Adaptations of Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

Poster from the 1880s.

Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde is a novella written by the Scottish author Robert Louis Stevenson and first published in 1886. It is about a London lawyer who investigates strange occurrences between his old friend, Dr. Henry Jekyll and the misanthropic Mr. Hyde.

The work is known for its vivid portrayal of a split personality, and since the 1880s dozens of stage and film adaptations have been produced, although there have been no major adaptations to date that remain faithful to the narrative structure of Stevenson's original. Most omit the figure of Utterson, telling the story from Jekyll's and Hyde's viewpoint and often having them played by the same actor, thus eliminating entirely the mystery aspect of the true identity of Hyde, which was the original's twist ending and not the basic premise it is today. In addition, many adaptations introduce a romantic element which does not exist in the original story.^[1] While Hyde is portrayed in the novella as an evil-looking man of diminutive height, many adaptations have taken liberties with the character's physical appearance, sometimes depicting him with animalistic, or downright monstrous, features.

There are over 123 film versions, not including stage and radio, as well as a number of parodies and imitations.^[2] Notable examples are listed below in chronological order.

Adaptations

• 1887, stage play, opened in Boston. Thomas Russell Sullivan's Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. This was the first serious theatrical rendering, it went on to tour Britain and ran for 20 years. It became forever linked with Richard Mansfield's performance, who continued playing the part up until his death in 1907. Sullivan reworked the plot to centre around a domestic love interest.
• 1908, movie USA, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Produced by William N. Selig.
• 1910, movie Denmark, Den Skæbnesvangre Opfindelse (USA Title: Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde). Directed by August Blom and starring Alwin Neuß for the Nordisk Film company.
• 1912, movie USA, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. First USA production based on Richard Mansfield's stage performance. Thanhouser Company Starring James Cruze and Florence Labadie.
• 1913, movie USA, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Starring King Baggot and directed by Herbert Brenon.
• 1920, movie USA, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. A famous of silent film version, starring John Barrymore in a bravura performance. Plot follows the Sullivan version of 1887, with elements from The Picture of Dorian Gray.
• 1920, movie USA, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Directed by J. Charles Haydon.
• 1920, movie Germany, Der Januskopf (literally, The Janus-Head, (Janus being a Roman God depicted with two faces). Directed by F. W. Murnau. An unauthorized version of Stevenson's story, disguised by changing the names to Dr. Warren and Mr. O'Connor. The dual roles were essayed by Conrad Veidt. The film is now lost.
• 1931, movie USA, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Known for its acting, visual symbolism, and special effects, it follows the Sullivan plot. Fredric March won the Academy Award for his portrayal. The technical secret of the transformation scenes was not revealed until after the director's death.
• 1932, radio drama, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Available for download at: [http:|//www.archive.org/details/DrJekyllAndMrHyde_133]. 52 fifteen-minute episodes, likely to have been broadcast weekly over one year. Furthur details unknown.
• 1941, movie U.S., Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. A remake of the 1931 movie, it stars Spencer Tracy, Ingrid Bergman, and Lana Turner. "This is when JEEK-ull (/ˈdʒiːkəl/) became JEK-ull (/ˈdʒɛkəl/), the movie pronunciation."^{[citation needed]}
• 1959, made-for-TV movie France, The Testament of Dr. Cordelier. A modern adaptation of Stevenson's novel, it stars Jean-Louis Barrault, Teddy Bilis, and Michel Vitold.
• 1960, movie UK, The Two Faces of Dr. Jekyll (released in the US as House of Fright and Jekyll's Inferno). A lurid love triangle and explicit scenes of snakes, opium dens, rape, murder and bodies crashing through glass roofs. Notable in that an aged and ineffectual Dr. Jekyll becomes handsome and virile (but evil) Mr. Hyde.
• 1963, movie USA, The Nutty Professor. Directed by Jerry Lewis. This screwball comedy retains a thin connection to the original. Lewis reworks the Victorian polarised identity theme to the mid-20th century American dilemma of masculinity.
• 1968, TV U.S. and Canada, Jack Palance, directed by Charles Jarrott and produced by Dan Curtis of Dark Shadows fame. Nominated for several Emmy awards, it follows Hyde on sexual conquests and hack and slash murders.
• The Who release the song "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde" on the Magic Bus album. They also featured a song called "Dr. Jimmy and Mr. Jim" on their Quadrophenia concept album.
