Runtime: 2 hr

Starring: Jack Palance, Denholm Elliott, and Leo Genn

Director: Charles Jarrott

I watched this on a Monday night.

When I say I watched this on a Monday night, I mean I fell asleep at some point and woke up with a heavy sigh of frustration.

When I woke up, I immediately went back to the movie and navigated back to the last scene I remembered so I could finish it.

Even after all of this, I remember very little about this adaptation. I know I should know who Jack Palance is. I have heard his name before, but I still have no clue what medium he is most famous for. Television? Film? Stage? Not a clue! Give me a minute.

*insert me doing a Google search*

Okay, so he has mostly appeared in film, playing villainous roles. He also won an Academy Award in 1991 for City Slickers. A movie I haven’t seen and maybe should see, I think? Now that we have that out of the way.

I don’t remember much about this film. I seem to have purged the majority of it from my mind. What I do remember, I know I didn’t like. I wasn’t a fan of the portrayal of Jekyll/Hyde. I didn’t enjoy the makeup used to transform Palance into Hyde. To my memory, there wasn’t much nuance in the performances. Normally, I am alright with “evil for evil’s sake”. You’re talking to someone who adores the Halloween franchise specifically because Michael Myers is supposed to embody evil in its purest, most concentrated form that can be housed in a human. This movie, however, didn’t work for me.

I miss Utterson.

There was a “love interest”.

There was a body count.

Palance as Hyde had the most grating laugh.

There was a will, though! I think Dr. Jekyll left me a cast of Mr. Hyde’s forehead.

With that, my friends, I have watched the main adaptations from the 1960s and look forward to what the 1970s have to offer me!

Disco and Times Square when it wasn’t Disney-fied, perhaps? Here’s hoping!

Siemelle