ALL SCI-FI

[Bud Brewster]

_______________

This videotaped two-part special is the only Jekyll/Hyde treatment to date which uses the complete title of Stevenson's original novel.

Jack Palance plays the infamous two-faced doctor. Palance's sharp and slightly demonic features presented a problem to the show's producers because Palance looks too much like Hyde, even when he's Jekyll.

Makeup man Dick Smith addressed the problem by emphasizing those aspects of Palance's face that gave it that devilish look. The result is a Mr. Hyde who looks downright satanic and Dr. Jekyll whose face gives more than a hint of the evil that lurks within.

Billie Whitlaw does quite well with the potentially thankless role of the shady lady who becomes the love-slave of the merciless Hyde.

Directed by Charles Jarrott from a script by Ian McClellan Hunter. The cast includes Torin Thatcher ("The 7th Voyage of Sinbad").
_________________
____________
Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)

[Pow]

This was an enjoyable version of DJ&MH.

I seem to recall Curtis reusing some of the music from his TV productions on other shows he produced as well.

[orzel-w]

Most productions of J&H depict Hyde as a hideous monster. Stevenson's story simply describes him as having indefinable features that people take an immediate dislike to, but can't say just why. I've been looking for the movie interpretation closest to that description.
_________________
...or not...

WayneO
-----------

[Bud Brewster]

I'm afraid you won't find one — for a very simple reason. Hyde is the poorest candidate imaginable for a movie about a man who turns into a monster. Hyde was not only completely un-monsterous when Jekyll turned into his evil alter ego, he actually lost weight and height — and he looked younger!

Jekyll had to buy smaller clothes to change into when he became Hyde, because his regular outfits became baggy and too long in the arms and legs for Hyde's smaller body.

Film makers have never liked that aspect of Hyde, so they make him as large (or larger) than Jekyll, and they give him a hideous face.

But here's an excerpt from Dr. Jekyll's own description of Mr. Hyde, in the scene where Jekyll sees his new face and body for the first time. Bear in mind that Dr. Jekyll is described as tall, robust, handsome, and a little over fifty years old. Referring to himself in third person, Dr. Jekyll says this.
______________________________________

. . . Edward Hyde was so much smaller, slighter and younger than Henry Jekyll. Even as good shone upon the countenance of the one, evil was written broadly and plainly on the face of the other.

Evil besides (which I must still believe to be the lethal side of man) had left on that body an imprint of deformity and decay. And yet when I looked upon that ugly idol in the glass, I was conscious of no repugnance, rather of a leap of welcome. This, too, was myself. It seemed natural and human.

In my eyes it bore a livelier image of the spirit, it seemed more expressive and single than the imperfect and divided countenance I had been hitherto accustomed to call mine.

And in so far I was doubtless right.

I have observed that when I wore the semblance of Edward Hyde, none could come near to me at first without a visible misgiving of the flesh. This, as I take it, was because all human beings, as we meet them, are commingled out of good and evil: and Edward Hyde, alone in the ranks of mankind, was pure evil.
__________________________________________

So, Hyde wasn't actually ugly in appearance. He just gave the impression that he was a very bad person. And he was significantly shorter and slimmer than Jekyll.

In one scene, Jekyll reverts to Hyde unexpectedly, and we get this revealing sentence.
_________________________________________

I looked down; my clothes hung formlessly on my shrunken limbs; the hand that lay on my knee was corded and hairy. I was once more Edward Hyde.
________________________________________

We're probably never going to see a version of the story in which the tall, distinguished Dr. Jekyll drinks the dreaded formula, gasps and sputters, clutches his throat . . . and turns into a runty weasel in baggy clothes.
_________________
____________
Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)

[Pow]

So true Bud. Doubtful that anyone would ever attempt to film such an unimposing version of Hyde for a film.
Audiences want a forbidding,hulking, stunning make-up for its Mr. Hyde.

Guess I do too . . . yet it would be intriguing to see some creative folks pull off such a production of Mr. Hype as described in RLS's classic book.

I think that Mrs. Rieley's film with Julia Roberts might have had a more understated Hyde than any other of the Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde films and TV shows.

[Bud Brewster]

________________________________

After re-reading the posts above, I think a version of this story which presented a shrunken, evil Mr. Hyde — played by an actor much smaller than the one cast as Dr. Jekyll — would be better than turning the good doctor into an ugly and more bulky version!

Seeing the tall, handsome, and noble Dr. Jekyll shrink down into a small, revolting version of himself would be far more disturbing! It would be similar to the same fate we all suffer as we grow older — a sad erosion of our youth and our youthful good looks.

Good people still look "good" as they age. But bad people tend to show there true nature as their faces sag and grow wrinkled with age. So, Mr. Hyde's face — despite looking somewhat younger than Dr. Jekyll's — should show his evil nature in a subtle by disturbing way.

A smaller, older actor in the role of Hyde would be easier for the makeup man to present as an evil version of the good doctor.
_________________
____________
Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)

[Bud Brewster]

__________________________________________________

Thinking Outside the "Plot"!
__________________________________________________

~ A Question for the Members: What if we inverted this concept.

~ My Theory: Here's a fun thought!

What if Dr. Jekyll was an elderly man who's disliked by practically everybody because he is cantankerous, arrogant, selfish, inconsiderate, chauvinistic bastard . . . not to mention lecherous.

Dr. Jekyll's wife passed away several years earlier. Even his grown children despise him.

But deep down, Dr. Henry Jekyll is not a happy man. He's aware of the flaws in his character and the affect it has on those around him.

To his credit, he constantly struggles to change his basic nature and be a better person. But all his efforts are doomed to failure — until he tries something new and radical.

Using his vast knowledge of medicine, chemistry, and molecular biology, Dr. Jekyll concocts a formula which is designed to radically alter both his physiology and his emotional nature. He hopes it will turn him into the gentle, sympathetic, understand man he really wants to be.

In other words, it separated the "evil" aspects of his nature from the "good" aspects — which was exactly what the original novel said that Jekyll intended to do. Only in that case the experiment went horribly wrong.

But in this case it goes exactly right!

Dr. Jekyll becomes Mr. Hyde — a youthful, charming, charismatic man who quickly wins the admiration of the people he meets. He even becomes adored by his children!

Hyde meets and woos a young woman who reminds him of Dr. Jekyll's late wife when they first met — before his own increasingly hostile personality soured their relationship and slowly eroded the poor women's spirit until it affect her health and she passed away.

But then this story takes a tragic turn of events . . .

Dr. Jekyll discovers that the effects of his formula are not permanent! He reverts back to his former state — an old man with a poisonous personality and a caustic nature which alienates all around him.

Gentlemen, I don't know where this concept should go next. I'll be sure to provide updates when they become available. Meanwhile I hope a few of our more creative members will add some ideas of their own!
_________________
____________
Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)