Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1931)

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Movie
German title Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
Original title Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
Country of production United States
original language English
Publishing year 1931
length 92 minutes
Age rating FSK 12
Rod
Director Rouben Mamoulian
script Percy Heath ,
Samuel Hoffenstein
production Adolph Zukor ,
Rouben Mamoulian
music Herman's hand
camera Karl Struss
cut Amy E. Duddleston
occupation
synchronization

Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde is a 1931 film by American director Rouben Mamoulian, starring Fredric March , who won an Oscar for its performance . It is based on the story The strange case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by British author Robert Louis Stevenson . The film was first seen on television in Germany on May 5, 1970.

action

Dr. Jekyll is inspired by the idea of ​​being able to separate the good and the bad in the human soul and therefore experiments with chemicals in order to find an active ingredient that will make his vision a reality.

In everyday life he lives out his good side, for example when he does not attend the reception of the Duchess of Densmore one evening to treat patients in the poor hospital, or when he transfers his fiancée Muriel and her father, General Carew, to a beggar instead operate. After the operation, Dr. Jekyll then still appear. He asks General Carew to be allowed to marry Muriel immediately, but has to let him put him off.

On his way home with Dr. Lanyon, he witnesses a robbery on prostitute Ivy Pearson. He intervenes and brings her to her room, where she tries to seduce him. Jekyll is not unimpressed, but he reacts cautiously.

In the home laboratory, Dr. Jekyll continued his studies. In a first experiment on himself, Dr. Jekyll into a monster that he henceforth calls Mr. Hyde. As Mr. Hyde, he often visits Ivy Pearson and in this role does not shrink from beating and sexually coercing her.

Dr. Jekyll is plagued more and more by remorse caused by his alter ego. He's sending money to Ivy Pearson. When she unexpectedly visits him, Jekyll is shaken when she shows him Hyde's abuse of her body and promises her that Hyde will never bother her again. When General Carew celebrated the wedding of his daughter and Dr. Jekyll wants to announce, Jekyll transforms himself back into Hyde and seeks as such the safe Ivy Pearson. He makes fun of Jekyll and strangles Ivy. About Dr. Enraged by Jekyll's absence, General Carew forbids his daughter to continue dealing with Jekyll.

In a letter, Dr. Jekyll asked his friend Lanyon to fetch a vial of the elixir of transformation from his laboratory, which a stranger would later pick up. When Hyde arrives, Lanyon insists on Dr. Jekyll's wellbeing to be informed. Hyde transforms back, and Dr. Jekyll tells him the whole story. Lanyon shows for Dr. Jekyll's attempts not to understand.

The following evening, Dr. Jekyll Muriel to release her. In front of her house he turns back into Mr. Hyde and sneaks up on the crying Muriel. In the panic that followed, he kills the general and escapes into his laboratory, pursued by the police. Lanyon arrives and leads the police into Dr. Jekyll's laboratory, which has since turned back. When Lanyon reveals the culprit to the police in the laboratory, Dr. Jekyll turns into Mr. Hyde again and is shot by the police. One last time, Mr. Hyde transforms into Dr. Jekyll back.

background

The film became groundbreaking in dramaturgy and trick technology, for example in the use of the subjective camera or in the transformation scenes, in which special filters brought out the make-up of the main actor Fredric March.

After the premiere, the film called the censors on the scene. In some US states, scenes containing violence and erotic allusions were cut. In Germany it was even banned completely by the National Socialists. In 1935, Paramount planned to rerun the film and removed a whole 14 minutes from the film, including harmless scenes such as Dr. Jekyll's separation from Muriel. About 70 years after the premiere, the original duration was restored.

synchronization

From Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde made two different synchronized versions in 1969 and 1988.

role actor Version 1969 Version 1988
Dr. Henry Jekyll / Mr. Edward Hyde Fredric March Fred Maire Joachim Kerzel
Ivy Pierson Miriam Hopkins Rose-Marie Kirstein Katharina Graefe
Muriel Carew Rose Hobart ??? Susanna Bonaséwicz
Dr. Hastie Lanyon Holmes Herbert ??? Reinhard Kuhnert
Brigadier General Sir Danvers Carew Halliwell Hobbes ??? Friedrich Schoenfelder
Poole Edgar Norton ??? Harry Wüstenhagen

Awards

  • Venice Film Festival
    • Audience award as the most original fantastic film
    • Fredric March (audience award as most popular leading actor)

Reviews

The reviews of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde are largely positive to this day, Mamoulian's work is considered a classic film and is often described as the best film version of Stevenson's novel. In rotten tomatoes , the film has, based on 27 reviews, a positive rating of 93% with an average score of 8,3 points.

The rororo film lexicon writes: "In this best of all film adaptations of Stevenson's novella, Mamoulian confirmed his reputation as an experimental director with some amazingly effective innovations." The lexicon of international films also judges positively: "Classic horror film, which is considered the best of the more than 50 film adaptations by RL Stevenson's novel applies. The original theme of the original, good and bad in the human soul, was redesigned as a philosophical reflection on nature and civilization, dispensing with moral evaluations. The brilliant animation and the planned use of the subjective camera also make Mamoulian's work interesting in terms of film history. " Adolf Heinzlmeier and Berndt Schulz wrote in the lexicon" Films on TV " :" The famous (cinema) fable [...] was never filmed in a more brilliant way; subjective camera, excellent in trick technology [...]. "(Rating: 3 stars = very good)

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Gereon Stein: Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1931) - synchrondatenbank.de. Retrieved October 20, 2017 .
  2. ↑ German synchronous index: German synchronous index | Movies | Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Retrieved October 20, 2017 .
  3. ↑ Venice Film Festival (1932)
  4. ↑ Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde at Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved October 20, 2017 .
  5. ↑ Wolfram Tichy , Liz-Anne Bawden , et al .: rororo Filmlexikon. Volume 1: Films A - J (OT: The Oxford Companion to Film ). Rowohlt, Reinbek bei Hamburg 1978, ISBN 3-499-16228-8 , p. 146
  6. ↑ (CD-ROM edition), Systhema, Munich 1997
  7. ^ Adolf Heinzlmeier and Berndt Schulz in Lexicon "Films on TV" (extended new edition). Rasch and Röhring, Hamburg 1990, ISBN 3-89136-392-3 , p. 159