Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde is the 1920 silent-film adaptation of The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson. Directed by John S. Robertson, the film stars John Barrymore as the eponymous doctor and his twisted alter-ego. Although not the first film adaptation of the novel, this film is the first one to be of feature-length.
Set during London in the 1880s, the film follows Doctor Henry Jekyll, a dutiful and uptight man of medicine. When not spending his time tending to the poor, Jekyll is consumed with conducting scientific experiments in his lab. This concerns Millicent, Jekyll's finacé, as well as her father Sir George Carew. Carew confides in Jekyll that he believes that there are two parts of the human psyche locked in perpetual conflict: one good, one evil. Convincing Jekyll that one must indulge in their temptations every now and then, Jekyll decides to use his scientific knowledge to find a way to separate good and evil from one's own body. He creates a special potion to accomplish this task, but only succeeds in creating a twisted alternate persona which he dubs "Mr. Hyde". Hyde proceeds to indulge in all the dark indulgences he could never accomplish as Jekyll, descending into more fiendish crimes as he goes. Soon, Jekyll finds that he can't control his transformations into Hyde anymore, as Hyde's lustful intentions turn murderous.
Initially distributed by Paramount Pictures, the film has since fallen into the Public Domain.
The movie provides examples of:
- Adaptation Name Change: Sir Danvers' name was changed to George.
- Adaptational Villainy: While Carew in the book was described in almost angelic terms, here he's closer to Lord Henry from The Picture of Dorian Gray, corrupting Jekyll into sin. (In fact, his title cards borrow some of Lord Henry's lines.)
- Chekhov's Gun: The Poison Ring that Hyde takes from Gina. At the end, Jekyll swallows the poison to stop Hyde from raping Millicent.
- The Film of the Book: While still using the Betty and Veronica trope and not being a mystery, this film is somewhat more faithful to the novel than the 1931 and 1941 adaptations. Utterson appears in this version, although his importance is reduced, and Jekyll poisons himself rather than being shot as in 1931 and 1941.
- Forehead of Doom: Hyde develops a monstrously large forehead with the hair sitting on top rather like a cap and then dangling down to emphasis the scalp. He wears a top hat and then slowly pulls it off to reveal the ongoing forehead.
- Giant Spider: One Transformation Sequence features one. Jekyll sees a transparent giant spider crawling towards him, and once it reaches its destination, it disappears and he has turned yet again into Mr. Hyde.
- Mushroom Samba: An opium addict in withdrawal starts hallucinating red ants.
- Opium Den: Hyde visits one, although he doesn't take any opium.
- Poison Ring: Gina, the Italian dancer that is the Veronica in this version's Betty and Veronica pair, has an old ring that has a secret capsule for storing poison (this actually being an old myth about Lucrezia Borgia).
- Shout-Out: Sir George Carew's quote, "The only way to get rid of a temptation is to yield to it", is a direct lift from Oscar Wilde and The Picture of Dorian Gray.
