It's weird that they remade this film just 10 years after the original and this isn't nearly as impressive, but it still pretty good mainly because of a fantastic dual performance from Spencer Tracy.

I can't think of a greater example of the director-for-hire nature of the old studio system than Victor Fleming following up The Wizard of Oz and Gone With the Wind (though he was one of a handful of directors on both films) with this sturdy, modestly scaled remake of the Frederic March version of Robert Louis Stevenson's story, which was only a decade old at the time. It's an entertaining, well-acted version of the story, though it's never really as gripping or creepy as it could be. The most interesting aspect is probably the blonde/brunette dichotomy of Dr. Jekyll's fiancee (Lana Turner) and Mr. Hyde's side candy (Ingrid Bergman). Any Lynchian "Madonna/whore complex" reading of the film, though, probably has more to do with how tired I was when I watched it than anything Fleming or Stevenson intended.

http://thegreatkh.blogspot.co.uk/2012/10/spencer-tracy-tcms-october-star-of-month.html

Man, I haven't seen a G-rated movie with this much psycho-sexual subtext since THE GREAT MUPPET CAPER.

I can't think of a greater example of the director-for-hire nature of the old studio system than Victor Fleming following up The Wizard of Oz and Gone With the Wind (though he was one of a handful of directors on both films) with this sturdy, modestly scaled remake of the Frederic March version of Robert Louis Stevenson's story, which was only a decade old at the time. It's an entertaining, well-acted version of the story, though it's never really as gripping or creepy as it could be. The most interesting aspect is probably the blonde/brunette dichotomy of Dr. Jekyll's fiancee (Lana Turner) and Mr. Hyde's side candy (Ingrid Bergman). Any Lynchian "Madonna/whore complex" reading of the film, though, probably has more to do with how tired I was when I watched it than anything Fleming or Stevenson intended.

An interesting movie version of this classic story. Spencer Tracy is always good, I like his Mr. Hyde a lot in this. Lana Turner was OK, but there wasn't a lot for her to do. Ingrid Bergman was great, she made you really care about her character. The only weak point was the transformation. It was a series of dissolves, but it took too long, and they didn't bother to line up the face from step to step. The did do a better transformation near the end, but none of them were great. Still a pretty good version of this story.

It's weird that they remade this film just 10 years after the original and this isn't nearly as impressive, but it still pretty good mainly because of a fantastic dual performance from Spencer Tracy.