Rouben Mamoulian’s Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde from 1931 which stars Frederic March in the lead roles to me is the best adaptation and most definitive of Robert Louis Stevenson’s story. While the 1941 edition of the film directed by Victor Fleming with Spencer Tracy as Jekyll and Hyde isn’t bad at all and well-acted, it lacked the raw energy that the 1931 version has. The 1931 version was also made during the pre-code era allowing for more ‘controversial’ scenes. There is also the 1920 silent version starring John Barrymore, which also is a good film, but still nowhere near as powerful as the 1931 film.
Most of you reading already know the story, where Dr. Jekyll is conducting experiments to bring out the dark side in humans. He succeeds after testing himself, but it costs him so much. It ultimately ruins his life, as he intends to marry Muriel Carew (Rose Hobart, Tower of London, The Cat Creeps) as he loves her dearly, but Mr. Hyde’s evil activities cause him to give her up. Jekyll also saves a bar singer, Ivy Pierson (Miriam Hopkins, The Story of Temple Drake, The Children’s Hour) from an attacker but when he turns into Mr. Hyde, he looks for Ivy, finds her and possesses her. Hyde physically abuses Ivy to the point of death. Jekyll cannot deal with the fact that his dark side is a murderer and worse, he can no longer control his transformations with the drugs he takes. And with each transformation Dr. Jekyll morphs into an uglier and uglier Mr. Hyde!
The Rouben Mamoulian version of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde has endured for all these years and remained relevant to this day and remains the best version to watch over all the others. The film has strong direction, unforgettable visuals, including a couple of split screen scenes, and great performances by the cast with Frederic March’s performance earning him an Academy Award. The cinematography for the film by Karl Struss captures a nice, dark mood and of course there are the incredible transformation scenes which are just as good, if not slightly better than the Wolf Man movies starring Lon Chaney, Jr.
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde gets a fantastic Blu-ray release from Warner Archive, which is most likely is from a new 4K scan of the original nitrate camera negative, save for the cut scenes that have been restored for this Blu-ray (those same scenes are on the DVD also). You will notice some subtle differences in quality with the scenes included. Overall, the image is stable and with stunning details, clearly visible texturing, and strong black levels with a nice amount of film grain. The greyscale is also balanced perfectly. The film is on a dual-layered disc, thus allowing the higher bitrate to really shine on this release. Outside of a few frames missing due to the age-old unavoidable issues with the elements used, this looks as good as it gets, as far as picture quality is concerned. Also worthy of note that the aspect ratio for this Blu-ray is in “Movietone”, which is in a 1:19:1 aspect ratio, so it’s a bit smaller than the 1:37:1 and 1:33:1 aspect ratios.
For their Blu-ray, Warner has used DTS-HD 2.0 Master Audio which has strong, clean, and clear dialogue. There is a minimal amount of hiss and distortion but nothing distracting, as it is quite faint. The music by John Sebastian Black and action scenes are perfectly balanced well with the audio. Optional English subtitles are offered for this release
Warner has done a fine job with the supplements as they not only ported over from the older DVD releases but there is a pair two of new extras that are exclusive to this release.
This Blu-ray has a new audio commentary track with screenwriter and film historian Dr. Steve Haberman and film historian Constantine Nasr. The commentary track from the DVD that features author and film historian Greg Mank is also on this release. Both tracks contain a wealth of information about the film, the cast and crew.
The release also has a Looney Tunes Short entitled “Hyde and Hare” which is cartoon from 1955 starring the iconic Bugs Bunny.
There is a nearly one-hour audio featurette Theater Guild on the Air Radio Broadcast. This is a radio adaptation of The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde that features Fredric March and Barbara Bel Geddes in the lead roles with Hugh Williams as the narrator.
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde hasfinally received a long-awaited Blu-ray release, and it is a dandy, with superior picture quality, excellent audio, and a nice amount of bonus features. Easily, I can say that this is a highly recommended Blu-ray!
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
Director- Rouben Mamoulian
Cast- Frederic March, Miriam Hopkins
Country of Origin- USA
Distributor – Warner Brothers/Warner Archive
Number of Discs – 1
Reviewed by – David Steigman
Date –11/23/2022