Dir - Terence Fisher
Overall: GOOD
The first but not last adaptation of Robert Louis Stevenson's seminal novel for Hammer Film Productions was The Two Faces of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Ideal director Terence Fisher was once again on board, kicking up the sexuality and shock value for the times to fit into the bloody, colorful new era. Having Christopher Lee cast against type as the gambling scoundrel Paul Allen instead of in the lead is a surprising yet rewarding choice as Lee can play such deplorable characters quite effortlessly. Both him and Jekyll's unfaithful wife Kitty, (Dawn Addams), are just as shady and flawed as Hyde, which makes everyone less cut-and-dry good or evil, in fitting with the material. Speaking of Hyde, he is the handsome and dashing one here, Jekyll looking almost ridiculous with a patched on beard and eyebrows, clearly obsessed to the point of being pathetic from the very first scene we meet him in. Paul Massie's performance goes too far much of the time as it seems amazing that he does not have a heart attack from stress alone the first time he shoots himself up. It is also a bit silly that no one recognizes him as he is clearly just a shaved Jekyll, as well as the elephant in the room that the two are never seen together but go on and on about being the closest of friends. Melodramatic plot holes aside, it is still a classy, well-executed production.
(1971)
Dir - Roy Ward Baker
Overall: GOOD
Dr. Jekyll and Sister Hyde was Hammer's third and last film adaptation of the Robert Louis Stevenson novel, coming after nearly two-dozen movie versions since the silent days proceeding it. Fitting then that producer/writer Brian Clemens concocted it on the gimmick to have the title characters switch genders. This in itself is a nice enough variation and some other liberties are taken with the source material to keep it a smidge unpredictable from every other version. Per example, both the real life Jack the Ripper and Burke and Hare cases seamlessly get woven into the proceedings to the point where Ralph Bates is credited as both Jekyll and the Ripper. Bond girl Martine Beswick is cold, quiet, evil, and occasionally naked and steals her comparatively few scenes while Bates' Jekyll is more subdued than others before him, (though of course he trashes his lab at the end and looks a bit tense when transforming, as is required). Jekyll's justification for killing helpless girls is a a bit thin and he does not seem near troubled enough by it to sell us on feeling he is the victim in all this. Yet there is some clever humor here and there, like when Jekyll's colleague Prof Robertson proclaims "It's all very queer indeed", to which the next scene jumps to Jekyll opening up dresses that his alter-ego ordered without his knowledge, per example.
(1971)
Dir - Stephen Weeks
Overall: MEH
There is one really nice element to Amicus Studios' Jekyll and Hyde reworking I, Monster, released the same year as Hammer's own redo Dr. Jekyll and Sister Hyde. That is to see Christopher Lee at last in the title role, one that was given to Paul Massie in Hammer's own adaptation eleven years prior. The characters names are changed for this round, which seems pointless since we all know what story we are watching anyway. Lee's Dr. Marlow/Mr. Blake is a beautiful thing to watch though, where he stays rather stiff as the doctor, (no doubt intentionally), and his appearance and actions as the mister become increasingly nasty. As the plot dictates, the more evil the deed and the more frequently they occur, the more ugly he becomes. Blake starts off like a big, dumb, grinning child as he harmlessly plays with his lab equipment on first dosage, only by the end to be completely unrecognizable as the type of heavily made-up and monstrous Hyde we have all come to expect. Sadly, elsewhere things are rather dull. Peter Cushing barely has anything to do, there is the usual boring "duality of man" babble, there is no sex or even a love interest, and really, the story has been told so many times that besides Lee getting a stab at it, there is really little else to distinguish it.
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