‘Will we ever know who we really are?‘
It was inevitable, of course, that Hammer Film Productions would eventually adapt the classic Robert Louis Stevenson novel, Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde. It is perhaps also inevitable that their version of the much-loved tale would be more sexual and salacious than any of the previous versions. What wasn’t inevitable, however, is that it would be a pretty forgettable entry in the Hammer horror canon…
We all know the plot by now. Here, Paul Massie plays our eponymous duo, unfortunately sporting a ridiculous fake beard coupled with a soft, effeminate voice when portraying Jekyll. Dawn Addams plays his unfaithful wife, Kitty. More interesting is the performance of Christopher Lee, who is typically excellent as the villainous cad, Paul Allen.
While I enjoyed how theatrical and over-the-top this version of the story is, it suffers from the fact that Lee is a much more convincing villain than the actual villain in the story. Massie’s Hyde is enjoyably cruel and unhinged, but he’s never really menacing in the same way that Lee can be. The film also lacks the kind of transformation scene that made the Paramount version of 1931 perhaps more interesting as a relic of film history than this film is.
The Two Faces of Dr. Jekyll is a competent and mostly enjoyable retread of a familiar tale, but it certainly doesn’t sit in the upper echelons of the Hammer horror oeuvre.
