Customer Reviews

Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde (1920)

5 star:		(14)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

One of the great classics of silent films. The Kino edition has better overall picture quality and more special features, but is missing over 5 minutes of footage that is on the Image edition. This footage is missing from here and there during the film. I have both editions and have to prefer the Image disc since it is more complete with only a little less quality. Completeness and originality should always be the major factor. The Kino disc features an orchestral score and the Image disc features an organ score.

Robert Louis Stevenson cranked out finely plotted, freshly original stories like clockwork. He was the Stephen King of his time and, like King, excelled at horror. John Barrymore was perhaps the most famous stage performer of his time. Known more today as Drew's grandfather and at the end of his short life, a sad alcoholic reflection of his former charisma. In this terrific 1920 version of "DR. JEKYLL AND MR. HYDE," Barrymore's early brilliance is showcased in this first great American horror film that holds its own in the 21st century. In fact, it even has an enhanced, eerie period feel that amps up the dangerous and ill-fated experiment by the curios doctor who discoverz the shadow side of civilization and self. The Mont Alto Orchestra delivers a fine score and the DVD bonus material features a rare 1909 audio recording of the transformation scene, a 1925 one-reel parody starring a goofy Stan Laurel, an excerpt from a rival 1920 version and more.

Directed by John S. Robertson and starring matinee idol John Barrymore in the dual title role, 1920's DR. JECKYLL & MR. HYDE is sometimes described as the "first American horror film." That description is more than a little problematic, but whether it was or it wasn't, DR. JECKYLL AND MR. HYDE certainly put the horror genre on the Hollywood map.

Whether or not you happen to like this particular version of the famous Robert Louis Stevenson tale will depend a great deal upon your tolerance for the change in acting styles that has occurred between the silent and the modern era. Some silent stars--Lillian Gish, Ramon Novarro, and Louise Brooks leap to mind--were remarkably subtle and worked to create a new style of acting appropriate to the screen, but most actors played very broadly. John Barrymore, considered one of the greatest actors of his day, is among the latter, and was noted for his larger-than-life performances on stage. He brings that same expansiveness to the screen, where it inevitably feels "too big" to the modern viewer.

At the time, Barrymore's transformation into the evil Mr. Hyde was considered shocking in its realism, but today these celebrated scenes are more likely to induce snickers than thrills--as will much of Hyde's make-up, which seems excessive to the modern sensibility. Even so, there are aspects of the film which survive quite well, scenes in which one is permitted a glimpse into the power this film once had. For Barrymore's Hyde is, for all his bizarre ugliness, a remarkably seductive creature--and Barrymore uses his hands and eyes in a remarkable way. One feels the sexual pull as much as one feels the revulsion.

The 1920 DR. JEKYLL & MR. HYDE is available in several VHS and DVD releases. Some of these are quite good, but I particularly recommend the Kino version, which offers a good picture, good soundtrack, and several interesting bonuses. Other release versions should be approached with caution, and you should avoid releases by the likes of Alpha or Madacy as you would the plague. They may seem attractive in terms of price, but frankly... in this instance you get what you pay for.

GFT, Amazon Reviewer

This film was originally done in 1920 with John Barrymore (one of the classic monster actors) in this adaptation of the Robert Louis Stevenson classic. It is a silent movie, but this production by Kino Video is well put together.

Many silent films that have been converted to video bring with them the hiss and pop of the old movies. They also bring in the various elements that keep you from having a clear picture of the action. This is not one of those. There is no hiss. The music of the organ is very clear and fits the movie. You still have the floating element, but just enough to give you the feel of an old movie. Some of the backgrounds for the words don't seem to be consistent, but the story is not hampered at all.

The transformation from Jekyll to Hyde is on screen. It may seem too easy in the day of the "Terminator" movies, but back then, this was cutting edge.

At the end of this edition is an old nickelodeon version done in 1911. It does seem choppy (and the notes before the movie explain why), but it is still an interesting story. There is also an excerpt from the 1920 silent film by a competitor company. When you watch the transformation scene here, you will appreciate the one with John Barrymore.

For horror fans who love watching the terror staples, here is another must-see.

