Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
About Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
Dr. Jekyll locks himself in his laboratory and drinks a drug that turns him into Edward Hyde, a dark-haired figure with talons and fangs. The change begins to hit him without the potion. While calling on the vicar's daughter, the woman he loves, he becomes Hyde, knocks down a little girl, and kills the vicar when the old man tries to save her. The antidote runs out. He orders drugs through a barred door; the servant does not know the voice and brings the police. Hyde swallows poison as they break in.
Cast & crew
More about Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
Lucius Henderson directed the one-reel drama from Thomas Russell Sullivan's 1887 play, written for Richard Mansfield, rather than from a straight reading of Stevenson's novella. Edwin Thanhouser produced it. The Motion Picture Distributing and Sales Company released it, and exchanges could order one-, three-, and eight-sheet posters.
Themes
Background
It is a one-reel American version of the Mansfield play, released eight years before John Barrymore's 1920 feature. The Moving Picture World noted that several earlier pictures had already used Stevenson's story.
Making
Harry Benham told historian Clark Wilkinson that he played Hyde in several scenes. The makeup hid the switch, he and Cruze were about the same build, and the double sped the shooting. The credits still named only Cruze for both parts.
Reviews
The Moving Picture World (January 27, 1912) said this version was more effective than the earlier films the reviewer had seen, and told exhibitors to bill it as a special. The New York Dramatic Mirror (January 24) called the change from Jekyll to Hyde an artistic achievement. The Morning Telegraph (January 21) credited double exposure, and other camera tricks, for a transformation the stage could not match.
Look
The Morning Telegraph described the Jekyll-to-Hyde change as double exposure and other camera tricks, done in front of the camera rather than by a stage exit.
Music
Silent. No composer is credited.
Preservation
Prints are held by the Library of Congress, the UCLA Film and Television Archive, and the Cinémathèque québécoise. Blackhawk Films holds an incomplete 35mm preservation negative and positive.
Notes
- The Moving Picture News of January 6, 1912 announced the release for January 11. It opened on January 16.
- An advertisement in The Moving Picture World on January 13 shows James Cruze standing beside Harry Benham.
- Marie Eline, billed as the Thanhouser Kid, is the little girl Hyde knocks down. Florence La Badie plays the sweetheart.
- Marguerite Snow, Cruze's wife, and Jane Gail appear in smaller parts.
- Steve Haberman argues in Silent Screams that Benham played every Hyde scene, because Hyde is too short to see himself in the mirror on Jekyll's wall.
- James Cruze later directed The Covered Wagon (1923).
- Silent Era records no copyright registration. The film is in the public domain in the United States.
Scenes
- Jekyll drinks in the locked laboratory and slumps; a fanged Hyde is in the chair.
- Hyde knocks the little girl down in the street.
- The change hits while he is visiting the vicar's daughter, and Hyde kills the vicar.
- He swallows poison as the police break the door.
Influenced by
- Robert Louis Stevenson's 1886 novella Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde
- Thomas Russell Sullivan's 1887 play, written for Richard Mansfield
Also available
- Wikimedia Commons (Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1912) by Lucius J. Henderson.webm)
