The annoying Hollywood practice of remaking good films isn’t new and it was applied even in Hollywood’s golden age. Sometimes, as with The Maltese Falcon, it resulted in a classic. In other cases, it produced exactly what Hollywood usually makes now when remaking old classics. One such classic was the 1931 horror film Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, which was remade into an eponymous film directed by Victor Fleming in 1941.
Like its predecessor, the 1941 film was based on Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, a novella by Robert Louis Stevenson published in 1886, which is considered one of the classics of science fiction and horror literature and was immensely popular among filmmakers. The new version is less an adaptation of the novella and more a remake of the 1931 script by Samuel Hoffenstein and Percy Heath.
The plot is set in Victorian-era London and follows Dr. Henry Jekyll (played by Spencer Tracy), a physician and scientist who wants to cure mental illnesses with a serum that would distil human personality into good and evil halves. His radical experiments coincide with his engagement to the beautiful Beatrix Emery (played by Lana Turner), whose father, Sir Charles (played by Donald Crisp), disapproves of it. When Sam Higgins (played by Barton MacLane), a mentally disturbed man who was intended to be used as a guinea pig, dies, Jekyll decides to test the serum on himself. The result is an impressive transformation into a violent and evil man who takes the pseudonym "Mr. Hyde" and engages in various crimes. Ivy Peterson (played by Ingrid Bergman), a beautiful barmaid he met in a music hall, becomes his next victim. Jekyll gradually becomes aware of what his alter ego did and tries to end the experiment, but the transformations begin to occur against his will.
The 1931 version of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde was a big hit at the box office, won rave reviews and an Oscar for Best Actor, and is generally considered one of the finest works of the horror genre. However, it had one major problem. It was made three years before the enforcement of the infamous MPAA Production Code, and its use of sexual themes in the plot, despite being implicit, became unacceptable under the new strict, prudish standards of censorship. The 1931 film thus became unavailable, which MGM used as an opportunity to offer a new, more stylish, more expensive and, most importantly, "decent" version of the story.
Victor Fleming, a capable director known for his successes with The Wizard of Oz and Gone with the Wind, was brought behind the camera. Spencer Tracy was given the title role, accompanied by Ingrid Bergman, a Swedish actress who was just conquering Hollywood, and Lana Turner, who was about to do the same.
Taken by itself, the 1941 version of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde is a solid, although unremarkable film. The cinematography by Joseph Ruttenberg and the high budget successfully reconstruct Victorian London. Spencer Tracy does solid work with his role, although he later expressed his displeasure with the film. The most notable difference between his performance and that of the Oscar-awarded Fredric March in the earlier version is that the transformation between Jekyll and Hyde is less spectacular and achieved with very little makeup. He is nevertheless easily upstaged by Ingrid Bergman, who delivers a great deal of sensuality and vulnerability in her role. She easily overshadows Lana Turner, one of the sex symbols of 1940s Hollywood.
But the inevitable comparisons between the two films make the latter film look weak and empty, with a misguided emphasis on religion and moralising as an attempt to atone for the "sins" of the 1931 version. Fleming, despite generally toeing the new prudish line, directed a surreal scene of Jekyll's hallucination that proved too sexually charged to survive the MPAA’s censors (it was later restored in some versions).
The 1941 film wasn't greeted well by critics, although it had very good results at the box office. Already aware that comparisons with the previous film would make the latter look worse, MGM executives apparently tried to suppress and even destroy copies of the 1931 version. Thankfully, it didn't happen and the older film was rediscovered many decades later, taking its rightful place at the expense of Fleming's film.
RATING: 5/10 (++)
Blog in Croatian https://draxblog.com Blog in English https://draxreview.wordpress.com/ Leofinance blog https://leofinance.io/@drax.leo
Unstoppable Domains: https://unstoppabledomains.com/?ref=3fc23fc42c1b417 Hiveonboard: https://hiveonboard.com?ref=drax y Bitcoin Lightning HIVE donations: https://v4v.app/v1/lnurlp/qrcode/drax Rising Star game: https://www.risingstargame.com?referrer=drax 1Inch: https://1inch.exchange/#/r/0x83823d8CCB74F828148258BB4457642124b1328e
BTC donations: 1EWxiMiP6iiG9rger3NuUSd6HByaxQWafG ETH donations: 0xB305F144323b99e6f8b1d66f5D7DE78B498C32A7
