Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1931 film)
- For the 1912 film version, see Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1912 film). For the 1920 version starring John Barrymore, see Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1920 film). For the 1920 version directed by J. Charles Haydon, see Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1920/II film). For the 1941 MGM version, see Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1941 film).
| Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde | |
|---|---|
 Theatrical Poster |
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| Directed by | Rouben Mamoulian |
| Produced by | Rouben Mamoulian |
| Written by | Robert Louis Stevenson (novel) Samuel Hoffenstein Percy Heath |
| Starring | Fredric March Miriam Hopkins Rose Hobart |
| Music by | Herman Hand |
| Cinematography | Karl Struss |
| Editing by | William Shea |
| Distributed by | Paramount Pictures |
| Release date(s) | December 31, 1931 |
| Running time | 98 minutes |
| Country |  United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $1,140,000 |
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1931) is a horror film directed by Rouben Mamoulian.[1] and starring Fredric March. The film is an adaptation of The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde (1886), the Robert Louis Stevenson tale of a man who takes a potion which turns him from a mild-mannered man of science into a crude homicidal maniac.
It is also said that the movie had inspired the 1970s song "You Can Run" by A Flock of Seagulls.[citation needed]
Contents |
Plot
The film tells of Dr. Jekyll (Fredric March), a kind doctor who experiments with drugs because he's certain that within each man lurks impulses for both good and evil.
Dr. Jekyll develops a drug to release the evil side in himself, becoming the hard drinking, woman-chasing Mr. Hyde. Jekyll quickly becomes addicted to the formula, and unable to control the violent and unstable Mr. Hyde.
Background
The film, made prior to the full enforcement of the Production Code, is remembered today for its strong sexual content, embodied mostly in the character of the prostitute, Ivy, played by Miriam Hopkins. When the film was rereleased in 1936, the Code required 8 minutes to be removed before the film could be distributed to theaters. This footage was restored for the VHS and DVD releases.[2]
The secret of the astonishing transformation scenes was not revealed for decades (Mamoulian himself revealed it in a volume of interviews with Hollywood directors published under the title The Celluloid Muse). A series of colored filters matching the make-up was used, enabling the make-up applied in contrasting colors, to be gradually exposed or made invisible. The change in color was not visible on the black-and-white film.
Wally Westmore's make-up for Hyde, simian and hairy with tusks influenced greatly the popular image of Hyde in media and comic books; in part this reflected the novella's implication of Hyde as embodying repressed evil and hence being semi-evolved or simian in appearance. The American Classics Illustrated edition of Jekyll and Hyde clearly based its design of Hyde on the Fredric March movie, although it is more toned down. The characters of Muriel Carew and Gen. Carew do not appear in Stevenson's original story but in the 1887 stage version by playwright Thomas Russell Sullivan.
Cast
- Fredric March as Dr. Henry Jekyll / Mr. Edward Hyde
- Miriam Hopkins as Ivy Pearson
- Rose Hobart as Muriel Carew
- Holmes Herbert as Dr. Lanyon
- Halliwell Hobbes as Brig. Gen. Danvers Carew
- Edgar Norton as Poole, Jekyll's butler
- Tempe Pigott as Mrs. Hawkins, Ivy's landlady
History and Ownership
When MGM remade the film 10 years later with Spencer Tracy in the lead, the studio destroyed every print of the Mamoulian version that it could locate and most of the film was believed lost for decades. Ironically, the Tracy version was much less well received and March jokingly sent Tracy a telegram thanking him for the greatest boost to his reputation of his entire career.
Unlike most sound features produced by Paramount Pictures prior to 1950, this film is not owned by Universal Studios. Instead, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer bought the rights when they did their own film adaptation of the story. The film passed on to Turner Entertainment after Ted Turner's short-lived acquisition of MGM, and then to Warner Bros. when Time Warner bought out Turner. Since then, Warner Home Video has released this film on DVD as a double feature with the 1941 version.
Awards
Wins
- Academy Awards: Oscar; Best Actor in a Leading Role, Fredric March; tied with Wallace Beery for The Champ; 1932.
- Venice Film Festival: Audience Referendum; Most Favorite Actor, Fredric March; Most Original Fantasy Story, Rouben Mamoulian; 1932.
Nominations
- Academy Awards: Oscar; Best Cinematography, Karl Struss; Best Adaptation Writing, Percy Heath and Samuel Hoffenstein; 1932.
Footnotes
External links
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