The Son of Dr Jekyll *** (1951, Louis Hayward, Alexander Knox, Jody Lawrance, Lester Matthews, Paul Cavanagh, Gavin Muir, Rhys Williams) – Classic Movie Review 2765

Producer-director Seymour Friedman’s forgotten 1951 chiller tries for an interesting expansion and continuation of Robert Louis Stevenson’s Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde story with the bad doctor’s son Edward Jekyll (Louis Hayward) going through a similar split-personality identity crisis as his dad did before him.

It has a number of plot differences as an unofficial sequel to the 1941 adaptation of the novel, Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde starring Spencer Tracy. Jekyll the father survives long enough to marry and have a son and a Hyde character only appears briefly.

Not knowing of his father’s experiments, Edward is pursuing a career as a chemist even though he has been discharged from school for his own unorthodox experiments. The bad apple doesn’t fall far from the tree! Can he clear the family name?

It ends up as rather contrived, but reasonably entertaining hokum with okay performances and good, moody black and white cinematography by Henry Freulich. But the production values and screenplay are fairly feeble, and horror movie shocks and scares are desperately scarce.

Story: Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson; screen story by Mortimer Braus and Jack Pollexfen.

It also stars Alexander Knox as Dr Curtis Lanyon, Jody Lawrance as Lynn Utterson, Lester Matthews as attorney Sir John Utterson, Paul Cavanagh as the investigating Inspector Stoddard, Gavin Muir as Editor Richard Daniels, Rhys Williams as Michaels the butler and Doris Lloyd.

Also in the cast are Claire Carleton, Patrick O’Moore, James Logan, Bruce Lester, Holmes Herbert, Matthew Boulton, Patrick Aherne, Guy Kingsford, Leonard Mudie, Benita Booth, Hamilton Camp, Wheaton Chambers, David Cole, Leslie Denison, David Dunbar, Betty Fairfax, Frank Hagney, Alec Harford, Keith Hitchcock, Robin Hughes, Olaf Hytten, Joyce Jameson, Stapleton Kent, Jimmy Long, Ola Lorraine, Ida MacGill, Harry Martin, Phyllis Morris, Ottola Nesmith, Vesey O’Davoren, Patrick O’Moore, Robert Reeves and Carol Savage.

It seems Dr Jekyll had a daughter too – Daughter of Dr Jekyll (1957), also written by Jack Pollexfen. Dracula had a son too, by the way – Son of Dracula (1943) and a daughter, Dracula’s Daughter.

© Derek Winnert 2015 Classic Movie Review 2765

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