Customer Reviews

Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

All I can say is that Redfield plays Jekyll and Hyde like no one has since Fredric March! Brilliant! The interesting spin on his version of the character(s) is that Hyde is possibly the true self and that Jekyll was always a mask. His twisted, wild eyed, dwarfish, satyr-like Hyde is truer to Stevenson's description than the hairy ape/wolf-man that people usually associate with the character. He plays Hyde with an almost comical glee, similar to March's performance. Evil can be humorous in a twisted ironic way. Script-wise it follows the original story closer than any film before it. We don't find out until toward the end that Jekyll and Hyde are the same person. But there were some surprising and unnecessary deviations from the story. For example, Sir Danvers has a son (?!) who Hyde kills instead of him (taking much of the horror away from the story as his son is almost as odious as Hyde. You're glad he gets killed), Hyde kills his mistress' lover instead of her, he reveals his secret to Dr. Lanyon's assistant instead of him, and a gun inexplicably explodes in hyde's hand maiming him (I'm still trying to figure out why this was put in the story) just to name a few. Also this film is one of the lowest budgeted modern indi films I've ever seen. The streets of London are miniatures with the actors cheaply superimposed upon them. It seems all the money went into making Mr. Hyde's excellent makeup, that they had to go and use cheap, $3.00 Halloween beards and moustache's that neither looked remotely real or even matched the actors hair color. It would have been better to leave the actors clean shaven. And Sir Danvers's snobbish son... with a modern gelled crew-cut?! Although the acting is forced at times, and downright bad at others, for the most part it's decent. Redfield's acting however is exceptional. Yes, I recommend sitting through the faker than fake beards, zero budget not-so-special fx, and bad acting just to see this guy play Jekyll & Hyde. It's truly inspired! Enough for me to give the film 4 stars. Plus it's a cheap DVD, so what do you have to lose?

Forget the film's low budget; Redfield alone makes this one well-worth the price and the time. He is a very gifted and natural actor who gives new life to Stevenson's two-sided character. The entire cast is way above average, including Elena Torrez, who is mesmerizing as Claire, Kosha Engler as Jekyll's ill-fated fiance and Carl Randolph as his friend and confidant; but it is Redfield's film and he gives us a Jekyll and Hyde we are not likely to forget. Given the mostly lame fare Hollywood is turning out these days, it's encouraging to see professionals of this caliber produce entertaining films like this one.

Like other classic horror stories, "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde" by Robert Louis Stevenson has been told in film many times. This DVD contains two of the earliest, they are both silent films, the first was made in 1911 and the second in 1920. Modern viewers will find the acting somewhat overdone and the special effects extremely primitive, yet there are lessons to be gleaned. Most notably it can be clearly seen how much the film industry improved in the nine years between the makings of these two films. The organization of the latter is superior and there is much more depth to the story, including a very surprising ending.
The film made in 1911 stars James Cruze and was an early triumph of the art of makeup as the sophisticated Dr. Jekyll had to be physically altered into the hideous Mr. Hyde. Sheldon Lewis stars in the 1920 version and this version is more of a morality play. Dr. Jekyll is depicted as an extremely dedicated physician that spends a great deal of time working with poor children, so his fall is even greater. He is depicted as spending his time at the bedside of a sick child when he could be attending social events with his girlfriend.
Stevenson wrote the original story as a tale of the evils of drug use, for it was written shortly after the time that opiates were introduced into European society. There have been reports that Stevenson himself struggled with cocaine addiction and it is an account of his experiences. In any case, it is an excellent story, in both cases it is well done, provided you give some allowance for the technical capability of the time of production.

Alpha New Cinema present "Mark Redfield's Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde" (2002)...The cinema has a long, illustrious line of some of the greatest actors who portrayed Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde on big screen (John Barrymore, Frederic March, Spencer Tracy and Jack Palance.)...and now with Mark Redfield gives them all an artistic run for the money, yes Redfield is that good...Redfield has created both a kinder, gentler Jekyll and a vicious, more brutal Hyde... unpredictable you are always trying to guess his next move, but alas he gets you everytime...take note that Redfield is suave and debonair as Jekyll, sinister and scary as Hyde, his performance in both roles is impeccable.....don't miss a single spine tingling scene.

