Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1931)

Paramount Pictures
Director: Rouben Mamoulian
Starring: Fredric March, Miriam Hopkins, Rose Hobart

Honors:

Academy Award for Best Actor

Hollywood has had the ability to rehash the same stories throughout its young history. Certain tales stick with people and continue to intrigue them, leading to several revisits and re-imaginings of the same characters and scenarios on multiple occasions. Perhaps one of early stories most revisited would be the adaptation of Robert Louis Stevenson's Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. It is the classic journey into the psyche of a man, the a separation of good and bad, split personalities, and the giving into evil instincts. It would be a thought-provoking and horrifying idea about one's loss of control that drove producers, studios, filmmakers, and audiences back several times to theaters a multitude of times in those early decades to see this same tale. In this case Paramount's 1931 version, just eleven years after the successful silent version, the studio would re-imagine the story of the doctor that unlocks the door into his evil side, producing what may be the most popular version of this dark story.

1931's Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde follows the well respected Dr. Jekyll (Fredric March) who after a great time of theory unlocks the secrets of ones inner evil half with a special concoction, unleashing an impulsive, abusive, and addictive beast of a man whose deeds of evil and murder fatally ends his life. The story is more adapted from a stage version of the tale which expands the universe surrounding the character of Jekyll/Hyde from the original novella. Jekyll, the professor/doctor/scientist, is a kindhearted man that helps the unfortunate and sick, while passing great knowledge to young students. Although the doctor does have struggles with temptations and how his peers view what giving in to those temptations would do to him. Through science he is able to release his pent up "evil" side which transforms him physically as well as psychologically into a being he would name Hdye. In time Jekyll becomes addicted to the Hyde concoction creating troubles in his life. His fiancée Muriel (Rose Hobart) notices how distant he is becoming, while Hyde shares an abusive relationship with prostitute named Ivy (Miriam Hopkins), a woman who once tempted him as Jekyll. Where Hyde goes trouble follows ending in the murder of Ivy and the eventual hunt and death of Hyde by police gunfire, where it is revealed that Hyde was in fact the great Dr. Jekyll, leaving many puzzled and broken by the truth.

This version of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde proves to be a much more action packed film than many other early adaptations. The character of Hyde comes off more as pure evil. Nothing about him is good, appearance, action, or otherwise. He is never a seductive individual to anyone in the picture, but rather is a forceful brute of a man. March's action as Hyde has him jumping unto and from many objects and beating people to get his way and allude the authorities. He jumps down stairs, swings from balconies, hangs and falls from shelves, all to sell the idea that he is less of a man and more of a beast. In fact the make-up applied to March, based mainly off of illustrations and comic books of the tale, was Hyde as more ape-like in appearance. With a sloped back head, fur on his face and arms, extended brow, widened nostrils, and fangs, Hyde is more creature than man. He has the animal instincts of a simian instead of a civilized man, taking and doing what he wants. And playing Hyde as such a destructive character, one that Jekyll cannot control, makes this picture a classic horror film of its time.

Before the Hays Code that would censor Hollywood films, the issue of sex was a fine line that would test the filmmakers with what to present the viewing public. This picture has a great deal of sexual nature to it, compared to the greater number of films of its day, based mainly around the prostitute character Ivy played by Miriam Hopkins. The amount of skin displayed by Hopkins was quite a great amount for this time, revealing much of he legs as she undresses, using them as a seductive symbol, revealing her full naked back, the wearing very low cut tops, and nearly revealing other body parts makes a couple of scenes a near peep show for audiences. It does serve the story, but when the film was attempted to be re-issued in 1936, after the Hays Code was put into effect, nearly eight minutes of Hopkins' time on screen was cut, labeled as indecent. This manifests how censorship was more sensitive to sexuality than violence as Hyde is still a brutal killer. All in all Hopkins gives a good performance as tempting yet frightened character Ivy.

The most profound aspect that stands out in this film is the transformation scenes. Some of it is very crude with simple cross fades with March in different levels of make-up, usually scene when Hyde is receding back to Jekyll. That is far inferior to the shots of Jekyll transforming to Hyde, where right before your eyes Jekyll's face goes through massive changes with no fades or cuts. Areas on his face contort and hands darken and appear to transform, sending me into a fit of "how did they do that?" It was done through a mix of camera, lighting, and make-up trickery. The artists applied make-up that would not show up on black and white film until certain color filters were applied to a shot, revealing different shades of make-upthat appear from nowhere on screen. It is very impressive  as March contorts his face, bringing out a transformation that superior to anything seen before in a Jekyll/Hyde movie.

The cinematography was played with in this picture as well. The first several minutes of the film are shot in first person perspective of Dr. Jekyll. It uses some intelligent camera and set trickery as the camera stares into a "mirror" as we see Jekyll looking at himself and even talks to other characters. Just when you think the entire picture will be this way the films turns to a more traditional style for the remainder of the film. The picture also uses well planned wipes and fades, clearly manifesting how director Rouben Mamoulian planned much of his film before the editing room. The cinematography would be honored for its work at the Oscars with a nomination.

The film was a success for the Paramount as the first talking version of this story, especially after the John Barrymore version released in 1920. Fredric March's acting would garner himself an Academy Award for best actor (a tie with The Champ's Wallace Beery) after Barrymore past on reprising the role due to his large asking price. The picture would also be nominated for its cinematography and adapted writing that year, completing its success for Paramount. The film would be later bought by rival MGM in order for MGM to remove the 1931 version from public viewing and the release of their own version in 1941. MGM's 1941 film was far less well received, which added prestige to this 1931 version.

Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde would be remade several more times through the years with this version perhaps being its most well known. But this shows how one story gets entrenched in the minds of people that make us want to revisit it over and over, and how filmmakers keep grasping onto the tried and true classic story. Despite the fantastic tale that is Jekyll/Hyde, it has become part of our lexicon, as things or people have a "Jekyll and Hyde effect." The story has been done over and over in other mediums, most commonly in animated cartoons, whom just about everyone from the 1940s to now have seen, starting with some of the Warner Bros. classics starring the likes of Bugs Bunny. This is yet another movie that most know about, but have never seen first hand, lending to the legend of how a story takes a life of its own, permeating the masses of moviegoers that may have never seen a frame of its footage.