Every now and then someone has a real brainwave - in this case, it was a simple idea: "Mister" sounds like "Sister", so why don't we retool Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde so that Jekyll's potion changes him from male to female? Voila - sheer genius.
Then add to this a stroke of casting brilliance - the always reliable Ralph Bates plays a dignified, restrained and by-the-book Dr Jekyll, while Martine Beswick plays an unrestrained, sensuous (and murderous) Ms Hyde. And, wonder of wonders, Bates and Beswick really look a lot like each other to start off with, so it is extremely easy for an audience to accept that they are the same person after Jekyll's potion has done its stuff. All that is missing is a morphing effect to change one into the other and, given that this movie is from 1971, 20-odd years before computer graphics first raised their head in any serious fashion, I guess we can forgive them the absence of morphing.
This brilliantly conceived, wonderfully cast, idea is played, for all it's worth, as a mixture of grand guignol and black comedy bordering on farce. Though it is dated in some respects, it is still very entertaining, and is definitely one of hammer's better offerings.
Try to catch it if you can.
Then add to this a stroke of casting brilliance - the always reliable Ralph Bates plays a dignified, restrained and by-the-book Dr Jekyll, while Martine Beswick plays an unrestrained, sensuous (and murderous) Ms Hyde. And, wonder of wonders, Bates and Beswick really look a lot like each other to start off with, so it is extremely easy for an audience to accept that they are the same person after Jekyll's potion has done its stuff. All that is missing is a morphing effect to change one into the other and, given that this movie is from 1971, 20-odd years before computer graphics first raised their head in any serious fashion, I guess we can forgive them the absence of morphing.
This brilliantly conceived, wonderfully cast, idea is played, for all it's worth, as a mixture of grand guignol and black comedy bordering on farce. Though it is dated in some respects, it is still very entertaining, and is definitely one of hammer's better offerings.
Try to catch it if you can.