Under director Mark Redfield, associate producers Tom Brandau and Thomas E. Cole, executive producer Terry Woods, producers Stuart Voytilla and Mark Redfield, writing credits of Mark Redfield and Stuart Voytilla, based on the Robert Louis Stevenson novel "The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde", original music Nalin Taneja, special makeup effects artist by Bob Yoho . . . . . cast includes Mark Redfield (Dr. Henry Jekyll/Edward Hyde), Elena Torrez (Claire Caine), Kosha Engler (Miriam Carew), Carl Randolph (Gabriel Utterson), Howell Roberts (Lord Ashton), R. Scott Thompson (Mordecai Carew), E. John Edmonds (Sir Danvers Carew), Jeff Miller (James Parker), J.R. Lyston (Detective Inspector Newcommen/Additional Voices), James Nalitz (Poole), Jennifer Cortese (Alberta), Josh Petroski (Henderson), Robert Leembruggen (Jack Little), Ronald Burr (Cobb), Alena Wright (Annie Jackson), Melanie Ambridge (Ashton's Patient), Nicole Stover Woods (Little Girl on Street), Brad Marshall (Dr. Humbolt), Tom Brandau (Mr. Clarkson/Additional Voices), B. Thomas Rinaldi (Bertelli), Chuck Richards (Dr. Hastie Lanyon), James Mills (Louis Lumiere), Brian Naughton (Auguste Lumiere), James Griffith (Coachman), Randolph Aitken (Williams (as Randy Aitken), Martin Thompson (Featured Player), James Laster (Featured Player), Leo King (Featured Player), Joel Mason (Featured Player), James Hackman (Featured Player), Hawkins Weber (Chaing/Additional Voices), Keith Thompson (Detective Charles Spottiswoode) . . . . . .our story opens with this statement - "More than one hundred years ago, Robert Louis Stevenson wrote a story about a man whose experiments with the human soul have since become legend. The tale is still told with horror the world over...it is the strange case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde"...our journey takes us through old London in 1900...Dr. Henry Jekyll believes that there are two distinct sides to men, a good and an evil side...also believes that by separating the two, man can become liberated...Jekyll succeeds in his experiments with chemicals to accomplish this and transforms into Hyde to commit horrendous crimes...when he discontinues use of the drug it is already too late...the entire production has an excellent cast, outstanding performances, top notch scenery and a mesmerizing score...Best Independent Film from the Festival of Fantastic Films, Best Actress Elena Torrez from the Shockerfest USA and especially that of Mark Redfield for Best Actor, his portrayal is compelling from beginning to end from the Shockerfest USA, Shriekfest Award given in recognition of Mark Redfield's work as an actor, writer, director, and producer.

BONUS FEATURES:
1. Trailers
2. Deleted Scenes
3. Audio Commentary by Director
4. "The Making of Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde".

Great job by Alpha Video for releasing "Mark Redfield's Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde" (2002)...looking forward to more releases from the vintage horror era of the '30s, '40s & '50s...order your copy now from Amazon or Alpha Video where there are plenty of copies available on DVD, stay tuned once again for original horror entertainment...just the way we like 'em

Total Time: 110 mins on DVD ~ Alpha Video 1008D ~ (8/31/2004)

this dvd contains both the rare prints of the 1911 and 1920's version with sheldon lewis in both roles!! unfountunetly,alpha video used prints so blurry and soft.that they are impossible to watch!! i have a dvd-r copy,from a grey market dealer,that is a hundred times beter looking and sharper print of of the sheldon lewis version! it can be found on [...]!! as for the 1911 version,blackhawk films has a razor sharp print of it in their library!! they sold 8mm,super8 and 16mm prints for years thru the 1960's and into the early 80's!! any of their prints would look better than this trash!! pass it up and try to find both films somewhere else!!

The story of Dr. Jekyll needs no introduction. It is one of the most famous stories ever written, timeless and universal, and can still grab your attention today. However, it should be noted that the DVD you are looking at now - the 2002 version of Robert Louis Stevenson novella directed and co-written by Mark Redfield - is closer to "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde" (1941) starring Spencer Tracy, which is virtually a remake of "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde" (1931) starring Fredric March. That means Dr. Henry Jekyll's story has become more melodramatic than the original novella, with two ladies to whom the doctor is attracted.

This is a low-budget independent film and you just cannot expect the production value of BBC dramas. (Miniature backdrops stand in for Victorian London.) But that is not a big problem as the special effect make-up and acting from the principal players are decent. Director Mark Redfield plays mild-mannered Henry Jekyll / violent Edward Hyde and his performance is very good as dual roles.

However, the rest of the film needs more improvement. The pace is too slow with each scene drawn out unnecessarily and the clumsy editing sometimes confuses the storyline. The entire film lacks character development and suspense, and two female characters Jekyll's fiancée Miriam (Kosha Engler) and Hyde's "girlfriend" Clare (Elena Torrez) are mostly bland and uninteresting. The film's reference to Jack the Ripper is understandable, but as to the Brothers Lumiere, it went too far. The film attempts to give a twist to the conclusion using their invention, but to me it looks forced and pointless.

Mark Redfield's "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde" is well-acted, but needs better pacing and a little more professional polish.

All right, already. How many versions of Stevenson's thin and spare novel do we have? Rumors tell us that even more are in the production mill. We've had John Barrymore, Frederick March, Spencer Tracy, Jack Palance (in a made-for TV production), Michael Rennie (also on TV in the early 1950s), Paul Massie for Hammer (whatever happened to him? Did he only make one film?), Anthony Perkins as another psycho, and, of course, the superb John Malkovich.

