ALL SCI-FI

[Bud Brewster]

If you're not a member of All Sci-Fi, registration is easy. Just use the registration password, which is —

gort



Attention members! If you've forgotten your password, just email me at brucecook1@yahoo.com.
____________________________________________________________________

All Sci-Fi is hangin ' out on the wrong side of the tracks today.

Two Dr. Jekyll, two Mr. Hides, and several Devil Dolls — mindless people reduced in size and sent out by their creator to commit revenge-murders on his enemies.

The brilliant and likable Lionel Barrymore plays a man with a bone to pick with the people who framed him for embezzlement. So, he used mini-murders to even the scales of justice.

Both Frederick March and Spencer Tracy both want to get in touch with their sadistic side so that get get more gusto out of life.

Yes sir, All Sci-Fi is definitely hangnin' out on the wrong side of the tracks today!
____________________________________________________________________

The Devil-Doll (1936)

______

From Tod Browning (director of "Freaks") comes this amazing movie which is rich in imagination. Lionel Barrymore plays a Devil's Island escapee, framed for embezzlement by his crooked business partners. He escapes with a brilliant-but-ailing scientist who takes Barrymore to his laboratory and shows him the strange process he developed which can shrink people down to doll size.

The scientist wants to use the amazing process to end world hunger by turning the Earth's population into mini-people, thereby reducing the amount of food they consume (a logical yet lunatic idea).

Unfortunately a test of the process proves it to be flawed — it turns the subjects into tiny automatons who can be controlled by telepathy! The scientist dies from shock when he realizes his failure.

But Barrymore uses the process to dish out a well-deserved punishment to the men who unjustly sent him to Devil's Island.

The special effects in "The Devil-Doll" are as good as those in "Dr. Cyclops" (although they're in black-and-white). The plot is complex, exciting, and just as incredible as the special effects. Example: Lionel Barrymore eludes the French police by masquerading as a little old lady!

A showcase for the talents of a fine actor. If you're not already a Barrymore fan, this film will convert you. Maureen O'Sullivan plays Barrymore's lovely daughter.
____________________________________________________________________

Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1931)



Frederick March creates the hideous Mr. Hyde with maximum acting ability and powerful makeup by Wally Westmore, shocking the world in this truly grown-up version of the classic tale.

The makeup is designed to capture the look of pure evil which Robert Louis Stevenson describes so well in his book, and the transformation scene is a genuine nightmare. In general, the film was so disturbing to audience in the 1930s that the censors snipped out ten minutes for a later re-release, and the missing parts have never been restored.

Naturally Hollywood changed the story's ending so that we get an exciting chase scene between Hyde and the police, but nobody is complaining. Directed by Rouben Mamoulian.
____________________________________________________________________

Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1941)

______


Spencer Tracy lends his considerable talents to this slick version of the Robert Louis Stevenson classic, though some reviewers consider it less powerful than the Frederick March version filmed in 1932.

Tracy works hard to portray the gleefully wicked nature of the sadistic alter ego which emerges from the good doctor. The makeup used to turn Tracy into Mr. Hyde is more subtle in this version than in most others. Ingrid Bergman is unbelievably sexy as the barmaid who falls victim to the evil Mr. Hyde.

Lana Turner is gorgeous as the fiance' of the respectable Dr. Jekyll, but she contributes little to the plot. The cast also includes Donald Crisp and C. Aubrey Smith. Music by Franz Waxman. Skillfully directed by Victor Fleming ("Gone With the Wind").

Although cinema purists may disagree, the colorized version adds impact to the bizarre hallucination scene during Jekyll's transformation into Hyde.
_________________
____________
Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)