Rent Dr. Jekyll and Sister Hyde (1971)

Spoilers follow ... - Dr. Jekyll and Sister Hyde review by NP

Opening with the least horrific music you could imagine, it seems as if this parody-sounding film could lean towards the comedic. Luckily, however, it isn’t long before bright red blood spatters one of the many posters offering rewards of £200 for capture of the Whitechapel Murderer, a top-hatted fiend who carves up the bodies of prostitutes.

Wearing long hair that would be deigned decidedly foppish for the Victorian period, Ralph Bates is terrific as the driven Jekyll. His caddish friend, hopeful womaniser Professor Robertson (Gerald Sim) and a scowling Welsh cockney Philip Madoc underused as the low-life Byker flesh out interesting supporting characters in a story that not only acknowledges RL Stevenson’s original tale, Jack the Ripper and Burke and Hare too! What drives Jekyll here is the knowledge that his good work will be curtailed by his own eventual death, and so sets about discovering the elixir of life. For that he needs body parts, and therefore the services of the two lecherous scallywag grave-robbers.

This is rich, confident story-telling. It is also Director Roy Ward Baker’s best work for Hammer in my view. His sprawling depiction of fogbound London is all the more impressive when one discovers the entire project was filmed in the studio.

Of the female performers, Bates’ future wife Virginia Wetherall plays typically doomed prostitute Betsy, and Susan Brodrick portrays the neighbour who has a crush on Jekyll, Susan Spencer. Brodrick is delightful in a role that could have been irritating and obsessive. Instead, she is appealing and simply naïve, leading to some terrifically witty scenes with the woman she assumes is Jekyll’s wife – but who is really Jekyll himself. The mighty, sultry and magnificent Martine Beswick is electrifying as his female alter-ego, the unexpected side-effect of his experiment. The transformation scenes are simple but cleverly effective, achieving the first change in one single take. That Howard Spencer (Lewis Fiander) is instantly besotted with her is entirely understandable (leading to an awkward later meeting between Howard and the male version of the doctor). His/her delight at his/her new body is fabulous, as is Susan’s crushed response to hearing ecstatic female laughter coming from Jekyll’s room.

So enjoyable are the lead performers that it is a true shame they are so inherently evil and therefore doomed. There is a scene when Bates is sweatily hacking away at a new corpse in a backstreet, entirely unaccompanied by anything other than the sounds of distant industry, which is very effective.

This remains one of my favourite Hammer films. It is beautifully written by Brian Clemens, played by actors with a slight hint of irony, but emerges as a tragic tale. The inevitability in which evil-doers must die especially when their evil is so entertaining is a necessary evil in itself. Whilst not really frightening, ‘Dr Jekyll and Sister Hyde’ is steeped in atmosphere, has some pleasantly gory moments and deserved a vastly more widespread reception at a time when Hammer films weren’t attracting the crowds they deserved. If it had been released during the company’s heyday, it would have been a monster.

Interesting - Dr. Jekyll and Sister Hyde review by sb

FILM & REVIEW Hammers gender bending take on the RL Stevenson story has Bates as Dr Jekyll who plans to cure mankind of its diseases but as his older mentor points out he will be long dead before he can achieve much. This inspires him to blend a potion that will prolong his life to allow him to carry out his work but as this involves extracting female hormones to enhance it and has unforseen consequences. He morphs into a female alter ego (Beswick) and begins to realise that he has undertaken a struggle for dominance with her. He uses corpses supplied by Burke and Hare but they soon go freelance and get caught so he has to find his own victims and soon the female part can transform at will without the need for any potion but her side craves more victims to make the transformation permanent. It’s a really interesting idea and both leads are very good especially Beswick but the film does drag at times with a subplot concerning a sister and brother who live upstairs that you could really do without. The inner struggle in itself is good enough - so overall 3.5/5

Interesting Switcheroo. - Dr. Jekyll and Sister Hyde review by Steve

A plot switch so ludicrously gratifying that it's astonishing the public had to wait 75 years after the publication of Robert Louis Stevenson's short gothic novel to see it. Henry Jekyll uses female glands in his basement experiments to extend the human lifespan. So, of course, when he drinks from the exploratory elixir himself... he turns into a sexy woman.

Much of the film's attraction lies in the perfect casting of Martine Beswick as Edwina Hyde. She had been a Hammer glamour girl, and got the part because of a resemblance to Ralph Bates' mad doctor. They are so right together. Maybe it's a shame that Brian Clemens' script didn't make more of the gender themes, but this is Hammer Studios, not Virago Press.

Instead, we get brief nudity. The foggy East End of Victorian London is constructed on elaborate sets. There's plenty of period atmosphere and historic folklore, including skilfully working Jack the Ripper and Burke and Hare into the narrative. There is some gore, and big shock moments and some episodes feel quite transgressive.

So the studio brings its usual virtues to the demented premise. There is too much clumsy innuendo, and the suspense unwinds towards the end. But director Roy Ward Baker assembles each scene with considerable craft. It's not as good as many faithful presentations of Stevenson's classic, because the original story is immortal. But it's a satisfying alternative.