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Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde 1941

Posted by spheer2002 | Filed under Films of the 1940's

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

Read more | Comments (0) | October 7th, 2009

The Lodger 1926

Posted by spheer2002 | Filed under Films of the 1920's

At Age 27 after three films (two of which are lost, the other,  which was ”The Pleasure Garden”)  Hitchcock Culminated his first seminal quintessential film ,it was raised in the schools or Berlin and Was hailed as the Greatest British Picture Ever Made at the time, Its A theme He would Return to many years later in Frenzy made outside the golden age of his successes in Hollywood.

It was Hitchcock first major Success  and one of two films in the 20’s (the other was ”Blackmail”) that gave him an enormous reputation , It offers a possible explanation for”Jack the Ripper” and shows the beginning of many Hitchcock trademarks such as the Wrong Man on the run, fetishistic sexuality and murder, Death and Pleasure,

In the Dark Thick Fog, London is awash with fear and loathing over a serial sex murder known as “The Avenger”  who targets Blond Woman in particular  and leaves their warm corpse lying in the street ,He always strikes on a Tuesday, his Face is covered, and Leaves his calling card always tucked away in the victims pocket,

On a Tuesday night Daisy Bunting(June Tipp) a Model comes home to her little flat she shares with her family, her boyfriend(Malcolm Keen) the local chief of police is there boasting how he’s going to catch the”avenger killer while flipping a coin in the air, Suddenly the Gas meter switches off and while Daisys Father (Arthur Chesney) goes to insert another coin in , The house goes dark All of A sudden their is a knock on the Door and Mrs Bunting (Played beautifully by Marie Ault) Opens the Door to a pall faced Tall man with his face Covered (Ivor Novello) inquiring about the room for let upstairs,The Pale Antisocial Asexual Unnamed man begins his association with the family and starts More trouble than they can possibility imagine, especially when we seems to take Interest in Daisy who Just Happens to be Fair  Haired.Suspicion Falls upon the odd Introvert and coincidence seems to follow fact as Tuesday Night Comes Around Again and another scream is heard in the Depths of the London Fog.

Fritz Langs film work work  particularly “M” (a film about a child molester and Serial Murderer) made a profound impression on the Work of Hitchcock .It would be a strange coincidence that in his Last American Film Frtiz Lang Would Pay Homage to him in ”Beyond Reasonable Doubt”

This film has all the trademarks of the latter Hitchcock s films and is greatly enhanced by the great use of film montage of  German Expressionist Films to which Hitchcock learned his trade and made a point of his style  This Film has been Remade four times as recently as 2009 and the second even starred Novello himself however there’s is no comparison There are some who say Hitchcock was always a bit of a silent film director with  his use of great lengthy scenes without dialogue, and if you watch this u can see why everything in the stories plot comes across clear as a bell  its not a dodgy DW Griffith with too much montage to millions of Credit cards to Tell you whats happening, you can see exactly whats going on, you can tell when something horrible is going to happen to the sweet blond victim , and you are given that same ’suspend belief’ that’s in all the Great Hitchcock Films of his Golden Period .

Its a Silent film but as the voyer you can still see everything that goes on you are  looking through a crack in the floor of a second story apartment at a ”Killer” Passing above your head waiting to strike,

Tags: Accusation, Hitchcock, Love Triangle, Murder, Mystery, Noir, Psychological Thriller, Serial Murderer

Read more | Comments (1) | June 9th, 2009

Mildred Pierce 1945

Posted by spheer2002 | Filed under Film, Films of the 1940's

Mommie  Knows Best…..

