New Version of "Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde" on Bravo

[Philippe Cordier]

A new version of "Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde" produced by Bravo will air this Saturday evening, I believe.

It will be interesting to see if the sets resemble the DS ones, which were based on one of the movie versions' sets (I think it was the Spencer Tracy/Ingrid Bergman version, which I personally like the best).

Check your local listings for times.   

[ProfStokes]

Thank you for mentioning this, Vlad!  The timing is perfect.  Last night, a friend and I had a lengthy conversation about the various versions of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde; now we'll have one more to view and dissect.   While I can't name my favorite, the Tracy version does strike me as the most stylish.  All have their good points.  Oddly enough, even though the story, the scenes, and occasionally the dialogue are the same, each film is so different!  I'll be interested to see Bravo's treatment of the story.

ProfStokes

[Raineypark]

One of, if not THE earliest movie portrayals was that of Fredrick March.  I don't think it's been shown on TV more than once in the last 20 years, at least in my area.  But unless you've seen THAT performance, you really haven't seen them all.  I was terrified by it as a child, and when I saw it again as as adult, was no less impressed by the unmitigated evil of March's Hyde.

[Patti Feinberg]

It will be interesting to see if the sets resemble the DS ones, which were based on one of the movie versions' sets (I think it was the Spencer Tracy/Ingrid Bergman version, which I personally like the best).

Vlad...the Cyrus Longworth spiel was based on the S. Tracy movie (the producers of DS copied the movie)?

Very interesting...

Raineypark...I've seen a few minutes of the Fredick March movie,  within the past few years.
(To tell the truth, Dr. Jekyll/Mr. Hyde just doesn't do it for me.)

Just checked TV guide dot com,
Sat., 8PM, Bravo
Patti

oh wow...pumpkins...time to play
 
 

thanks MB

[Midnite]

One of, if not THE earliest movie portrayals was that of Fredrick March.  I don't think it's been shown on TV more than once in the last 20 years, at least in my area.  But unless you've seen THAT performance, you really haven't seen them all.  I was terrified by it as a child, and when I saw it again as as adult, was no less impressed by the unmitigated evil of March's Hyde.

That potrayal is in the 9th version listed on the IMDb, but I believe as many as 10 silent versions alone were made, including one with the great John Barrymore (1 of 3 in 1920) who transformed without makeup!

[Patti Feinberg]

Well, since Vlad let us know, I tuned in at some point.

In a word, YUCK.

I started watching as he was hitting then I suppose raping some woman. Reminded me of Buffy; too distasteful, so I tuned out.

Turned back in a few; he purposely 'shot up' because some teenage boy was attempting to blackmail him; he then kills the boy.

The overall impression of the little I watched was very, very much like a drug-addict.

I've never read the book, plus, being it was written so long ago, I doubt that was supposed to be the main theme.

All IMHO,

Patti

[Raineypark]

What an appalling waste of time and effort.  The entire thing was little more than an excuse to produce  the most violent version of "Jekyll and Hyde" ever.

Julia Roberts generally makes me want to run screaming from the room.....but even "Mary Reilly" was a better version than this .

[Philippe Cordier]

I haven't finished watching my recording of it yet, but I guess I wasn't overly motivated to do so from what I saw (about the first hour).

I mean, I wasn't expecting Robert Louis Stevenson exactly, but -- you're right.  It seemed more like an adaptation of "Mary Reilly," which I actually like up until the sci-fi ending.  They even copied the set from "Mary Reilly."

I'll stick with the Spencer Tracy version.  I've seen the Fredric March version, but wasn't able to appreciate it for some reason, though I'd be willing to try it again sometime.  That and "Citizen Kane."

[CyrusL]

  Hello,
         Not having cable, I wasn't able to catch the cable version of Jekyll and Hyde. If they are doing it as analogous to drug addiction, that's the wrong track. Nor was it intended as a story of alcohol addiction. Most scholars agree it was an early psychological story more related to schizophrenia and bipolar disorders than substance abuse.
    Anyway, I haven't seen the Spencer Tracy version very many times. I do know they did few changes from the Frederic March script. I do enjoy the March version quite a lot. The director chose Hyde's look as a degeneration into a more primal man. He becomes neanderthal-like as the film progresse. Barrymore's version is more closely based on a pure good and evil. Barrymore had Hyde becoming more like a human spider as he regresses. Dick Smith based Jack Palance's look on bust of Pan from a piece of classical mythology statuary.    I always like Dan Curtis' production. I once read it was the only version in which Jekyll has extensive makeup, as they wanted Palance to look more aristocratic. As a matter of fact, I like this much better than either the Dan Curtis Frankenstein or Dracula. Despite how much Dan loves his Palance Dracula, I think the script is one of Richard Matheson's weakest with several flaws and leaves Dracula without enough to do. The sets look way too cold, they have the bleak austerity of what looks like and probably was Cold War era eastern europe. On the other hand, Curtis's Jekyll and Hyde was shot on video on studio sets and has more of the same feel as DS did. Even moreso as Robert Cobert overlapped music between the two.
   I have seen Mary Reiley too and while John Malkovich is always interesting as he's always so intense, it was a little too graphic for me. I heard Al Pacino was offered the role before Malkovich. 
    Okay, I love the classic horror films. One last piece of trivia,
David Lynch used a few film references to the Tracy version in "Fire Walk with Me." Most especially where Hyde envisoned the ladies as horses he was whipping. 

CyrusL, aka Michael

your cousin from Virginia

When in New York , be sure to visit the Jekyll and Hyde club, uptown near Central Park, and downtown in the village.

[Philippe Cordier]

Interesting to get your take on the Jekyll and Hyde adaptations and Dan Curtis TV versions, Cyrus.

I didn't know about RLS possibly addressing realistic psychological disorders; I do know that dualism -- two sides of a single personality/character, and also explored with characters who have a double -- was a concept that interested Victorian writers, particularly Dickens, and RLS (not sure how much later he was).  I'd like to go back to the novella now -- I haven't actually read it since I was about 10 or 11.

I haven't seen the DC production of Hyde.  I sometimes have difficulty accepting the videotaped quality of the DS productions (DS excepted).  His "Dracula" (on film, and with much higher production values) remains my favorite because it remains the most faithful to the book, although there are significant departures (especially Jonathan Harker's fate in DC).  In the novel, Dracula actually is not seen much of the time.  A version of Dracula which begins very promisingly is the Jess Franco version with Christopher Lee.  Never has any actor looked more like Stoker describes him, especially at the beginning, with the iron gray hair and moustache.  Also the castle set was an actual castle in Spain and is as dark and gloomy and stoney as you'd imagine from the book.  DC's version was an interesting take, with a beautifully maintained, bright castle interiors.