Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

DVD review from The Movie Snob

Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (C). This is the 1941 black-and-white version starring Spencer Tracy (Adam’s Rib) as the good doctor and the evil Hyde, and co-starring the lovely Lana Turner (The Postman Always Rings Twice) and the luminous Ingrid Bergman (Gaslight). I don’t really remember the original Robert Louis Stevenson story, but the movie is a rather slow and plodding affair. The benevolent Dr. Jekyll hits a dead end in his research and unwisely uses himself as an experimental subject. The result is the unleashing of his own inner demons, in the form of Mr. Hyde. While Jekyll’s fiancée (Turner) is away on an extended trip, Hyde takes up with—and terrorizes—a poor barmaid (Bergman). Can Jekyll put the genie back in the bottle? Of course the movie is very clean, but there is some surprisingly suggestive imagery, especially in the dreamlike sequence when Jekyll first transforms into Hyde. Anyhoo, it’s still a much better Jekyll-and-Hyde movie than the terrible Mary Reilly starring Julia Roberts and John Malkovich. Yuck!