John Barrymore shows us all what true acting is all about! To see the heartthrob of the 20's with his dashing good looks to suddenly turn into a pretty scary looking creature was very unexpected to me! As some previous reviewers had mentioned, they say his make-up for Mr. Hyde was "laughable". NOT TO ME! You have to see this film yourself to truly understand that, back then, without all the computer-generated gimmicks we have now, this is just TRUE exceptional horror in its day! True, Mr. Barrymore relied mostly on his eyes and the evil grin to "get across his point" as Mr. Hyde, but it works!!! I first had seen this as an afterthought movie that was thrown at the end of a horror movie collection I had purchased some years ago for my VCR player. It was in terrible condition, as I assumed it would be for such an old movie, but the darkness and the graininess of the film just added to the horror of it completely! I have seen many, many versions of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde but when I saw this version, it scared me to the core! Now I understand why John Barrymore was considered a classic actor of his time. He truly fits the bill of going from one extreme to the other, and in the end, isn't that REALLY what "acting" is all about???
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED but beware.......you will be scared!

By the year 1920, there'd already been several different film versions of the classic Robert Louis Stevenson novella centered around duality. However, John Barrymore's take, directed by John S. Robertson, would become the best known silent adaptation of the tale. This was the one that put several plot devices on the map. For instance, it introduced the good girl, bad girl dichotomy that mirror Jekyll and Hyde's sense of desire for the pure and profane. It wasn't taken too far in this version but become more developed in the definitive 1931 Rouben Mammoulien version starring Fredric March. One element it did add which did not remain was a sort of Dorian Grey touch involving Jekyll's fiancee's father.

Dr. Henry Jekyll, as opposed to the fifty year old private chemist portrayed in Stevenson's original, is here reimagined as a young and idealistic philanthropist who works late hours tending to the sick in his ward. His fiancee's father, Sir George Carewe, a more worldly man, tempts him by taking him to an "not respectable" bar where eyeing the women, especially a dancer played by Nita Naldi. He is inspired by the proposition of freeing man's baser nature from his more pure one. And, with that, he concocts a very potion that unleashes Edward Hyde, here seen as a spidery and disgusting manifestation of Jekyll's lower instincts.

Hyde now indulges in all the pleasures he could not as Jekyll. However, the path of illicit pleasures soon leads to destruction as Hyde ruins the lives of whomever he comes into contact with, and eventually commits murder. Even so, Jekyll also loses control when the transformations become involuntary, and he goes to sleep as the doctor but awakens as Hyde.

Many of the adaptations depict Hyde's growing evil in various ways. Here, its particularly interesting as Hyde's evil is represented in two, but comprehensive aspects. For instance, Hyde is pictured, as previously mentioned, like a spider, with pointed albino head, and elongated fingers; literally "creeping up" on his victims. The effects of his evil are metaphorically portrayed as disease-like; contagious and infecting all of his victims. This is made more clear on the DVD essay accompanying the movie which says the film was making subtle comparisons of Hyde's evil power with syphilis, which had been a horrible disease famous in the latter part of the 19th century, and still very much so at the time the film was released. Hyde's victims appear pale and weak with dark circles under their eyes much like those infected with syphillis. Hyde even goes so far to compare one fresh faced girl of the night he plans for his own amusement, to another he's already made use of and left behind who is now worn and sickly. Jekyll himself begins displaying signs of the sickness with dark circles under his eyes. Therefore, Hyde is a spider-like ogre carrying disease and vampirically draining the life force from his victims, including Jekyll (in a famous dream montage, Hyde is pictured as a giant spider crawling on top of Jekyll and sucking the life out of him; this causes Jekyll to change to Hyde).

This is but one theme of the film, though. There is enough of the classic story for everyone to recognize. Disease metaphors aside, Hyde goes onto become quite a brutal killer. He beats one victim pretty severely with a walking stick, and stomps over a young child, both clearly echoing Hyde's brutality in the novel.

John Barrymore, though pretty over the top by today's standards, gives a bravura performance as Jekyll/Hyde, even going so far as to portray much of the first half of the transformation with no make-up. More would indeed be added later on. He would use the Hyde make-up later on in life for practical joke purposes for which he was legendary. The rest of the supporting cast is quite good, especially the fiancee's father, Sir George Carewe, played by Brandon Hurst who helps lead Jekyll down his dark "Dorian Gray" like road. And, more would be made of the good girl/bad girl staple in later films, but it clearly marks a turn in adding a sexual motivation for, and component of, Hyde's evil. The film was one of the first horror movies, and is a classic staple of the 1920's silent pictures.