• 1971, movie UK, Dr. Jekyll and Sister Hyde. Starring Ralph Bates as Jekyll and Martine Beswick as Hyde. The earliest work to show Jekyll transform into a woman. Recasts Jekyll as Jack the Ripper, who uses Sister Hyde as a disguise to carry out his murders. Jekyll also employs the services of Burke and Hare.
• 1971, movie UK, I, Monster. Starring Christopher Lee in the Jekyll and Hyde role and Peter Cushing as Utterson. Recasts Jekyll (with a name change to Dr. Marlowe/Mr. Blake) as a 1906 Freudian psychotherapist. Retains some of Stevenson's original plot and dialogue.
• 1972, movie Spain, Dr. Jekyll y el Hombre Lobo, a Paul Naschy film in his long-running series pits Dr. Jekyll against a werewolf.
• 1973, movie U.S. A musical for television with music by Lionel Bart, starring Kirk Douglas as Jekyll and Hyde, with co-stars Michael Redgrave as Danvers, Stanley Holloway as Poole and Donald Pleasence as Fred Smudge. Nominated for Emmy Award (Outstanding Achievement in Music Direction of a Variety, Musical or Dramatic Program - Irwin Kostal, music director)
• 1981, film France, Docteur Jekyll et les femmes with Udo Kier.
• 1981, TV UK, with David Hemmings in the dual role and directed by Alastair Reid. This version gives a twist to the usual ending when Jekyll's body turns into Mr. Hyde upon his death.
• 1982 movie U.S., Jekyll and Hyde... Together Again, a campy satire with Mark Blankfield as Jekyll who experiments with a "drug to replace all surgery" which is inadvertently mixed with an unknown substance.
• 1985, movie USSR, with Innokenty Smoktunovsky in title role.
• 1986, animated Australian telemovie, with John Ewart as Utterson, made by the Burbank production company.
• 1989, movie U.S., Edge of Sanity, a low-budget adaptation with Anthony Perkins as a Jekyll, whose experiments with synthetic cocaine transform him into Hyde, who is also Jack The Ripper.
• 1989, TV UK, with Laura Dern and Anthony Andrews in the dual role. This version, adapted by J. Michael Straczynski, was similar to Hammer's 1960 version in that Mr. Hyde is the more physically attractive of the two.
• 1990, TV U.S., Jekyll & Hyde, a four-hour, two-part, made-for-television film starring Michael Caine in the title roles. Adds in the story Jekyll's sister-in-law character (Cheryl Ladd), who is raped by Hyde.
• 1991, stage play, opened in London. Written by David Edgar for the Royal Shakespeare Company. The play is notable for its fidelity to the book's plot.
• 1995, movie U.S., Dr. Jekyll and Ms. Hyde, in which a descendant of Dr. Jekyll creates a variant of his ancestor's potion that turns him into a woman.
• 1996, movie U.S., Mary Reilly. Starring Julia Roberts and John Malkovich and based on the 1990 novel of the same name by Valerie Martin.
• 1997, musical U.S. Jekyll & Hyde. Music by Frank Wildhorn, book and lyrics by Leslie Bricusse. Originally conceived for the stage by Steve Cuden and Frank Wildhorn. This musical features the song "This Is The Moment".
• 1999, TV movie USA. Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde starring Adam Baldwin. In this modern-day re-imagining, plastic surgeon Henry Jekyll learns ancient Chinese herbal medicine to give himself superhuman powers, which he uses to extract revenge for his wife's murder. Francis Ford Coppola produced.
• 2002, TV movie UK Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde starring John Hannah as both characters, with body language and wardrobe the only distinction between the appearance of the two. The narrative is chronologically disjointed, beginning with the end of the story then returning to the beginning via narrated flashbacks with the occasional brief glimpse of the reading of Jekyll's confession by Utterson.
• 2006, Canadian film Jekyll + Hyde. Starring Bryan Fisher as Henry "J" Jekyll and Bree Turner as Utterson. Two medical students set out to create a drug derived from ecstasy that would enhance and change their personalities.
• 2007, TV serial UK, Jekyll. A six part BBC serial, aired from June 16, 2007, starring James Nesbitt as Tom Jackman, a modern Jekyll whose Hyde wreaks havoc in modern London.
• 2008, TV movie. Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, starring Dougray Scott, Tom Skerritt, and Krista Bridges.^[3]
• The Robert Swindells book Jacqueline Hyde concerns the protagonist's struggle with her 'Hyde' after smelling a bottle, the contents of which releases her bad side.
• In 2009, Abel Ferrara is due to begin shooting a modern day adaptation starring Forrest Whitaker and 50 Cent.^[4]
• 2009, a new theatrical adaptation by playwright Jeffrey Hatcher, for Tony Award winning local Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park.
• 2009, Ursinus College brings Thomas Russell Sullivan's play Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde back to the stage in its complete form, the first time in over 100 years.
• 2010, The Holden Kemble Theatre Company run a new adaptation titled The Scandalous Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde at the Edinburgh Festival and then a 3 1/2 week run at the Tabard Theatre in Chiswick, London.^[5]

