Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

There are two odd movies of the early 1970s which feature a two-headed man. Neither are especially serious films, but both are the spawn of a 1959 japanese-american film, The Manster. That film was serious and featured a two headed man-monster. Before looking at Manster, it will be valuable to look at a kindred source: Paramount's 1931 sci-fi/horror hybrid, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (DJMH). Just look at the poster (left). Jekyll and Hyde are portrayed as if a two headed man. The 1931 film dealt with the dual nature of man, good and evil. Manster would explore this same ground but with two heads, and finally, two separate beings -- one good, the other evil. The 70s films would pick up this polar-opposites trope with their two heads. Paramounts' 1931 film is often considered the best of many adaptations of Robert Lewis Stevenson's novel.

Quick Plot Synopsis
Dr. Jekyll delivers a lecture in which he posits the ability to separate the "bad" within a man's soul, from the "good," so that mankind might advance further. Some scoff. Jekyll works in a poor ward, which makes him late for dinner with his fiancee, Muriel and her father. They dance. He wants to move up their wedding date. Her father refuses. While Jekyll and his friend Dr. Lanyon walk, Jekyll interrupts a man abusing a woman. He carries her up to her flat. Ivy, a prostitute, sensing a sugar daddy, turns on the flirts. Later, in his lab, Jekyll works on a formula. He drinks it and after much convulsion, turns into the simian-like Hyde. He turns himself back into Jekyll. Muriel won't marry without her father's consent (and about to go on a long vacation). Frustrated (and a pot metaphorically boiling over in his lab), Jekyll decides to vent his demons as Hyde. He looks up Ivy, but she's not home. He finds her at the bar as a singer. He has her brought to his table. Thus begins his dominance of her. "You belong to me." Upon finding out that Muriel and her father return soon, Jekyll resumes his mild persona. Muriel persuades her father to let them marry in a month. Jekyll, happy at 'getting some' soon, has no more need for Hyde. He sends Ivy 50 pounds to compensate for his abuses as Hyde. Ivy shows up later, saying she can't accept the money because if Hyde found out, he'd kill her. Jekyll promises that Hyde is gone for good. But, Jekyll turns into Hyde without drinking the formula. Hyde goes to Ivy's flat and kills her for her insubordination. Once again as Jekyll, he decides, as a murderer, he cannot marry Muriel. He "sets her free." Many tears. Jekyll leaves, but turns into Hyde outside. He returns to ravage Muriel. Her father and butler fight him off, but Hyde beats the father to death with his cane. Lanyon tells the police who the killer is (Jekyll). A man hunt and chase ensues. Hyde eludes them and returns to Jekyll's lab. He mixes up the antidote and almost fools the police, but Lanyon knows the truth. Jekyll turns into Hyde before their eyes. After an indoor chase and fight, a policeman shoots Hyde dead. In death, he returns to Jekyll form. The End.

Why is this movie fun?
Fredric Marsh gives an amazing performance as both Jekyll and Hyde. The pacing is great. The camera work is a joy to watch all by itself. Director Rouben Mamoulian uses so many camera effects that DJMH is almost always visually rich.

Cultural Connection
Stevenson's novel had been adapted into many stage plays before the advent of movies. Even those early plays deviated from the novel, adding the fiancee character, etc. The early silent film adaptations were themselves adaptations of the plays more than the book. Paramount's version in 1931 was yet another variation on the themes of the prior plays. MGM bought the rights to film and remade it in 1941 with Spencer Tracy. It lacked the power of Paramount's film. Many other variations and spin-offs would follow in the 50s, 60s, 70s and beyond. Stevenson's Dr. Jekyll is story with very long "legs."

Notes
Based on the Book -- Robert Lewis Stevenson's 1886 novel contained many of the same elements, but told in a different order. At the outset of the story, Hyde is already afoot. HIs connection to Jekyll comes known later. There was no fiancee or love interest. Those came from the Sullivan stage adaptation of 1887. Some elements persisted, such as Lanyon watching Hyde metamorphose and the paying reparations for Hyde's harm to a child (in the 1931 film, the 50 pounds to Ivy) and the beating death (with a cane, which breaks) of a man named Carew. The bar girl character was not in the book, but in the earlier movie versions.

