Dr. Black, Mr. Hyde

If anyone actually takes this as a serious commentary on race relations, they need counseling. Immediately.

The tale, as you can probably take from the title, is more or less a riff on the "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde" storyline, only this time a black doctor's (Casey's) experiments turn him into a rampaging albino-skinned monster!

Pretty thinly-veiled commentary, eh?

The monster attack scenes look like they should be played for laughs. The ZAZ (Zucker, Abrahams, Zucker) brothers would have had a field day with this. Indeed, if you watch this, you'll find yourself laughing at every scary and/or racially-motivated moment.

But no, it's played straight and all the sadder. Casey is a good actor, an important actor, even. Unless he was intentionally playing this for laughs, there's just no excuse for such inanity.

The least they could have done was have Casey morph into Leslie Nielsen. Now THERE we would have known where we stood.

One star.

Great; I probably just gave Hollywood an idea for a remake.

--Don't take it seriously and you'll have a great time with this film.--

Here's another point of view about the "quality" of this movie. If you're the kind who doesn't take life too seriously, enjoys b-movies and/or blaxploitation flicks, and doesn't mind a classic bad movie every now and then for a good laugh, then you'll enjoy this film. But the point is to not take the film seriously. After all, what film do you know of with a character named Silky the pimp will be a contender for an Academy award!

No, this movie is not *that* scary, though there is lots of suspense. But it *is* funny (make your own jokes as the movie rolls), with lots of action, crazy blaxploitation-style music, kitschiness. . . did I mention Silky the pimp? It is not meant to be a commentary on race relations. It's bad film entertainment at it's worse, er, I mean best! It ranks up there with "Blacula;" it's quality comes from the fact that it is played so "straight."

I recommend this to all other fans of bad b-movies and blaxploitation films like myself. Kick back with this film, some friends, some snacks, and laugh all night!

Dr. Black, Mr. Hyde (1976)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

The black Dr. Henry Pride (Bernie Casey) takes a formula that turns him into an evil white man. Here's another blaxploitation film but this one here is actually pretty good thanks in large part to the very good performance by Casey. The film is over the top in every way possible from the non-stop Kung Fu fighting to the wonderfully funny pimp. The first scene where the evil white guy is about to get jumped by three hoods is priceless.

This film hasn't been officially released but it is out there in bootleg form.

I remember seeing this film advertised on an Atlanta TV station late night in 1976: then I saw the rating, "R", and being 10 years old with religious parents I knew I'd never see it. Little did I know then that VCRs were just around the corner. Dr. Pride is looking for cures in liver diseases, and he discovers a formula that doesn't do too much for the liver but makes the user a monster. After a botched attempt on an old lady at the hospital he tries it on himself...becoming Mr. White Monster. This film isn't very scary, but its mighty entertaining. I can see how William Crane (the director) probably was making a statement about drug abuse. Bernie Casey is good as the doctor. The film also stars Rosiland Cash and was distributed by Dimension Pictures (Kingdom of the Spiders & Ruby).

In the twilight of the Blaxploitation genre they already entered in horror genre, this is a rip off of the successful formula of the notorious Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde's variation, this turn a famous black Dr. Henry Pride (Bernie Cassey) and his assistance Dr. Billie Worth (Rosalind Cash) have been developed a special serum aiming for heal liver diseases of their patients, however it presents a collateral effects became into an instant albino monster aspect, so without any human guinea pig available Dr. Pride dares text it himself.

So Mr. Blake strikes on famous nightclub Moonlight Lounge that work as prostitutes meeting point where a Dr. Black's patient Linda Monte (Marie O'Henry) is on duty to get wealthy clients, breaking and destroying the place among the costumers, it triggers some murdering aftermaths on nearby area, therefore the police enters to find out the still unknown assassin.

Supported by a lame screenplay, bad dialogues, far-fetched fights and so for, the picture survives by its uniqueness on trash offering, so bad that is so good on laughable acting of the extra pissed and undying albino monster, it's a tremendous entertainment that will pleased everyone that loves Grindhouse cinema, as far I know it's the first time DVD format release in Brazil!!

Thanks for reading.

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First watch: 1986 / How many: 2 / Source: TV-DVD / Rating: 5.5.