Appearances in other fiction

• Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Holmes, a novel written in 1980 by Loren D. Estleman. Sherlock Holmes solves the mystery surrounding Jekyll and Hyde.
• 1988, video game, Dr. Jekyll and Mr Hyde for the NES, created by Toho.
• 1990 novel Mary Reilly by Valerie Martin, a reworking of Stevenson's plot, told from the viewpoint of a maid in Jekyll's household, named Mary Reilly in this novel.
• 1993, animated film, The Nightmare Before Christmas, Mr. Hyde appears as one of the citizens of Halloween Town. Only seen in his "Hyde" form, he keeps two smaller versions of himself underneath his hat.
• 1994, movie U.S., The Pagemaster, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde play as supporting characters, both voiced by Leonard Nimoy.
• 2000, film Monster Mash, during main character's trial for "failure to scare", their lawyer, a bumbling, mummy-type monster, according to Drac, once "got millions from Dr. Jekyll, when he sued Mr. Hyde for malpractice."
• 2003, film The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, adapted from Alan Moore's eponymous comic book series. The film adaptation stars Jason Flemyng as both Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, the latter using prosthetic makeup. Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde are employed by The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen to combat The Fantom. The version of Hyde depicted in both comic and movie bears more resemblance to the Hulk than the malevolent dwarf of the novel, possessing great strength and size. As in the comic book on which it is based, this is attributed to Hyde "growing, free from boundaries, free from limitations."
• 2004, film Van Helsing. Robbie Coltrane provides the voice of a CGI animated Mr. Hyde, who Van Helsing unintentionally kills at the cathedral of Notre Dame when pursuing him through Paris. Mr. Hyde is also portrayed as a large, hulking brute. When Hyde dies, he transforms back into Dr. Jekyll.
• 2008, animated film, Igor: a major character is Jacqueline and Heidi.
• 2010, television series, Sanctuary, the character Adam Worth's story was stolen by a once-friend and retold under the "fictional" title of the "Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde." Adam's psychological disorder is one of split personality at a time before modern psychiatry.
• 2010, young adult fictional book, Jekel loves Hyde, author Beth Fantaskey. Romantic story of how a girl Jill Jekel "cures" a boy, Tristen Hyde, of the Hyde curse. Which is when he blacks-out and becomes violent, capable of hurting anyone, because he is controlled by the beast inside him. Jekel cures Hyde by re-creating the potion which the original Dr. Jekel makes to transform into Mr. Edward Hyde. While making the potion the two fall in love.

Spoofs and parodies

• Dr. Pyckle and Mr. Pryde, a 1925 silent, black-and-white comedy film starring Stan Laurel.
• The Impatient Patient, a 1942 Looney Tunes Daffy Duck cartoon where he ended up meeting a Dr. Jerkyl while trying to send a telegram to someone named, "Chloe."
• Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Mouse, a 1947 Tom and Jerry cartoon.
• Motor Mania, a 1950 Goofy cartoon in which he transforms into a Mr. Hyde-type split personality.
• Abbott and Costello Meet Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, a 1953 horror comedy film starring the comedy team of Abbott and Costello and Boris Karloff as Jekyll/Hyde.
• Dr. Jerkyl's Hide, a 1954 Looney Tunes cartoon featuring Sylvester, Alfie and Chester
• Hyde and Hare, a 1955 Looney Tunes Bugs Bunny cartoon.
• Hyde and Go Tweet, a 1960 Looney Tunes cartoon featuring Sylvester and Tweety, with the bird as the dual character.
• "Nowhere to Hyde," the September 12, 1970 episode of Scooby Doo Where are You!
• Dr. Heckyl and Mr. Hype, 1980 film starring Oliver Reed, where a kindly but hideous doctor develops a potion that turns him into a suave, but evil, man of the world.
• Dottor Jekyll e gentile signora, 1980 Italian comedy film starring Paolo Villaggio and Edwige Fenech
• Jekyll and Hyde... Together Again, 1982, starring Mark Blankfield.
• Dr. Heckyll and Mr. Jive, 1983. Song by Men At Work.
• Dr. Jekyll and Ms. Hyde, 1995 comedy film starring Tim Daly, Sean Young and Lysette Anthony
• "Bubba Hyde", a 1995 song by Diamond Rio. The video starred J.M.J. Bullock playing Barney Jekyll and Bubba Hyde.
• Julia Jekyll and Harriet Hyde, a 1995 British children's television series which aired on BBC One
• Jekyll and Heidi, a 1999 book in the Goosebumps series
• The Strange Case of Dr. Jiggle and Mr. Sly, which appeared as part of the Veggie Tales 2004 video A Snoodle's Tale
• Mrs Hyde, 2005 song of the Italian rock noir band Belladonna ^[6]
• Jekel Loves Hyde, a 2010 young adult novel by Beth Fantaskey

References

1. ^ The Beast Within The Guardian, 13-Dec-2008
2. ^ Derivative works of Robert Louis Stevenson
3. ^ *Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde at the Internet Movie Database]
4. ^ Jekyll and Hyde Coming from Action Jackson Films
5. ^ http://www.tabardweb.co.uk/jekyl.htm
6. ^ Mrs Hyde by Belladonna http://blogs.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendId=35351347&blogId=196396081

External links

• Derivative works of Robert Louis Stevenson
• "The Beast Within", Freudian fable, sexual morality tale, gay allegory — the novella has inspired as many interpretations as it has film adaptations. By James Campbell, The Guardian, December 13, 2008
• [1] Thanhouser Company's 1912 one-reel production of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.