Runtime: 1 hr 28 min

Starring: Paul Massie, Dawn Addams, and Christopher Lee

Director: Terence Fisher

Friends! We finally stepped out of the silver screen and into Technicolor! My eyes were starved for what Technicolor could provide me, given that I watched quite a few movies in black and white since I started this journey. To be honest, I think I’ve seen more black-and-white movies this year than I have collectively watched in all my previous years. Black-and-white movies have their charm, naturally, but there is something to be said for a splash of color.

Real quick, I initially tried to watch this film on Monday night. I made an error in judgment by lying down while watching it and started drifting in and out of sleep. By the time the movie was over, I had absolutely no idea what I had watched. Not to be defeated by my body’s need to recuperate after a long Monday, I sat down (read: my head never touched a pillow, so I was able to stay conscious) on Tuesday evening and rewatched.

So, The Two Faces of Dr. Jekyll follows the story of Robert Louis Stevenson, but loosely. We still have our good doctor experimenting with things he shouldn’t, still very much trying to separate “good” from “evil”. There are some very big differences, though. In this story, Dr. Jekyll is married to Kitty (Dawn Addams), who is, in turn, having an affair with Dr. Jekyll’s “friend” Paul (Christopher Lee). Oh, don’t worry! This isn’t a spoiler. We find out right there at the beginning of the film that they are having an affair when they embrace and kiss, with Jekyll not more than 40 feet away. As with the other films, when Jekyll turns into Hyde, he does have an affair with a dancer from a club/cabaret named Maria.

However, Hyde is obsessed with Kitty. Maybe obsessed is a bit much. Hyde is the first to realize that Kitty is having an affair with Paul and sort of makes it his mission to engage with her. I should probably encourage, if you’re going to watch this, to check for your triggers because Hyde – and I’m trying to say this delicately about this very not delicate event in the film – is not nice to Kitty. If you catch what I’m trying to say. Now, assault was alluded to in a few of the other films. While the way the assault is approached is not graphic by today’s standards, it’s definitely more overt than what was presented in the other movies.

The performances were great! Christopher Lee is always a joy to watch. Dawn Addams is pretty good. Paul Massie? I’m so confused by this portrayal. Alright, first, let me say that this was the first film in which the main character wasn’t presented as transforming from a man into something “monstrous”. We start off with Dr. Jekyll. Beard. Weird haircut. His entire color palette is gray. His voice is manipulated to be deep and monotone, stuck in his intellect sort of way. On the other end of the spectrum, Hyde is presented as a man, not a monster on the outside. Clean-shaven. Neater hair. A higher-pitched voice. Still monotone, but it falls somewhere between psychotic and robotic. Hyde was, genuinely, unnerving without having to be an outward “other”.

I, honestly, don’t know what to make of this portrayal. Hyde says a few times in the film that he has no feeling. Are we psychotic or are we robotic? I don’t know! Massie’s portrayal of Hyde is much more captivating than that of Jekyll. It was good. It worked for this film.

Another thing that stood out: this was a Hammer film, so there was a body count. I guess that is to be expected, right? Hammer film. We are going into a new decade with new standards. The decade that gave us the likes of Hitchcock’s Psycho and Romero’s Night of the Living Dead. Times, they are a changin’! I expect things to gradually become more and more graphic and/or upsetting.

Oh, I can’t remember if there was a mention of the will. If there was, let’s pretend Dr. Jekyll left me the snake.

Watch the movie to understand. It’s wild.

Happy Thursday, all!

Siemelle