Second, the acceptable: Michael Rennie is good in the dual role, though I doubt anyone will ever be better than John Barrymore was in 1920: he achieved part of the Jekyll-to-Hyde transformation without the use of make-up.
Third, the regrettable: The one-hour production from 1955 is minimal, to say the least. There are just a few stage sets with deplorable lighting and clunky sound-- well, with every technical drawback in plain sight. You can see for yourself on YouTube.
Very scary
jacobjohntaylor17 July 2015
This is one of the scariest short films I have ever seen. Doctor Jekyll discovers that man has two souls a good soul and an evil soul. He invents a formula that bring out his evil side. He lose control of it. This is a very scary movie. It is best on one of the best horror book ever. This is one of the scariest movie you will ever see. This movie as a great story line. It also has great acting. It also has great special effects. This movie has a lot suspense. It is a great movie. If you like scary movie then you need to see this movie. This is one of the scariest movies ever made. I need more lines and I am running out of thing to say.
Despite a better than average style, it's just the same old same old...
planktonrules12 July 2010
Warning: Spoilers
It's really unfortunate that the story of Dr. Jekyll has become so famous. Part of this is that because the story is such a familiar tale, everyone seems to know what will happen--ruining any sense of suspense (which the original story had--big time). And, part of this is because all too often, producers used this as a cheap idea for a film--after all, it was in the public domain and it took little brain work to recreate the story. And, speaking of little brain work, I have seen MANY versions of the story and so far none of them have gotten it the story very closely, as they all seem to miss one of the main points of Robert Lewis Stevenson's exceptional novel. You see, to be like the book, the actor that plays Jekyll CANNOT be the one who plays Hyde, as Hyde was a much smaller and stockier character. Instead of the usual cheap makeup job stories have, why didn't they use two different actors? Plus, the way Stevenson wrote the story, you really did NOT know they were the same person until the end (though, as I said, the story is so familiar now that this great twist is now meaningless).
So does this made for TV one hour production offer anything NEW--anything that sets it apart from the other craptacular films? Well, yes and no. It does start off like the novel--with a friend reading Jekyll's diary to learn about he man's fate. I liked this a lot. Sadly, however, little else about this movie worked any better than the Frederic March, John Barrymore, Spencer Tracy or any other version. Michael Rennie and Cederic Hardwicke, though fine actors, are pretty wooden and uninteresting here--as is the entire film, actually. In fact, the film could have used a large case of CPR---breathing some life into the flat tale. Overall, it wasn't horrible--just very pedestrian from start to finish.
By the way, since I divulge that Jekyll IS Hyde, I marked this one as having a spoiler. But, is this even necessary any more? Just who DOESN'T know this?
So does this made for TV one hour production offer anything NEW--anything that sets it apart from the other craptacular films? Well, yes and no. It does start off like the novel--with a friend reading Jekyll's diary to learn about he man's fate. I liked this a lot. Sadly, however, little else about this movie worked any better than the Frederic March, John Barrymore, Spencer Tracy or any other version. Michael Rennie and Cederic Hardwicke, though fine actors, are pretty wooden and uninteresting here--as is the entire film, actually. In fact, the film could have used a large case of CPR---breathing some life into the flat tale. Overall, it wasn't horrible--just very pedestrian from start to finish.
By the way, since I divulge that Jekyll IS Hyde, I marked this one as having a spoiler. But, is this even necessary any more? Just who DOESN'T know this?
Good Performances Help Episode
Michael_Elliott14 October 2016
Climax!: Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1955)
Michael Rennie plays the part of Dr. Jekyll, the scientist who experiments with a potion and gets turned into the evil Mr. Hyde. Hyde soon sets his site on a dance hall girl (Mary Sinclair), which leads to murder.
If you're a fan of the Robert Louis Stevenson story then you've probably seen countless version of it. This episode of the Climax! series at least offers up some good performances but there's very little else here that you'd considering fresh or original. I think the biggest problem is that it's somewhat poorly shot, although the limitations of television at the time can be blamed for this. As far as Rennie goes he's certainly good in the role and it's too bad he didn't get a chance to fully play Hyde as they obviously couldn't cross the line in regards to sexuality or violence. I thought Cedric Hardwicke was good as was Sinclair, although her one long scream before a commercial break was a bit too much.
Episode: C+
Michael Rennie plays the part of Dr. Jekyll, the scientist who experiments with a potion and gets turned into the evil Mr. Hyde. Hyde soon sets his site on a dance hall girl (Mary Sinclair), which leads to murder.
If you're a fan of the Robert Louis Stevenson story then you've probably seen countless version of it. This episode of the Climax! series at least offers up some good performances but there's very little else here that you'd considering fresh or original. I think the biggest problem is that it's somewhat poorly shot, although the limitations of television at the time can be blamed for this. As far as Rennie goes he's certainly good in the role and it's too bad he didn't get a chance to fully play Hyde as they obviously couldn't cross the line in regards to sexuality or violence. I thought Cedric Hardwicke was good as was Sinclair, although her one long scream before a commercial break was a bit too much.
Episode: C+
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