In time middle of the night in a beach house on the upper side of town shots ring out,  The Dead Man crys out……..Mildred!……and falls to the floor its seems an open and shut case,,,,but what really happened?
Mildred Pierce (Joan Crawford Strange Cargo)a housewife spoils  her daughters  Especially the eldest while husband Bert looks over the fence for some afternoon delight while his buddy Wally Fay(Jack Carson’A Star is Born) trys to get is paddle in(In Vain) . They soon divorce, leaving Mildred to raise the girls on her own. Elder postwar class driven daughter (Biatch)Veda (Anne BlythThe Great Carouso) goads her mother about their lack of money and in response Mildred proposes opening a small restaurant. one thing leads to another,and she becomes  incredibly successful and even love seems to be around the corner, but money soons starts to by love in the manner of clothes, education, and payoffs all of which leads to the beginning of the film in classic noir style .Also in the cast a wonderfull sardonic Eve Arden (Grease) is the wise cracking sidekick to joan crawford to give humor to this black film.

Its only that sort of mother loving that Joan Crawford can deliver…….

What Price a Mothers Love ?

Tags: Alcoholism, Based off Novel, Divorce, Gun, james m cain, Joan Crawford, Love for Children, Love Triangle, Marriage, Max Steiner, Mother Daughter Relationship, Murder, Noir, Rise and Fall, Self Made Woman, Self Sacrifice

Read more | Comments (0) | May 24th, 2009

Party Monster 2003

Posted by spheer2002 | Filed under Film, Films of the 2000's

Tags: Autobiographical, Based off Novel, Bi, Decadence, Drug Culture, Drugs, Gay, Murder, Party

Read more | Comments (0) | May 22nd, 2009

Our Man In Havana 1959

Posted by spheer2002 | Filed under Film, Films of the 1950's

Our Man Alec

Highly recommend this one…

Based of Graham Greene novel
Jim Wormold(Alec Guinness ‘Bridge on the river Kwai, Star Wars’) is an expatriate Englishman living in pre-revolutionary Havana with his teenage daughter Milly. He owns a vacuum cleaner shop but isn’t very successful so he accepts an offer from Hawthorne(Noel Coward .’The Italian job’ and the second coming of Oscar Wilde ) of the British Secret Service to recruit a network of agents in Cuba. Wormold hasn’t got a clue where to start but when his friend Dr. Hasselbacher(Burl Ives, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof) suggests that the best secrets are known to no one, he decides to manufacture a list of agents and provides fictional tales for the benefit of his masters in London. He is soon seen as the best agent in the Western Hemisphere but it all begins to unravel when the local police decode his cables and start rounding up his “network” and he learns that he is the target of a group out to kill him Also starring Maureen O’Hara(The Quiet Man) as British intelligence
Written in the wake of the popularity of the James Bond Novel Phenomena, and released three years before the franchise begin  with ”Doctor No”  Spys and the Cold war were a score of fear and speculation at the time, the Novel and the film more so make fun of this as well as present a possibility of real espionage and contract killing as the result of ‘Hype’ of the Red Scare , this film although a parody shows the real consequences  of what happens when you dont check your facts and believing  in ‘Santa clause’
Although the New  Government of Cuba was More than happy for Graeme Greens novel about the baptista regime, showing it to be  corrupt and the thoughtless meddling s foreign spies from both Brittan and America , The Book and the Film were subsequently withdrawn after Greens comments about the treatment of Intellectuals  and Gays and Lesbians ,People don’t realize when they put posters of  Che Guevara on their wall , they forget when he  worked with Fidel Castro he actually supported putting intellectuals and Homosexuals in concentration camps, subsequently this important  film about the change in power in Cuba from the Batista’s seems to be little know in its own country.
as a time capsule  of a period in history its fascinating to watch a generation who lived in fear of the Bomb and the blunderings of both sides to resolves this the best way they can by sheer stupidity.
Alex Guinness is great as a British ‘Jimmy Stewart’ everyman who wants the best for his family and plays both side of politics like a poker game with deadly consequences.

Tags: Based off Novel, Black Comedy, Comedy, Espionage, expressionist, Graham Greene, Murder, Noel Coward, Noir, Red Scare, Satire, South America, Spy

Read more | Comments (0) | May 21st, 2009