Sauce piquante

Stan Laurel (pre-Hardy) appeared in several short comedies that were parodies of big-budget Hollywood dramas. Although most of these are quite funny, all (with one exception) are seriously weakened by extremely low budgets. 'Dr Pyckle and Mr Pryde' is the exception; not only is this movie hilarious, but it benefits from some elaborate exterior and interior sets evoking Victorian London. In the early 1980s, when I interviewed Joe Rock (this movie's producer), he recalled that he had obtained access to sets on the Universal Pictures lot, and costumes from Universal's wardrobe department.

By 1925, there had already been several film versions of 'Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde', including the bootleg 'Der Januskopf' and at least one parody. Modern audiences, who know Jekyll and Hyde from films rather than from literature, usually miss an important point: in Stevenson's original novel, Mr Hyde is clearly much shorter and much younger than Dr Jekyll, making it truly a shock when we learn that they are the same man. In film adaptations, Jekyll is usually played as a comparatively youthful man, and nearly always portrayed by the same actor who also plays Hyde ... so we find it implausible that the other characters fail to guess they're the same person.

Although Stan Laurel is playing for comedy here, his performance as Mr Pryde is a revelation. Rather than wearing elaborate make-up, he merely puffs out his expressive face, dons a wig and hunches his head into his shoulders. There's also some extremely subtle padding under Laurel's coat, making Mr Pryde a slightly bulkier man than Dr Pyckle. At this point in his pre-Hardy career, Laurel was learning that he'd get bigger laughs by underplaying rather than by chewing the scenery. Here, though, he still has a couple of hand-to-brow moments ... acceptable because he's guying a serious story.

There's a dog here cried Pete the Pup, who may or mayn't be the same canine who appeared as Pete the Dog in some Our Gang comedies. I've never understood why it's allegedly so funny that a dog in the movies has a ring painted round one eye ... did any real dog ever have such a mark? Still, I was intrigued here to see a packet labelled 'Dog Cakes', a phrase one doesn't see very often these days.

I was delighted to spot the London-born Syd Crossley in this film, under Victorian side-whiskers. Two decades later, Crossley would be back in his native England and working with George Formby and Cicely Courtneidge. Joe Rock told me that Crossley had been his assistant in Los Angeles, and supplied entree to British film circles when he accompanied Rock to England in the 1930s.

'Dr Pyckle and Mr Pryde' is hilarious from start to finish. If all of Stan Laurel's early comedies had been this good, he would never have needed to team up with Oliver Hardy. I'm certainly glad it happened, though. My rating for this one: 9 out of 10. I wonder if this hilarious movie influenced the classic Two Ronnies sketch 'The Phantom Raspberry Blower of Old London Town'.

Dr. Pyckle and Mr. Pryde (1925)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

Stan Laurel plays the respectable Dr. Pyckle who starts messing around with various chemicals and turns himself into the silly Mr. Pride. Naturally this is a take off on the Jekyll and Hyde story but it really hits close to the 1920 John Barrymore version. This isn't a classic by any stretch of the imagination but it manages to be fairly entertaining in its short running time. Laurel does a very good job in the role and there are several instances where he does a good impression of Barrymore performance from the earlier film. There aren't enough laughs to keep the movie going but there are a couple sprinkled throughout.

This is an entertaining parody feature in itself, and it is also of interest as one of Stan Laurel's more substantial earlier roles. Although it would probably work all right as a spoof of the basic story, it is particularly designed as a parody of the John Barrymore version of "Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde", so if you see or have seen that particular version, there are many more amusing details and parallels that you can spot.

Laurel's character, like the original Dr. Jekyll, has an alter ego, but here it is merely a mischievous one. It's funny to see the light-hearted parallels to the much more serious scenes in the original story, and while the movie is rather unrefined overall, most of it is amusing.

Laurel's approach to the role reflects not so much his own style as a deliberate exaggeration of Barrymore's vigorous performance. Since Laurel also gets to play both the upright doctor and the disreputable alter ego, the role gives him quite a bit to work with. Laurel did a solid job in this kind of parody feature, and it's interesting to watch him perform with an approach that's different from the style that's so familiar from all the great Laurel & Hardy features.

Stan Laurel's "Dr. Pyckle and Mr. Pryde" is flat-out hilarious. It's a perfect combination of concept, gags, and performance to create good comedy. As a formerly lost film this also makes it a rare example of something sought-after and highly touted that lives up to (and probably exceeds) expectations.

This film was released five years after the John Barrymore version of "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde," which I watched the day before, but Stan Laurel interprets Barrymore's brilliant dramatic performance with a comic turn of equal quality. Presumably, though the direct source material was five years old, audiences would have been familiar enough with the Jekyll-and-Hyde story that there would not have been an actual need to have seen that particular version.

The gags are well-spaced and well-chosen here, getting laughs equally with the stylistic butchering of the Jekyll-Hyde story. What almost makes the film is the look of mischief of Mr Pryde's face as he scurries about the town committing trivial acts of wrongdoing. It's a few different executions of a similar joke, but I cracked up every time. The best moment of the short involves Stan's stealing a child's ice cream cone with a look of triumphant evil glee on his face.

"Dr. Pyckle and Mr. Pryde" also boasts very funny title cards; there's a winning joke in virtually every one. In brief, I was laughing constantly through my viewing of this two-reeler, and I'm extremely glad it's been recovered and restored so we can enjoy it today.

This time, as you can probably tell from the name, of Robert Louis Stevenson's DOCTOR JEKYLL & MR. HYDE. Long a favorite of straight adaptations (there was a famous version featuring John Barrymore a few years earlier, and Frederick March would win an Oscar for his portrayal a few more years down the road), this features Stan in alternating roles as a clumsy research scientist who, his bestial nature revealed by the potion he has accidentally mixed, turns into a capering practical joker. Not polished by any means, the films manages to hold together by means of having a plot.