Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

When "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde" premiered in Chicago in 1908, produced by the Selig Polyscope Company, the film was the first American real horror movie every shown. This film is lost, as well as its sequel, 1909's "The Modern Dr. Jekyll," also produced by Selig.

The earliest existing print of a movie based on the 1887 Robert Livingston Stevenson's novel "Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde" is the 1912 "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde," produced by Thanhouser Studios. Actor James Cruz, seen in the lead of the earlier "She," is named in the credits for playing both roles as the researcher Dr. Jekyll, soon to be married, and his evil alter ego Mr. Hyde, which the good doctor turns into by drinking a concoction of liquid.

The 1908 film claims to have been based directly on the Stevenson novel while the Thanhouser version takes its cue from the subsequent successful stage play, "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, or a Mis-Spent Life." There is some controversy as to who actually plays the shorter Mr. Hyde, one of the few Jekyll movies (and there are a great many) where Hyde is considerably shorter than his counterpart. A Thanhouser Studio actor Harry Benham is attributed by some to have played Mr. Hyde even though he isn't credited in the opening title. The viewer can spot the height difference between the taller Cruze, playing Dr. Jekyll, and the shorter Mr. Hyde.

The Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde theme has since been the main thread in a wide variety of movies, some which one wouldn't think would be related. They include "The Nutty Professor," "Van Hesling," "Edge of Sanity," "I, Monster," "The Ugly Duckling (cartoon)", and "Pagemaster."

The 1920 version has John Barrymore transforming and twisting himself before your eyes, Lon Chaney style. The 1931 version had an on-screen transformation using a technique that turned out to be simple yet brilliant, and director Rouben Mamoulian kept the secret until his deathbed. But such secrecy would not be needed here, because Jekyll merely drinks the potion grabs his throat and poof! The film jumps and the same actor has now transformed into Hyde complete with makeup and different colored hair. Apparently in this version blonde = good Dr. Jekyll, brunette = evil Hyde.

There are intertitles that tell you what is going on, but even though you can see the actors speaking to one another there are no dialogue intertitles.

There is no "woman of the street" that Hyde is molesting in this version. And although he does cane somebody to death, the only other evil thing that he is shown doing is knocking down a toddler on the sidewalk! Oh, and Dr. Jekyll does not name his evil self Hyde. From the intertitles we are told that this is what the people of the village have dubbed Jekyll's evil self.

The title role is played by James Cruze, early silent actor and later a director into the talking picture era. He was later married to Betty Compson, the hardest working actress of the early talking era. But here one of the extras is Marguerite Snow, his first wife and mother of his only child.

"The taking of certain drugs can separate man into two beings---one representing EVIL the other GOOD" the story begins by telling us. Jekyll tests that theory on himself one night by downing an elixir, which instantly turns him into a clawed, slobbering ogre. A different elixir returns him to his normal state. More studies are needed.

He later marries. His repeated use of the elixir causes uncontrollable changes in him, back into the clawed, slobbering ogre, who ransacks his own house and then takes to the streets to assault people, and ultimately kill a man.

Followed by police, Hyde retreats to his home, for another dose of elixir. But when it is gone, he realizes he is now stuck as Hyde. Police chop down the door to Jekyll's study with an ax, only to find Hyde, and Jekyll, dead. Or, incredibly sleepy.

Industrial look throughout helps give it a more gritty feel, but compressing the story down to a handful of minutes makes it seem like they only adapted a couple of paragraphs of the story. This is the earliest existing film version of this tale, as a 1908 version appears to be lost.

This is the oldest version of "Jekyll and Hyde" in existence. The film stars James Cruze, who is most famous for his film "The Covered Wagon". It was made by Thanhouser Film C. and was released on January 16 1912. and clocks in at about 11 min. I may have took a star away due to the fact that it could have been longer(the 1913 version was 26 min. only a year later). Actually, in a 1963 interview, a stock crew member named Harry Benham who worked at Thanhouser, said that he portrayed Mr.Hyde in some scenes. When you watch the film you can tell them apart because James is taller and their Hyde makeup is slightly different.

The film starts off with Jekyll briefly talking with an elderly man apparently about drugs. Then Jekyll locks himself in his lab and tests his "potion" on himself. Immiediatly a dark haired taloned beast appears in the chair, looks in his mirror (he is slightly shorter than before mmmmmmmmm)takes the drug again and transforms back into Jekyll, and then begins to write something down.

Jekyll (with his wife a ministers daughter) meet each other in front of her house and talks with her father. The next scene shows Jekyll reading a book cries out in agony rushes into his lab and now Jekyll is Hyde, Hyde grabs his hat runs out into the street knocks down a little girl rushes back to his lab and transforms into Jekyll.

Jekyll is talking to his wife in the the park and then he suddenly runs away kneels down and in the next shot is Hyde. He runs back, tries to strangle her, her father comes (from nowhere) and Hyde kills him instead. Jekyll says to his wife he is "going away" and then he runs back to his lab, a card says his potion is gone now he must remain Hyde to the end. Hyde is in his lab now. He go's on a rampage destroying his lab looking for something. Police have tracked down Hyde and are breaking down the door. just as they are about to break the door down, Hyde takes a fatal dose of poison........... when the police come in Hyde is dead. THE END

Even though this version is short, it is still pretty good and recommended.

James Cruze is remembered by silent film buffs as a man who worked behind the camera, most memorably as director of one of the first great Western epics: The Covered Wagon, released in 1923. However, in earlier years he worked as an actor for the Thanhouser company of New Rochelle, New York, a studio of modest size that was active circa 1910-1917. Cruze can be seen in the role of Dr. Jekyll in Thanhouser's one-reel version of Robert Louis Stevenson's famous tale, an adaptation that is neither the best nor the worst but surely one of the fastest film versions, clocking in at just over eleven minutes. Given the time constraints, these filmmakers really had to cut to the chase! After a brief shot of Dr. Jekyll discussing his theories with an unidentified companion, he's in his lab mixing the potion, and the first transformation takes place before one minute has elapsed. Perhaps it goes without saying that we get only the highlights of the story here.

Don't expect the cobble-stone streets of Victorian London, for this is a low-budget production that appears to have been filmed in the suburbs of New Rochelle, identified only as "the village" in title cards. The presentation is straightforward and rather subdued, and the performances are low-key by the standards of the day. Hyde's makeup job is fairly restrained too, big teeth notwithstanding, certainly when compared to some of the later versions. I was a little surprised to learn that Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde are played by two different actors, at least in some shots. If you watch carefully you'll see that Harry Benham's Hyde is distinctly shorter than Cruze's Jekyll. Ordinarily actors relish the opportunity to play both of these roles, but perhaps the technical limitations of the time dictated this unusual casting decision.

There is one especially effective moment when Jekyll realizes he's on the verge of a transformation into his evil alter ego in the presence of his fiancée, and attempts to get away from her. Viewers familiar with the source material might be interested in a couple of minor alterations from the novel: here, Jekyll's fiancée is the daughter of a minister, and there is a plot twist in the final scene relating to Hyde's death that may come as a surprise. Over all, however, this rendition of the story is little more than a moderately interesting curio. It isn't all that exciting, sorry to say, though allowances should be made for pioneer filmmakers. You know it's still early in cinema history when the shelves in Jekyll's study are painted on the walls -- and you know the movie isn't sufficiently exciting when you find yourself examining Dr. Jekyll's bookshelves.