A 1971 Hammer Horror film adapting The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde with several changes.
The dedicated Dr. Jekyll is attempting to find a cure for all disease. Realizing that this research could take longer than his natural lifespan, Jekyll derails into a search for an "elixir of life", some way of slowing the aging process. He hits upon human female hormones as a possible main ingredient, and early experiments seem to bear him out.
The problem now is that synthetic hormones don't exist yet, and no sane woman is going to volunteer to have her hormone-producing organs removed. So Jekyll turns to body snatchers Burke and Hare. Armed with his new supply, Jekyll develops his serum...but it has some side effects. When the body snatchers are put out of business, Jekyll must find yet another supplier for fresh female hormones, while dealing with some personal issues.
Trope in this film include:
- Aloof Dark-Haired Girl: Hyde.
- And Your Little Dog, Too!: Hyde tries this towards Jekyll's love interest, in hopes of destroying his will to live.
- Artistic Licence – History: Burke and Hare ply their trade right alongside Jack the Ripper.
- Artistic Licence – Biology: Jekyll's theories of women possessing the hormones for eternal life are nonsense...but they're an excuse to get the plot going.
- Attractive Bent-Gender: Doctor Jekyll turns into his female alter-ego- Sister Hyde- whose beauty and sexual appeal catches the eyes of several men, including Jekyll’s love interest’s brother.
- Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Ladies of Whitechapel think they'll be safe walking home with another woman. They are very, very wrong.
- The Casanova: Professor Robertson. It proves his undoing.
- Curtain Clothing: After transforming from Jekyll into Hyde, the female Hyde pulls down some red draperies and fashions them into a dress.
- The Cutie: Susan.
- Disposable Sex Worker: As per the real Whitechapel murders.
- Eye Scream: The body snatcher Hare is blinded when an angry mob tosses him into a lime pit.
- False Widow: Hyde's cover story, allowing her to freely pursue a new husband.
- Gender Bender: Doctor Jekyll to Sister Hyde.
- Gothic Horror
- Grand Theft Me: The main struggle between Jekyll and Hyde.
- Hanging by the Fingers: Dr. Jekyll attempts to escape from the police over the rooftops. He slips and falls and winds up hanging from the fingers from the gutters.
- How We Got Here: The movie opens with Jekyll's doomed confession.ky
- Immortality Immorality: Requires other people's body parts, and the main character starts taking them by force.
- Informed Attractiveness: Almost everyone who sees Mrs. Hyde remarks on her beauty. One character is even surprised that Jekyll could have a sister so fetching.
- Jack the Ripper: Jekyll himself, and later Mrs. Hyde.
- Jekyll & Hyde: As indicated in the title.
- The Jekyll Is a Jerk: While Jekyll is a Well-Intentioned Extremist, he is the one who starts the killing spree, independent of Hyde.
- Lady in Red: Hyde's Gorgeous Period Dress.
- Line-of-Sight Alias: Jekyll explains that the woman seen in his flat the previous night (actually him transformed into a woman) was his sister. When Susan asks her name, Jekyll glances at the newspaper in his hand and sees the headline "Murder in Hyde Park", and replies:"Hyde...Mrs. Hyde...She's a widow."
- Love Makes You Evil: Falling in love is one of the reasons Hyde is determined to have complete control of her body.
- Mad Scientist: Jekyll, of course.
- Madonna-Whore Complex: Susan Spencer is a modest, sweet, virginal Girl Next Door smitten with Jekyll. Sister Hyde is a sexually liberated exotic beauty and a Serial Killer to boot.
- Man, I Feel Like a Woman: After his first transformation into a woman, Jekyll opens his dressing gown and gazes in wonder at his breast before starting to fondle it. the moment is spoiled when the hand doing the fondling turns back to male.
- Mistaken for Gay: Howard believes Jekyll’s isolated lifestyle and his disinterest in Susan’s clear affection towards him are signs of doctor not being entirely “normal”. Later Jekyll (influenced by Hyde’s persona) strokes Howard’s face affectionately, which doesn’t help the case.
- Multi-Gendered Split Personalities: The main character is a man whose Hyde is a woman.
- Romancing the Widow: Howard Spencer is strongly attracted to Sister Hyde, and so does she to him, much to Dr.Jekyll’s dismay.
- Sibling Triangle: Susan Spencer has a thing for Dr. Jekyll, while her brother Howard is attracted to Mrs. Hyde. Naturally, they don't know that the two are the same person
- Slowly Slipping Into Evil: Jekyll goes from buying bodies, to buying suspiciously murdered bodies, to finding his own sources...
- Well-Intentioned Extremist: Jekyll.
