One of the TCM programming features this month that I didn't discuss before was one looking at the way Hollywood treated themes before and after the introduction of the Production Code in July 1934. Every Monday evening they've been having blocks of movies with pairs of thematically similar films. Tonight (July 22), that includes the two famous sound versions of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde: first, the 1932 Fredric March version at 11:30 PM, followed at 1:15 AM by the 1941 Spencer Tracy version. Not airing, as it doesn't fit the programming theme, is the 1920 silent version of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, starring John Barrymore as Robert Louis Stevenson's doomed scientist/doctor. But I had that one on my DVR, so I watched it to be able to review it in conjunction with the airing of the other two versions.
The only bad thing about trying to do a synopsis of a movie like this is that it's based on a work where pretty much everybody knows the basic story, or at least thinks they know the basic story. (I've seen the two sound versions before, but it's been years.) One thing I didn't know is that the movies are actually generally based on a stage adaptation, which has some significant differences from Stevenson's original book. But the basic plot is there.
John Barrymore, as I mentioned, plays Dr. Jekyll, who at the beginning of the movie is a paragon of virtue, working as a doctor and spending a considerable amount of time doing charitable work among the poor people of 1880s London. Jekyll has a belief that every man has within him two natures, one good and one evil. He's thinking that it would be a wonderful thing for mankind if a way could be figured out to split those two natures, such that we could cast out the evil nature and leave ourselves with the good one, although frankly to me a world in which we're incapable of having wrongthought sounds horrifying.
Dr. Lanyon, one of Jekyll's colleagues, doesn't agree with Jekyll, who decides he's going to go and do some research to come up with that way to split the natures. He also tells his friend Sir George Carewe about it. Sir George is also the father of Millicent, who is in love with Dr. Jekyll, just like in all the later versions. Like Lanyon, Sir George doesn't believe any of this is possible.
Of course, in Stevenson's world, all of this is in fact possible, as we wouldn't have a movie otherwise -- or, at least, we'd get a lot of slow space like in Madame Curie before the Curies figure out what radium is. Jekyll experiments, and eventually comes up with a potion that he tries on himself, because it would be unethical to try on anybody else. The potion actually works, turning Jekyll into what he calls Mr. Hyde, and also dramtically changing Jekyll's physical appearance. Hyde, however, keeps coming back, and Hyde's violent nature causes all sorts of problems.
This version of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, being from 1920, has some advantages and disadvantages that are a result of being that old. Technically, they couldn't do as much with effects in 1920 as they'd be able to do in later decades. Barrymore has to show the transition as much if not more with acting than make up compared to the later Jekylls, and unsurprisingly, Barrymore is able to pull this off. A positive is that in 1920, and especially with a stage actor like John Barrymore, there wasn't quite as much need for the studio to protect an actor's image. So the movie can go farther with Barrymore and his descent into monstrosity, which is a big plus for a story like this.
One minor negative is the score on the print TCM ran, which to me is quite intrusive and doesn't really work. I suppose you could always turn the sound down since there's no spoken dialogue, or look for another print on your favorite video site, since the movie is in the public domain. Note, however, that various prints have had different running times.
No comments:
Post a Comment