La fille du Docteur Jekyll

Edgar G. Ulmer began his career as a set designer to the famous theatrical impresario Max Reinhardt; by 1920 he was working in films, and although often uncredited labored on such legendary films as Fritz Lang's DIE NIBELUNGEN and METROPOLIS. By 1927 he was in Hollywood, and set design work led to assignments as a director. In 1934 Ulmer brought the full force of his talents upon Universal's THE BLACK CAT--a brilliantly realized film that many consider among the finest horror films of that decade. But Ulmer's affair with script girl Shirley Castle, wife of a studio executive, resulted not only in his termination at Universal but placed him on an industry-wide blacklist as well. He would never work at a major studio again.

But Ulmer had a knack for getting the most out of a tiny budget, and he soon found himself in demand as a director at second-string studios and for independent productions. Between his dismissal from Universal in 1934 and his death in 1972 he would direct more than forty films, and he was often noted for his ability to bring a remarkable artistic vision to the screen in spite of low budgets and questionable casts.

All that said, the 1957 DAUGHTER OF DR. JEKYLL was, according to daughter Arianne, a project undertaken for the sake of a paycheck; it is far from Ulmer's most memorable. Even so, as 1950s B-horror flicks go, it is far from the worst--in spite of tenth-rate special effects Ulmer manages to endow the movie with an entertaining atmosphere and the occasional jab of humor, and it is considerably more coherent than most of its kind.

The story concerns orphaned Janet Smith (Gloria Talbott), who has now reached her twenty-first birthday and arrives at the home of her guardian Dr. Lomas (Arthur Shields.) She brings with her future husband George Hastings (John Agar), who soon wins Dr. Lomas' approval, and all seems pleasant. But Janet is in for a surprise: Dr. Lomas tells her that she is heiress to the estate, left to her by her father, the notorious Dr. Jekyll, and no sooner is Janet in residence than corpses begin to crop up. Has she somehow inherited her father's chemically-induced evil? The script here is extremely transparent, and you'll know what's going on long before Janet does. It is also more than a little odd, managing to wrap ideas about vampires and werewolves into the whole Dr. Jekyll package. Add to this extremely obvious miniatures awash in dry ice, mediocre special effects, and a cast that tends toward the obvious at every possible turn--well, the overall effect is somewhat hooty, to say the least.

THE DAUGHTER OF DR. JEKYLL will never rank along side the likes of Ed Wood's PLAN 9 FROM OUTER SPACE in the "so bad it's good" cult movie derby--Ulmer is too much of an artist to permit tipsy tombstones--but it is actually amusing in its low-rent efforts. Recommended to fans of the genre.

GFT, Amazon Reviewer

Or, perhaps skids is more like it. How did John Agar get such wretched work as this in between films with John Wayne? (All right, I suppose most Wayne films are schlock, too.)

But, this is Dr. Jekyll's daughter. And he looks silly as her husband. This is a ridiculous Universal wanna-be, complete with a family estate and curse. The whole werewolf explaination for this curse is very contrary to Robert Louis Stevenson's original conception.

But, the werewolf ploy is not enough. DAUGHTER...is so boring, that I defy anyone to sit through it twice. I was in a coma by the time the end finally came.

Gloria Talbott rules, though. She is the quintessential mid-50's scream queen. She always played an able woman, but it always took a man by her side to work things out in the end(this time it is Agar). Talbott's appearances in this film and, THE CYCLOPS(the same year) cemented her image into many a Saturday-matinee patrons' mind.

Is this before or after Agar divorced Shirley Temple? This is certainly not the most pickled he looked(he looks more bleary-eyed in his later, Larry Buchanan period), but he looks just a little too cheery in some scenes. Maybe he was happy that the filming would soon be over.

I was glad when DAUGHTER OF DR. JEKYLL was over. Unless you're a Gloria Talbott fan, skip it.

Couple Gloria Talbott and John Agar travel to her father's secluded manorvestate to inform him of their engagement. Only her father (Arthur Shields) tells her that he's not her father, he only raised her, as her real father was the notorious Doctor Jekyll. Gloria wants to call off the wedding, but John insists they stay together, even when mysterious murders begin to take place around the manor grounds, with the finger pointing toward Gloria.

The budget is obviously limited, but Ulmer and crew do an admirable job of creating menace and eerie unease. The plot holds no surprises, however, and the "twist" is ruined by the movie's opening shots. For some reason they keep referring to the Jekyll curse as being a "human werewolf". They also manage to pronounce the name JAY-cull, GEE-cull, and JEH-cull.

Janet Smith (Gloria Talbott) and her fiance, George Hastings (John Agar) are summoned to the palatial estate of Dr. Lomas (Arthur Shields). It's not long before the couple's snooping uncovers a secret laboratory. Then, Lomas reveals the terrible truth to Janet. Yes, she's the DAUGHTER OF DR. JEKYLL! Is Janet doomed to her father's fate?

According to the story in this movie, Mr. Hyde was a sort of vampire / werewolf hybrid. A very silly movie, the -obvious- miniature models betray the ultra-low budget involved, yet add a certain chintzy charm to it. All, while a theremin hums along, making it seem as though we're watching an alien invasion film. Talbott is perfectly overwrought and Agar sleepwalks his way through this one.

EXTRA CREDIT FOR: John Dierkes as Jacob, the world's surliest groundskeeper!...

Not to be confused with "Dr. Jekyll and Sister Hyde" (1972) or "Dr. Jekyll and Ms. Hyde" (1995), "Daughter of Dr. Jekyll (1957) is a moderately interesting quickie from legendary Poverty Row director Edgar G. Ulmer. In this one, Gloria Talbott--who would find the role for which she is perhaps most fondly remembered in the following year's "I Married a Monster From Outer Space"--learns, on her 21st birthday, that she is the eponymous daughter of the infamous scientist. This causes her and her fiancé, 1950s sci-fi stalwart John Agar, some understandable angst, especially when a series of murders commences in the nearby village... To be painfully honest, there really is nothing much to this movie, but Ulmer directs with so much panache, and Talbott, as usual, is so pretty and appealing, that these two elements put the film over. Especially effective are two surrealistic nightmare episodes suffered by Talbott, as well as Ulmer's use of fog and swirling mist; his cloud-covered moon shots are a real thing of beauty, too. On the down side, we have a surprise ending that is not much of a surprise, and a plot that would have us believe that Jekyll's alter ego Hyde was really a bloodsucking werewolf! This film is certainly not the horror masterpiece that Ulmer's "The Black Cat" (1934) turned out to be. Still, it IS fun, and this DVD is as crisp and clean looking as can be. Modern-day interviews with Agar and with Ulmer's daughter make for nice extras, too.