The Two Faces of Dr Jekyll *** (1960, Paul Massie, Dawn Addams, Christopher Lee) – Classic Movie Review 2890

Director Terence Fisher’s 1960 Hammer Films horror version of the dark Robert Louis Stevenson favourite Jekyll and Hyde classic tale is firm, strong and steady. It features a fine star performance from Paul Massie as a mild-mannered doctor Henry Jekyll and a powerful, charming Mr Edward Hyde.

Dr Jekyll conducts dangerous scientific experiments that reveal the dark side of man and releases his inner murderer. Mr Hyde rapes his own wife, Kitty Jekyll (Dawn Addams) and drives her to kill herself when she has an affair with his best friend, Paul Allen (Christopher Lee).

The performances of Lee, Addams, David Kossoff (as Jekyll’s confident, Dr Ernst Littauer), Francis De Wolff as the Inspector and Oliver Reed (in a small role as a nightclub bouncer) helps. So do Fisher’s energetic direction, the atmospheric production and Jack Asher’s widescreen, Technicolor colour cinematography.

Only the occasional limitations in Wolf Mankowitz’s generally impressive screenplay let it down.

Also in the cast are Norma Marla, Magda Miller, William Kendall, Helen Goss, Pauline Shepherd, Percy Cartwright, Joe Robinson, Arthur Lovegrove, Alan Browning, Walter Gotell, Denis Shaw and Mackenzie Ward.

This is the second of three Hammer Films adaptations of Robert Louis Stevenson’s novella Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, following The Ugly Duckling (1959) and preceding Dr Jekyll and Sister Hyde (1971).

© Derek Winnert 2015 Classic Movie Review 2890

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