Film Review

Reviews on Interpretations of Dr.Jekyll and Mr. Hyde in TV and Film

In this blog I wanted to review and research into other interpretations of the original novel of the story of 'Dr. Jekyll and Mr.Hyde'. As my interpretation has originated from my research through the original book and novel I wanted to find out what other people has adapted and interpreted from the novel and how they have created this in there own way.

To start my research I wanted to find out the first movie interpretation that was created from this novel. The oldest version of this novel was made in 1931 and directed by Spencer Tracy who also made 'Gone with the wind' with his interpretation of the novel which is based on the novel with differences within the plot compared to the original book. Quoted from the 'IMDb' website here is a sumary of the original plot that was used for the film, 'Henry "Harry" Jekyll is a well respected member of London society. In his personal life, he is pre-engaged to Muriel Carew, the daughter of a brigadier general. In his professional life, he is a medical doctor, scientist and academician. He theorizes that in each man has a good side and an evil side which can be separated into two. In doing so, the evil side can be controlled and the good side can live without worry, in combination leading to the betterment of society. In his experiments, he uses himself as the subject to test his hypothesis. His evil side, who he coins Mr. Hyde, escapes into London, and terrorizes party-girl Ivy Pierson. Jekyll, aware of Hyde's goings-on, decides to stop his experiments because of the suffering he has caused Ivy. What Jekyll is unaware of is how ingrained Hyde is in Jekyll's life. Taking from this interpretation the director has taking the main concept of the novel by using Dr.Jekyll's big secret of hiding Mr.Hyde his evil self from everyone knowing it is really him. However, in this film interpretation the director has adapted new characters that were not involved in the original novel; Ivy (party girl) and Muriel (Jekyll's finance) who are both female. I believe that in this version of the film the director has added two female characters as to then further appeal to the female audience as well as the male. This film if was done by the original book in this time period of release (1931) I believe would mainly gain male attention due to its horror and fancy element. Due to its time of production the graphics and special effects make-up for Mr Hyde's character would be considered very graphic for its day therefore usually only attracting a male dominated audience. However, I believe that the director has added in two beautiful women for two reasons. Using the character Muriel adds romance to the film making it more appealing for the female audience as they may want to desire the dramatic romance that is portrayed to them on screen making it a fantancy for them. Then using the character 'Ivy' gives a element of a vulnerable women which is mainly used as a reflection of the time of production not meaning to offend women and making them seem weak but as this was the social 'norm' of this time that men were always the dominant sex. However, relating it back to the interpretation of Dr.Jekyll and Mr.Hyde I believe due to the time of production the represention was far more basic and quite theatrical compared to what  I want to portray as more realism. I will now show below the example clip of the original trailer for this film.   

TV Example:

Another example of an adaptation of the novel is the ITV TV series of Dr.Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. In a review written for 'The Telegraph' by Ceri Radford she quotes that this series is 'More Harry Potter than Sherlock home' probably due to its time slot of 6;30 meaning they have to keep it more 'family friendly' more than anything else. In this article she does give an overall good review of the series but it again does not entirely play off the original novel making its adaptations to fit the audience. To read the full review of the article click this link.