Today, John Barrymore is best known to those who know his name at all, either as a drunken buffoon who got a lot of bad publicity during the last decade of his life or as the grandfather of Drew Barrymore, who was born many decades after he died. But if you look at his theatrical and screen career prior to those sad last years, you will find that he was a definite superstar, once the most popular actor during his heyday. This film version of Robert Louis Stevenson's classic novel is very different than other "Jekyll and Hydes", similar in plot to the very popular Broadway musical that has gained a cult following, but with very noticeable differences.
The character of Dr. Henry Jekyll is presented as a very noble man who takes care of the poor and downtrodden, and whose desire to do good for his fellow man results in his downfall due to his experiments studying the psychology of the good and evil in everybody. The film doesn't take long to turn Dr Jekyll into the hideous Mr. Hyde, and for special effects that are now over a hundred years old, the film is quite impressive in many ways. While there are some comical elements in how Mr. Hyde first appears, it's obvious that in 1920, those effects would scare the bejeebers out of its audience. Mr. Hyde is a hideous villain, lascivious and perverse, and his crimes quite gruesome. The women involved with both characters truly have to deal with monstrous actions by Mr. Hyde, even though there are very subtle clues about how tortured the evil side of Dr. Jekyll really is.
This film truly stands the time as a brilliant piece of cinema, filled with visuals that are stunning, with Barrymore giving a performance that undoubtly in 1920 would have won him an Oscar had they been around at the time. The supporting cast is filled with unknowns, but they are all brilliant, and even the minor roles show off a dark society at the time that wasn't at all romantic or beautiful. The print that I saw of the film, in the public domain, has a beautiful music score, and it is very easy to watch even for people who are not fans of silent movies. The ending certainly haunted me, and I must call this one of the greatest silent movies ever made, not to mention one of the greatest horror movies ever made. Arachnophone should be aware that there is a scene involving a giant spider, one quite frightening in its nightmarish presentation.
The character of Dr. Henry Jekyll is presented as a very noble man who takes care of the poor and downtrodden, and whose desire to do good for his fellow man results in his downfall due to his experiments studying the psychology of the good and evil in everybody. The film doesn't take long to turn Dr Jekyll into the hideous Mr. Hyde, and for special effects that are now over a hundred years old, the film is quite impressive in many ways. While there are some comical elements in how Mr. Hyde first appears, it's obvious that in 1920, those effects would scare the bejeebers out of its audience. Mr. Hyde is a hideous villain, lascivious and perverse, and his crimes quite gruesome. The women involved with both characters truly have to deal with monstrous actions by Mr. Hyde, even though there are very subtle clues about how tortured the evil side of Dr. Jekyll really is.
This film truly stands the time as a brilliant piece of cinema, filled with visuals that are stunning, with Barrymore giving a performance that undoubtly in 1920 would have won him an Oscar had they been around at the time. The supporting cast is filled with unknowns, but they are all brilliant, and even the minor roles show off a dark society at the time that wasn't at all romantic or beautiful. The print that I saw of the film, in the public domain, has a beautiful music score, and it is very easy to watch even for people who are not fans of silent movies. The ending certainly haunted me, and I must call this one of the greatest silent movies ever made, not to mention one of the greatest horror movies ever made. Arachnophone should be aware that there is a scene involving a giant spider, one quite frightening in its nightmarish presentation.