Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
1920 Directed by John S. Robertson, Shaw Lovett
Synopsis
The world's greatest actor in a tremendous story of man at his best and worst!
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde is a 1920 horror silent film based upon Robert Louis Stevenson's novella The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde and starring actor John Barrymore.
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Perhaps my favorite rendition of the story I've seen thus far. It's never less than entertaining, and director John S. Robertson has a clear and unflashy sense of composition that I really admired. Barrymore (and, it should be noted, Barrymore's makeup as Hyde, which has one of the most striking silent monster designs I've seen this side of Lon Chaney) is pretty great in here, with a touch of theatricality that works wonderfully.
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john barrymore is so handsome
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Perfectly adequate silent horror film. John Barrymore is quite good as Hyde.
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Intriguing execution, indeed, splendid one, both for performances and special effects considering the technology of that time.
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John Barrymore is practically the whole film, he plays Hyde so remarkably that even Lon Chaney couldn't have done it better (of course Chaney couldn't really have played Jekyll) Barrymore's performance is so over the top and is set against the rest of the cast who all underplay their parts that when he does become Hyde the effect is truly shocking.
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John Barrymore's Ghastly Ghost Tarantula! Coming soon to a bed below you!
Yes: that sequence is the stuff dreams (nightmares) are made of. Skeletal strings plucking and the visage of Mr. Hyde meshing into an ever-more vulnerable Dr. Jekyll—it's the most creative and horrific image in the entire movie. Little moments like this don't just advance the plot by visualizing what's going on in the mind of a character. The very idea of Mr. Hyde invading an innocent's psyche in the form of a ghost tarantula speaks to the same part of the brain that artists like Hieronymous Bosch did with anthropomorphic monstrosities. Social scientific malaise is, to the characters in this story, as gruesome as the decadent swoop of…
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"Great silent version of Stevenson's novella."
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From my DVD Talk forum remarks:
forum.dvdtalk.com/10433649-post619.htmlJohn Barrymore is perfect in both roles; his Jekyll is perfectly dull and his Hyde seethes with unseemliness. The rest of the cast is clearly overshadowed, and it's always hard to criticize silent film acting anyway. I was surprised to hear sound effects and even some crowd noise; were these part of the original film, or have they been added after the fact? They were startling at times, distracting at others.
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Perhaps my favorite rendition of the story I've seen thus far. It's never less than entertaining, and director John S. Robertson has a clear and unflashy sense of composition that I really admired. Barrymore (and, it should be noted, Barrymore's makeup as Hyde, which has one of the most striking silent monster designs I've seen this side of Lon Chaney) is pretty great in here, with a touch of theatricality that works wonderfully.
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It took me about 6 sittings to get through this. I just kept falling asleep. It is mostly people just standing around and talking with the occasional film card to express some dialogue. The Hyde Make-Up and transformations are interesting. Hyde here is quite greasy and unpleasant with oddly long fingers and horse teeth. I did like the struggle of duality with one's nature here. Are you good or are you bad? Or maybe some of both?