Product Details

• Actors: Paul Massie, Dawn Addams, Christopher Lee, David Kossoff, Norma Marla
• Directors: Terence Fisher
• Writers: Robert Louis Stevenson, Wolf Mankowitz
• Producers: Anthony Nelson Keys, Michael Carreras
• Format: Closed-captioned, Color, NTSC
• Rated: NR (Not Rated)
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: Sony Pictures
• VHS Release Date: January 29, 1997
• Run Time: 88 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• ASIN: 6303637477
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #330,077 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

Terence Fisher's take on the oft-filmed Robert Louis Stevenson tale offers a clever switch in a handsome, suave, charming Hyde, like Christopher Lee's Dracula as a seductive figure of evil. Paul Massie plays Dr. Jekyll as a distracted intellectual under a (rather phony) beard whose personality-changing drug unleashes his repressed desires and reveals a different side not just of himself, but of his hypocritical best friend. Paul (Christopher Lee) is a smiling viper who leeches off of Jekyll while carrying on an affair with his wife, and soon becomes the smooth-faced Hyde's partner in debauchery through the nightclub underworld of Victorian England. Hyde's violent streak emerges when he targets those who have wronged his weak alter ego (including a truly brutal attack upon his wife) and in his passionate affair with the exotic snake charmer he soon makes his sexual slave. Massie is neither the intense, menacing Hyde nor the tortured Jekyll the part demands; the sides of his personality are better expressed through costars Lee as Hyde's gleefully hedonistic buddy and David Kossoff as Jekyll's conservative and caring friend. Fisher revels in the debauchery of his characters (the Jekyll story often feels like an afterthought), creating an atmosphere of decadence by suggestion and flourish, but his Hyde is a cruel, cold-blooded character, a true Hammer Studios monster behind a friendly face. --Sean Axmaker

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars A disappointing Hammer Film, March 26, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Two Faces of Dr Jekyll [VHS] (VHS Tape)

I had read some good things about this early Hammer Film, but I was ultimately disappointed by it. There isn't much in the way of menace, and the story of an ugly, but good Dr. Jekyll turning into a handsome, but violent Mr. Hyde never really takes off. Most of the plot is taken up with a rather unbelievable affair between Dr. Jekyll's wife and his best friend (played by Christopher Lee). There are far better Hammer Films available. Even from the same year as this film 1960, both "The Brides of Dracula" and "The Curse of the Werewolf" are sure to strike your fancy.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars AN INTERESTING HAMMER FILM! THIS IS AVAILABLE ON DVD!, July 22, 2009

By 

! MR. KNOW IT ALL ;-b "DR SHOCK" (TRI STATE AREA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Two Faces of Dr Jekyll [VHS] (VHS Tape)

I found this on DVD as part of a four film DVD set called Icons Of Horror Hammer Films. The set includes this film `Scream Of Fear', `The Gorgon` and `The Curse Of The Mummy's Tomb'.

This film ranked third on in the lot, but there is plenty of fun to be had with the set. This film is one I saw on TV as a kid and I always liked it, even though this film deals with a more psychological fiend rather than physically ugly and menacing monster. I was impressed by the film's production, pacing and atmosphere. The DVD transfer in really nice and it includes the trailers for all four films.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Good try, fair results, December 5, 2000

By 

Mark McKinney (Maryland) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Two Faces of Dr Jekyll [VHS] (VHS Tape)

I had waited for a long time to finally see this films and I would say some of my expectaions were met and some were not. The film begins with Dr. Jekyll speaking of his theory that each person has an inner self that could be set free. He then proceeds to inject himself with a concoction that transforms him into the suave, but evil Hyde. Hyde then goes off trying everything Jekyll would not and he tries to come between the affair his wife is having with his best friend. Eventually Hyde gets more daring and Jekyll and Hyde have the unavoidable battle for the same body. I give credit to Hammer foa different approach, but it never really covers any different ground that is explored in any other Jekyll-Hyde movie. There are no new revelations or solutions just a different kind of Hyde with the same results. He may be more dangerous than the typical beastly Hyde because he is much more cunning, but we never really get any sense of that by the film's end. Usually Jekyll is a brilliant scientist who goes step too far with his curiosity, but this Jekyll seems like a dull and lonely man who is just unhappy with his life and he would never have the stregnth of character to win out over a dark half. The film does hit more than it misses, but I think it could have been a bit stronger in the story department. Paul Masse is hot and cold, he handles the Hyde part fairly well, but Jekyll seems fairly unbelievable and the transforamtions are just fair. Christopher Lee contributes one of the best roles he ever had for Hammer, it is a shame he didn't get more of the sharp dialogue he recieved here, he handles it beautifully. Dawn Addams is fairly good as Jekyll's wife, I always thought Hammer's leading ladies in the late 50's and very early 60's were worlds above most of the actresses they used later on. The source print used here looks washed out, it is faded in the bright parts and too dark in other places. This is a shame because I am sure this film once had the same vibrant color of other Hammer made at the same time. Still this film is worth seeing.