Noble Man vs. Simian Savage -- The exaggeratedly "good" Jekyll did not change much from version to version -- the proper gentleman and charitable altruist. Hyde had always been the ugly, brutish "bad" counterpart. But in Mamoulian's 1931 version, he was given a decidedly ape-like appearance. This is an early example of the populist trope that pre-civilized man was an ape. The trope would underpin the two-headed man story, Manster ('62). Recall, too, the Governor's apologia to Caesar in Conquest of the Planet of the Apes ('72), that inside every man there lurked his inner beast, an ape. The various ape-man movies of the 40s took up this trope.

Skin of Evil -- Early in the film, Jekyll posits in his lecture about the possibility of mankind separating his good from his evil and thereby freeing his "good" half from his "bad" so that he might attain great things. As an example of the long reach that Stevenson's novel has, consider the Star Trek (Next Generation) episode entitled, "Skin of Evil." A race of beings manages to do just as Jekyll theorized. They distilled out all their badness, then left it behind on their planet. The badness then coalesced into a single tar-like being named Armus -- a more sci-fi manifestation of Hyde.

Sexual Powder keg -- DJMH plays up the post-Victorians notion that "sexual repression" was the root of much evil. Jekyll acts almost frantic about having to wait even a few months for his marriage to Muriel -- as if desperately hot to trot. Marriage as, essentially, a "proper" venue for sex. When frustrated at the lack of quick fulfillment, Poole suggests that Jekyll "amuse himself" in London. (ahem) Jekyll meets Ivy, a hooker, who coyly tempts him with a private striptease while she gets ready for bed. He did not avert his eyes. Hyde quips that "proper" gentlemen are hypocrites. "who like your legs, but talk about your garters." Hyde boasts that he "is the very flower of a man." Hyde goes on to possess Ivy in an almost hostage sex-slave relationship. Much of his abuse is physical or verbal, but usually takes place on or around her bed. Rape is often suggested. DJMH portray's man as a sexual powder keg about to explode, as if a bit more free sex would make mankind better. (A few decades of the "free love" era have not show mankind improved. Perhaps a shortage of sex was not really our problem.)
Good Girl / Bad Girl -- A common morality trope is to have a "good" girl contrasted by a "bad" girl: Muriel is the good. Chaste, devoted, modest. Ivy is her opposite: a prostitute, manipulative and "easy." As per usual for the trope, Muriel suffers, but survives. Ivy suffers and is killed by the immorality she lived by.

Bottom line? DJMH is a classic that's not to be missed. There is a lot to like in this film. The camera work and directing are almost a parallel plane to enjoy. It is stronger on the horror half of the hybrid, but about the same as Frankenstein did. Watching DJMH is a good foundation for later good-and-evil duality movies to come.

Frankenstein (1931)

Universal Studios made themselves famous for "horror" films in the 1930s. Following the success of their Dracula, starring Bela Lugosi, Universal put out a variation on Mary Shelley's story that would become hugely influential for decades. Universal's Frankenstein. Much has already been written about this film, so this review will not attempt to cover everything. James Whale's Frankenstein was a hybrid -- partly a horror movie, but also partly a sci-fi movie. The goal of FrankenFEST is to explore the science fiction aspects of the many Frankenstein films. Some have more "science". Some are more "horror". Some are just silly.

Quick Plot Synopsis
Henry Frankenstein and his hunchback assistant Fritz dig up a recently buried body and take down a hanged man. Henry still needs an undamaged brain, so Fritz sneaks into a medical college to steal one. He drops the first brain-in-a-jar, so takes the second, labeled "abnormal brain." Henry has his creature assembled on a table and awaits the storm's peak for the jolt to infuse life. Just then, his fiancee, Elizabeth, friend Victor and former teacher, Professor Waldman, come knocking at the door of Henry's spooky tower. Reluctantly, he lets them in. Baited by Victor's accusation that Henry is crazy, Henry shows them his experiment. The storm peaks and the creature moves. "It's Alive!" Waldman stays to help. Victor and Elizabeth express worry to Henry's dad, Baron Frankenstein. Meanwhile, Henry shows off his creature to Waldman. It needs time to mature. However, Fritz taunts it with fire, sending the creature into a rage. It murders Fritz. It beats up Henry before Waldman injects it with anesthetic. Victor, Elizabeth and the Baron arrive and take the sick and battered Henry back to the village. Waldman stays to get rid of the monster. Before he can, the anesthetic wears off. The monster kills Waldman and escapes. In the village, all is festive, music and dancing for the wedding. Elizabeth is troubled with premonitions of doom. The monster comes across a little girl who wants a playmate. She tosses flowers in the lake to watch them float. When she's out of flowers, the monster tosses her in to float. She doesn't. The monster is upset and flees. He goes into the village and sneaks into Elizabeth's bedroom. Before he can do anything, her screams bring everyone running. He escapes unseen. Maria's father brings her dead body into town. The Burgomeister organizes three search parties to find the killer. Henry leads the mountain group. The monster finds Henry alone, knocks him out and carries him away. The mob see this and purse them to a windmill. The monster throws Henry from the upper railing, but he catches on a windmill blade, so doesn't die. The mob burn down the windmill. Henry recovers with Elizabeth's doting. The baron makes a toast to a future "son of Frankenstein." The End

