In Victorian London, Dr. Henry Jekyll attempts to create an elixir of
life using female hormones stolen from fresh corpses. He reasons that
these hormones will wipe out all common diseases and extend his life
since women live much longer than men. However, once Dr. Jekyll drinks
the serum himself, he transforms into a gorgeous but evil woman. He soon
needs female hormones for his serum to maintain, so a number of London
women meet bloody deaths.
Dr. Jekyll and Sister Hyde is a 1971 British film directed by Roy Ward Baker based on the novella Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson. The film was made by British studio Hammer Film Productions.
In a clever, gender-bending twist on the classic Robert Louis Stevenson
tale, the research done by Dr. Henry Jekyll (Ralph Bates) in the field
of artificially-induced human longevity involves experimentation with
female hormones. When he partakes of his own formula and the inevitable
Jekyll-into-Hyde transformation takes place, he changes into a ravishing
female version of himself (famed "B"-movie siren Martine Beswick).
Claiming to be Jekyll's sister, Ms. Hyde is lovely but lethal: she uses
her
alluring charms to
seduce men then kills them and absconds with their bodies for use in
further experiments. A much more interesting twist comes when Jekyll
finds himself falling in love with the girl next door (Susan Brodrick),
while simultaneously lusting after the girl's brother (Lewis Fiander) as
Hyde.
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| The sexual transformation of a man into a woman will actually take place before your very eyes! |
The tale of Dr. Jekyll has been told so many times before in film but this one is certainly unique. Everybody pretty much knows this story. For some bizarre reason it all
works rather well, it never takes itself too seriously but at the same
time has enough self respect & is straight faced to just about make all
the silliness credible. It moves along at a nice pace since Jekyll
narrates the film it cuts out the need for lengthy exposition scenes &
I liked the idea of Jekyll & Hyde cheating on each other with the
brother & sister upstairs!
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| PARENTS: Be sure your children are sufficiently mature to witness the intimate details of this frank and revealing film. |
The violence is the film may have been shocking in 1971 but it won't make today's horror fans flinch. There is a fair amount of blood
splattering & while not particularly graphic the murders are brutal as
Jekyll viciously stabs his victims & then gets his wooden box of
surgical knives, scalpels & instruments out ready to do his grisly
work. We also get a battle of two personalities... male vs. female, repression vs. liberation,
complete
with undertones of homosexuality, transvestism, and the blurring of ones
identity and gender.
The casting of Ralph Bates and Martine Beswick was a master-stroke as they
look remarkably like each other, giving the transformation added
credibility.
I liked it, it's something a bit different & is an
absolute must for Hammer fans & anyone interested in the horror genre
as a whole. But I just love Hammer films and may be a bit bias.
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| I walked the streets, brooding on the bitter irony that all I wanted to do for humanity, for life, would be cheated by death... unless I could cheat death. |
Trivia:
Husband and wife Ralph Bates and Virginia Wetherell first met as they prepared to shoot the scene in which Bates as Dr. Jekyll kills the prostitute played by Wetherell.
Caroline Munro was offered the part of Sister Hyde but refused because it required some nudity.
The BBFC requested cuts to remove the inter-cutting of a murder and a
rabbit gutting, and to edit a bedroom murder and the stabbing of
Professor Robertson. The bedroom murder was shortened though Hammer
re-edited the stabbing of the doctor to comprise flash shots of earlier
killings. Despite initial BBFC objections the film was then passed, and
all later releases feature this same edited print.
This is the second of three Hammer adaptations of Robert Louis Stevenson's novella "Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde". The other two are The Ugly Duckling (1959) and The Two Faces of Dr. Jekyll (1960).
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| Oh no....I'm turning into a bitch. |
