Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

Doctor Henry Jekyll is a good man: he looks after his patients, works for the poor and holds himself in check. At a dinner an older man tells him that a person has two sides and that what is suppressed will come out sooner or later. Jekyll takes this up as an experiment and prepares a compound to separate the two. When he drinks it he becomes Hyde. At first he can come back. John S. Robertson directs. John Barrymore plays both Jekyll and Hyde. The source is Robert Louis Stevenson's novel and the stage version made from it. The best known scene is the first transformation. Barrymore does it without makeup, only by contorting his face and body; the camera does not cut and the change happens through the actor's own physical work. Makeup comes in for the later transformations. Barrymore was known on the stage at the time and this became among the most discussed of his film work. The narrative departs from Stevenson: a strand with women and a tempting character not in the novel are added, because the adaptation passed through the stage version. It is an early example of horror in the silent period and among the first of the story's many adaptations for the screen. Who it is for: anyone curious about silent cinema and classic horror adaptation. Who it is not for: the pace is slow, the acting comes from the stage and is broad, and the state of the prints varies.