Sci-fi Connection
The "science" in Whale's Frankenstein is mostly medical or biological. Waldman describes Henry's work as being in "chemical galvanism" and "electro-biology." Henry himself describes the key being "rays" beyond violet in the spectrum. This "Life Ray" is apparently available in electricity. Much of Henry's lab is filled with large things that spark or arc. Electricity is, in this pre-atomic world, the magical stuff that can do wonders. Compare Henry's lab and creation with Rotwang's in Metropolis ('27). The motif of the mad scientist's lab being stocked with sparky things dates back to this era.

Compared to the Novel
The main characters are retained, although the names of Henry and Victor are swapped, for some reason. Universal's screenplay was more of an adaptation of a stage play written by Peggy Webling in 1927. Her successful play had to do something similar to Edison's screenplay, in paring the story down to some basic elements. Whale's film focused more on the hubris of unfettered "science" than on the philosophical elements of creator-creature obligations. The hubris of the "mad" scientist, as a plot trope, would endure many decades into future films.

Saga Connection
This is the film that begins the famous franchise that will run from the 1930s, through the 1970s and beyond. It is the first of many chapters.

Notes
Iconic Monster -- The famous monster was a combination of make-up specialist Jack Pierce (who created the flat-top head and bolts on the neck) and the characterization given by actor Boris Karloff. Their "monster" was too captivating to the public imagination, too iconic to ever really die -- as we shall see -- that he would reappear in many later films. Little children would dress up as the monster for halloween. Parodies and spin-offs would key off the Pierce-Karloff monster.

Lasting Expressions -- Much of the look of the film stems from the artistic style of German Expressionism. This style is a whole topic unto itself. The stark light and dark, the use of up-lighting, the asymmetry and odd angles all enhance the feeling of instability. Nothing is soft. Nothing is "quite right." Contrast Henry's tower with the village sets. They're all normal enough, and almost Disney quaint. The normal world vs. HIS world: dark, unstable and "off". The artistic style of German Expressionism would not remain popular beyond WWII, but its visuals in association with the mad scientist's lab would endure far beyond.

What's Your Name? -- Far back into the 1800s, probably not long after Shelley penned her story, people would often confuse the monster and the man. The monster, in both the novel and the 1931 movie, had no name. He was, like the novel, called only, "my creation", "the monster" or "the fiend." It was Henry who carried the family name of Frankenstein. Yet, to the public imagination, such a strong character as the monster simply could not go nameless. He was often referred to as "Frankenstein" as if that were his name. That's not the case, but it has been a common enough mistake that it has stuck. The monster is more famous than the man.The more famous character gets the name. After all, children do not dress up as Henry (or Victor) Frankenstein.

Artistic Touches -- Aside from the many Expressionist visuals, there is one scene which, though brief, is an interesting

inclusion of a famous painting. When the monster accosts Elizabeth in her room, just as he sneaks out, and the others burst in, note Elizabeth's position on the bed. This very brief moment is also captured on the poster art (see above). This seems an unmistakeable visual reference to Henry Fuseli's famous 1791 painting: "Nightmare" (shown here). Maybe this something that only art history majors might enjoy, but it was an interesting bit for Whale to include.

Mixed With Vampires -- A curious note, is how much Frankenstein as a story had become intertwined with the classic vampire story: Dracula. For one, Universal released them both in 1931. Beyond proximity, Universal had originally cast Bela Lugosi as the monster, but he declined the part. Lugosi would, however, end up playing the monster in a few later iterations. As well, Webling's play, which served as source material, also followed a successful Dracula production by the same star. The two characters sprang from very different literary roots and told very different cautionary tales, yet, they would become paired in the popular imagination, as if they were somehow brothers.

Bottom line? Universal's 1931 Frankenstein is a movie classic that is not to be missed. It is a well-told and well-paced story, but more importunely, it is foundational to almost all the Frankenstein films to come.