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It took John Barrymore to bring class to the American horror film, at least in the eyes of the industry. Dignified and virtuous as Dr. Henry Jekyll in this 1920 silent, Barrymore transforms into id incarnate as the lascivious Mr. Hyde. With almost no makeup beyond his gnarled, knobby fingers and greasy hair, Barrymore relies almost solely on a bug-eyed grimace, a spidery body language, and pure theatrical flourish. He tends to be hammy as the leering beast of a thug but brings a tortured struggle to the repressed doctor, horrified at the demon he's unleashed, guilty that he enjoys Hyde's unrestrained life of drinking and whoring, and terrified that he can no longer control the transformations. Martha Mansfield costars as his pure and innocent sweetheart, and Nita Naldi (the vamp of Blood and Sand) has a small but memorable role as the world-weary dance hall darling who first "wakens" Jekyll's "baser nature".
John Barrymore is riveting as humanitarian scientist Dr. Henry Jekyll in this classic 1920 version of Robert Louis Stevenson`s classic tale. Dr. Jekyll, obsessed with separating the good and evil impulses in every person, creates a potion that transforms him into the demonic Mr. Hyde. Dr. Jekyll's on-camera transformation to Hyde contains a tour de force performance by John Barrymore. The initial transformation scene was achieved only through Barrymore`s facial contortions without the use of makeup and remains a frightening, memorable sequence to this day.
Please be advised that while a great effort is made in restoring these films in their entirety, portions which have been destroyed beyond repair may have been edited out.
John Barrymore