Dr Jekyll And Mr Hyde (Rouben Mamoulian, 1931)

Welcome to Mr Hyde's Guide to Being a Bloody Nice Bloke.

What's it about? Dr Jekyll is a fine upstanding fellow, just as long as he doesn't drink any of that potion he invented...

Is it any good? A fine adaptation, capturing the disturbing nature of Robert Louis Stevenson's novella and, for it's time, remarkably frank in its examination of sexual desires. Technically impressive and particularly effective in its use of subjective POV shots which are now a staple ingredient of horror films. The key transformation scene is still convincing, whilst Frederic March's skilful Oscar-winning performance allows us to overlook Mr Hyde's unfortunate comedy teeth.

Anything else I should know? I'm no judge of numbers, but I'd say there's about 8 million film versions of this story*. I've seen them all**, and this one is the best.
*May not be exactly true. ** Nor this.

What does the Fonz think? One of the key films in horror cinema. Catch it if you can.






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