Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1920)

Excellent but underrated film

When a movie has you begging for it to end not even half way through it's pure crap. We've all seen this movie and this characters millions of times, nothing new in it. Don't waste your time.

Good films always raise compelling questions, whether the format is fiction or documentary fact.

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

I won't say much about the story itself, as many of you should already know it. That is unless you you haven't read this great Robert Louis Stevenson story, and to that I say get thee to a library and check it out. Or you could probably read it online. I don't know.Anyway, this 1920 silent film adaptation stars John Barrymore as the titular characters. The movie itself was great. The acting and costumes were fine, and the Jekyll/Hyde transformations were really cool. The Mr. Hyde makeup was very well done. Hyde looked disheveled, creepy and positively evil. Also looked like he hadn't bathed in weeks. That's a stark contrast to the clean, neat, upstanding Dr. Jekyll.My only pick is the score on this version could have been better. Sometimes the music didn't match the film. Kinda odd for some happy upbeat sounding music playing over a rather dismal scene. But the version I watched was on this "50 Horror Classics" DVD set which only cost me $9, so I guess I can't complain too much. Still a great film regardless.

I'm new to watching silents. This was actually my second watched. I viewed this with musical accompaniment that I believe was created in 2004. But don't hold me to that. I might be mistaken. I enjoyed John Barrymore's performance. I had heard that his was/is considered by many to be the best of all of the actors who played the part. I've not seen any of the other performances. But I would say that it might be true. He was very expressive and dramatic. And I'll add another thing. For any fans out there of Frank Zappa...this musical accompaniment sounds JUST LIKE something he would have composed for classical orchestra. I'm learning to enjoy these bygone eras of movie-making. Once in a while a good new movie will come out. But I'm discovering that there's a wealth of them waiting for me to discover. Made before I was born. Some LONG before I was born.

Probably the earliest of the well-known big screen versions of the classic novella, John Barrymore's take on the character is one of the better ones. It's not accurate to the book and feels rather musty for a film from 1920, but solid performances and chilling atmosphere save it from being mediocre. I especially enjoyed Nita Naldi as the dancer used and abandoned by Hyde. Barrymore is, of course, amazing in the titles role(s?).Still, I prefer the 1931 film, only in that it's more disturbing as well as compelling with its psychosexual themes. I also like the transformations better in that film, though Barrymore does great given he doesn't use special effects at all when turning into Hyde.

One of the early adaptations of Robert Louis Stevenson's famous novel casts John Barrymore as the eponymous doctor whose potion releases his evil side. Specifically, this version has Jekyll curious about the existence of a malevolent personality in every person and wanting to be able to make said personality exist on its own...but, we all know what happens.Early on, I thought that the movie was moving kind of slowly since it seemed like the characters were merely having discussions about Jekyll's experiments. But once the good doc drinks his potion, the fun starts. As can be expected, Hyde is one nasty dude.All in all, "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde" has truly stood the test of time. A veritable piece of cinema history. Also starring Brandon Hurst, Martha Mansfield and Nita Naldi.