Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde 1941
Posted by spheer2002 | Filed under Films of the 1940's
Freudian Horses
Directed By Victor Fleming
Although this is Considered to be the lesser film of the early Juggernaut made in 1931, directed by Rouben Mamoulian that ultimately won its actor Fredric March (the Best Years of Our Lives) a tied best academy award with Wallace Beery for ”The Champ” (,a feat which has only happened twice in the history of the academy awards), The 1941 Version should not be completely Overlooked.
Set in Victorian England Circa 1889
The Film Opens with a White Gothic Cathedral and The Minister standing at the pulpit singing the praises of Queen Victoria’s Reign and the ‘Moral’ values it has to greatest pride in displaying, this is quickly Interrupted the the ravings of a Mentally disturbed man sitting in the congregation shouting back at the minister and being Dragged out of the Church.
Dr Henry Jekyll (Spencer Tracy- Guess Whos Coming to Dinner)struggles to convince his peers of his radical theory of helping those who are mentally disturbed but extracting more of , what could be described as their ‘Good” Personality with Science,
As a result for his radical beliefs of Good and evil being a product of human nature and not that of God, he is ostracized by his future Father in Law, separating him from his Fiance Beatrix (Lana Turner - The Postman Always Rings Twice) who is very much in love with him, after a night on the town he runs into a man attacking a woman on the street, a Common bar girl Named Ivy (Ingrid Bergman - Casablanca), He is Sexually attracted to her, but feeling the pressure of being unfaithful to his fiance and worrying about what people may think, he separates himself from her.
In despair about his separation from Beatrix and that the scientific body will not allow him to experiment on live cases of Disturbed Patients, Jekyll Takes the Bold Move of testing his formula on himself.
The Result of Course goes wrong or perhaps works too well, The consequences for his actions are only too clear.
Like Most Hollywood Remakes of their earlier films, Not Much has changed in Hollywood when you Think about it ,
A remake with an all Star Cast, The Hot Director with a great films under his belt .. in this case Victor Flemming with films such as The Wizard of Oz , and Gone with The Wind (or most of it anyway) A rich, slick, decadent MGM look , A And a Sumptuous Film Score Provided By Legend Franz Waxman (Sunset Bvd, Rebecca).. What could go wrong?
Apparently Plenty…
The Film was considered to be a major disappointment, even by today’s standards , this is of course due to the fact that Spencer Tracy is not in the least frightening as The Infamous Mr Hyde,
While Fredric March in the original was completely convincing as a Monster, in his transformation while he roamed the streets of London , Looking like the ‘missing link’ he was legitimately frighting and disgusting in compassion to his Alter ego, Poor Mr Tracy , who generally did a lot better in films was ok as Dr Jekyll, but while still aggressive and animalistic , looked more like Robert Smith of the Cure ,a crazy looking middle aged man who hadn’t showered for a week , but nothing more.. he wasn’t at all scary,
The Film does Bring froward some treasures though
In both films there are of course significant changes to the novel (eg there are no Female leads , and heavy suggestions of Homosexual undertones)
in the 31 version two female characters were added as love interests, one for each personality, the Good has a pretty young respectful fiance, and bad has a cockney crude, prostitute named Ivy,
Of course in 1941 due to film censorship the Character of Ivy was changed from a prostitute to a Barmaid, an essentially good girl, a little rough around the edges that makes bad decisions.
When casting, strangely Spencer Tracy prior to meeting her making the film Woman of the Year (1942) and beginning his famous affair with her Spencer Tracy wanted Katharine Hepburn to play both the Good and the Bad roles, and in the end of the film the revelation was that she was in fact the same woman, of course this never happened, When final casting was done it was decided that Ingrid Bergman would play the Good Girl and the Tarty Barmaid would be played by the blond sultry Lana Turner. But after a string of films playing wholesome saintly milkmaid roles Ingrid wanted a change an opted strangely to play out of type as the earthy Barmaid Ivy and Lana would play Beatrix , The Fiance of Dr Jekyll, although the film fared badly Most People remember Ingrid Bergman for her role saying it almost rivaled the emotional intensity that was shown by Miriam Hopkins in the 31 version playing the rough as guts Prostitute before the Rules of Censorship came through in Hollywood,
The Films greatest Redeeming Feature is the Presence of Ingrid Bergman and what she does with her character if for No Other reason watch it for that!
Also worth mentioning are the film Montages when Tracy Transforms , unlike the 31 version where Fredric Marchs’s transformation is archived through Clever UV lighting by painting marks on the actors face, Tracys Transformation is done completely out of sight, The Montages which are meant to distract us this are for a better word out of this world, almost rivaling the dream sequences in Alfred hitchcocks Spellbound and Vertigo, they have Strong Freudian subtext and are astonishing to view , the most extraordinary being when Sprencer Tracys is whipping two horses, one white, one black they are transformed into his two girlfriends, the white being his Fiance , the Black being his Lustful Desire Ivy, the close up of Ivy and the Pan to Tracys Expression has he Whips her is a harbinger of her fate towards the end of the film.
But in hind site Tracy’s performance may have been in closer examination , more concise with the original concept of the story, A man who drinks a formula , not to bring out a cave man, but his true repressed Aggression , his Violent Sexual nature, Freedom of Expression, and to be able to do anything you can in public without caring about the concerns or the approval of others , Something that like in the book Dr Jekyll deals with in his repressed Victorian society, A society more concerned with manners, class distinction and ultra conservatism .
In this way you could say Tracy is Not frighting to us now as we live in a 21st century society where we are mostly free to do what in private and in public without concerns of silly ”Victorian Garden party Rules” or ”1950s paranoia and stupidity ” .
We have purposely over the course of the 2oth Century have pushed the boundaries of freedom of expression , Sex and self censorship, Violence, Aggression ,in one way or another, The fact that Tracys Mr Hyde is Not scary then , as is now, is that Tracys Mr Hyde is Us.. a citizen of the 20th century
not an ape man that roams London terrorizing people but an uninhibited soul
If you consider the raving man inside the Church at the beginning of the film, and that his inhibitions are because of a head injury due to an accident we have the basic idea from the start,
It is said that people who have an injury to the front of their brain due to an accident may have a slight change of personality, due to the weakening of the front of the brain where we exercise control of our emotions , Something that humans develop after two years of life after instruction from parents and life experience, when this is damaged sometimes traits of our personality , that we usually keep hidden away managed to come through, This Is what Dr Jekyll Believed anyway, and wanted to prove.
Jekyll is the product of extream society repression, whn he takes the forular he does not just ease into a gradualy state of freedom, its given to him all at once, and as he is unavble to deal rationally with his new freedom , it therefor becomes an inflicter of ill, so maybe to judge Tracys Hyde as lesser is infact the easy way to exclude this film, when on closer inspection, he may have been more true to the origional concept that we may already know,
Tags: Barmaid, Based off Novel, Franz Waxman, Freudian, Gothic, Ingrid Bergman, Lana Turner, Love Triangle, Multiple Personality, Murder, Noir, Psychological Thriller, Remake, Robert Louis Stevenson, scientific experiment, Sexual Repression, Spencer Tracy, Victor Flemming, Victorian Era