1920 saw two further film versions of Jekyll & Hyde that could not have contrasted more; one polished, thoughtful and kept in period setting; the other a cheap, rushed derivative set in modern America to save money on sets and costumes. The economy class quickie was produced by Louis B. Mayer and featured Sheldon Lewis, best known as the Clutching Hand in many a movie serial such as The Perils of Pauline (1915). Sheldon's Hyde was described in the film's sub titles as "An Apostle of Hell" who begins his life of debauchery by snatching a passing lady's purse. Hyde's dastardly doings do get a little more ambitious, eventually earning him a date with the electric chair. But, as he fries, the trusty Thank-God-it-was-a-Dream cop out kicks in and Jekyll wakes up declaring "I believe in God! I have a soul..." The film closes with Jekyll safely escorting his fiancee to the opera

The audiences of 1920 could only be thankful for Paramount Pictures and their more seminal adaptation starring John Barrymore as both noble Jekyll and a very spider like Hyde. Screenwriter Clara Beranger expanded the romantic element by doubling Jekyll's sweetheart, Millicent, with a lust interest for Hyde; a sultry Italian temptress called Miss Gina whom Hyde shacks up in a Soho apartment and slowly sucks dry of all vigour - the spider and the fly. This externalisation allowed the sexual themes of the story to come more into the foreground and placed the hero between two woman who present different lures. On the one hand, there is the upper class virgin who is only sexually obtainable through the propriety of marriage. She is mirrored by the the lower class woman of easy virtue who exists in the dark underbelly of society; an area which a man like Jekyll would be seen to eschew, but in which Hyde positively revels.

The writer was also able to dispense with the customary Thank-God-it-was-a-Dream ending that afflicted previous screen outing and present Jekyll & Hyde as a real story. Beranger's revisionist structure actually owes more to The Picture of Dorian Gray than Stevenson's tale, particularly in the introduction of Jekyll's amoral mentor Sir George Carewe played by Brandon Hurst. The character of Miss Gina also owes some inspiration to Sibyl Vane, an actress who is seduced by Dorian Gray and later commits suicide. But Beranger's approach became the most well known interpretation of the Jekyll & Hyde story and also provided the model for the cinema's first sound take on the story in that followed in 1932, again courtesy of Paramount.

This Kino edition of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde with John Barrymore is the first US horror film. One of his very best. The sets are wonderful and the time period costumes make this a very realistic looking film. This Kino version is by far the best quality print (35mm) and the picture quality is excellent, not dark and sharp and clear. However, this version on Kino seems to be edited. Some scenes seem to stop short before they are finished. Perhaps some of the footage was either missing or was so deteriorated that Kino chose not to include it. I previously owned the Image version of this film, and while the picture quality is no where near the Kino version, I seem to remember that the footage that is missing on the Kino version, is on the Image version. I wonder if anyone else has noticed this. Oh well, considering that this film is over 85 years old, I am happy that a very satisfying version is now available on dvd. Thanks Kino, for a job very well done. I also appreciate the bonus materials at the end of the film. In particular the 1909 audio recording of the transformation of Dr. Jekyll to Mr. Hyde. Also the Stan Laurel spoof is nice (but not particularly funny). This is a must dvd for any collection, silent or sound.

It may be surprising to audiences with modern movie-going sensibilities, given both the absence of well-established genre conventions and the obvious limitations imposed by the absence of sound, that most of the more prominent early movies of genre interest are rather good. The 1920 version of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, directed by John S. Robertson, for example, remains a solid entry among the many film versions of Robert Louis Stevenson's classic tale, arguably only eclipsed by Rouben Mamoulian's 1932 version starring Fredric March (mainly because of the latter's unintentional comedy). John Barrymore, originating the role of the ill-fated gentleman doctor and his beastly alter ego, is on top form, overcoming the limitations of silence with some superb physical character work. Proving the adage rather early though that Hollywood only knows about four good stories, at least six more versions of the story would be filmed before the advent of sound in 1928.

I think that John Barrymore shows the best portrayl as both Dr. Jekyll and especially, Mr. Hyde. I enjoyed watching John as he did his magnificant transformations from good to evil. I was also very impressed to see that John Barrymore didn't use any makeup or cosmetic help for the first time he turned into Mr. Hyde. Instead, he messed up his hair and bulged his eyes. If you are looking for the best interpretation of the Stevenson novel, this is the one!