I ordered this film to show it to my Chinese postgraduate students in a British literature gothic class because it was reputed to be faithful to the original. Before this time, I had been impressed by the fact that the film MARY REILLY pretty closely followed the text -- including the little girl who is stomped in the street by Hyde, Sir Danvers Carew and his brutal murder, and the "virtuous" Mr. Poole, as Jekyll calls him. Aside from the existence of Mary Reilly herself, the characters are drawn, if considerably enlarged, from the Stevenson novel. When I showed this film to Chinese undergraduates in Ningbo, I was amazed to see two female students huddled under their desk during the showing, clutching each other and shivering. Apparently I can still be surprised by the fact that some of these students have led lives that were more sheltered than I had realized.

This version of DR. JEKYLL AND Mr. HYDE promised not only to be more loyal to Stevenson than MARY REILLY (in which Hyde is merely younger and more handsome than Jekyll, like in Hammer's THE TWO FACES OF DR. JEKYLL) but more suspenseful and frightening as well. Unfortunately, I was disappointed in that regard. My graduate students didn't notice the videotape quality of the production as much as I did, so I did not actually regret showing this version this time. Mark Redfield's performance is unquestionably the highlight of the production (I guess we can't really call it a film because of its live-TV look) and is hardly disappointing like the rest of the program. Whether or not Redfield is the equal of Frederick March, as some reviewers have claimed, is arguable. Elena Torrez -- a dark exotic beauty--is certainly pleasant to observe, more sexually exciting, I would argue, than Julia Roberts as Mary Reilly. Her appearance is certainly a welcome addition to the goings-on. However, the performances of Redfield and Torrez are not really enough to distract us from the stagey quality and low-budget effects.

The Spencer Tracy version and the John Malkovich version not only give us a peek at a bipolar character -- representing the dual nature of the Victorian male in a hypocritical society -- but an unguided tour through the squalid and dark underbelly of nineteenth century London. This Redfield version does not. We are mainly confined to the hospital rooms and mansion interiors of Jekyll's world and the bordellos of Hyde's.

As much as I can see the merits of Redfield's talents as actor and controlling producer, I think I will, next time I teach the novel, return to John Malkovich's understated performance as Jekyll and his psycho-sexual performance as the young, leering Hyde.

If I may be allowed a segue, I would like to point out that one of the reviews here on Amazon appears to have been written by an employee of Alpha Video who, he says, has done a great job of releasing this DVD. He obviously had possession of a copious amount of insider information about even the minor, minor characters and their real names and even ends his "review" with of a directive to viewers that they order, from Amazon or Alpha Video, copies of other releases of "original horror entertainment." Not only that, he seems to know that many copies are available on DVD. Interesting. Perhaps it is not dishonest to thinly disguise an advertisement as a review, but it might fall into that gray area which we could call ethically dubious.

What a pleasant, surprising deviance this turned out to be! Taking a literary classic -- not "doll-ing" it up for Hollywood -- but hittting it hard, for the sake of art and a theatrical-literary intelligence not often seen.

Simply put, we have a classic story, updated with an undercurrent of modern panache... which really turns out to be a filmed stage play, (but one in which the locations/scenes are not static, nor confined to an immediate space-time frame). The first thing that comes to mind is the stylized sets a la "The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari," which merely lends to the twisted nature of our classic Jekyll/Hyde character. And while not as fast as film, the story unfolds methodically, drawing us in deeper and deeper. I'm surprised this was never put onto British tv. in a two part mini-series; a more likely venue, rather than direct to dvd format as it seems to have happened.

Nevertheless, while there was room for the production to "grow," and become enticingly more -- on its own, it presents a nice intelligent evening at home as is. Accolades for Mark Redfield's acting, general casting of other well-done characters; writing, direction, & design (all again) also of Mr. Redfield's notable talents. One must overlook the "fake" beards, and other such things previously mentioned. Remember, we are dealing here with a "stylized" production, folks -- it's part of the show! So enjoy it for what it is. After all, if we are going for realism... we should have chosen another story.

I love low budget independent films and had high hopes for this one. But this film is static. Never mind the production value, which is very noble for its budget, but the pacing is deadly. Admittedly these folks achieve much with little, but the film fails on the most fundamental level. It's boring. The editing is glacial and the pacing stalls. It should have been 65 minutes. The best thing about the Dr. Jekyll is Mr. Hyde who isn't seen nearly enough. He had the most dramatic potential. Instead we have to suffer through dithering Baltimorean-Brits stammer through endless and tiresome exposition. It feels like a backwater stage play committed to video.

Noble efforts by everyone in the production, but a story this tired needed a kick in the pants and funky new low budget technology should have given it a fresh voice. Instead it's just a lame retread.