DR. JEKYLL AND MR. HYDE (TV)
Summary
This musical film (unrelated to the 1997 Broadway musical) is an adaptation of Robert Louis Stevenson's 1886 Gothic novella about a daring science experiment gone awry.
The story begins in London as Canadian-born Dr. Henry Jekyll obsesses over his secret experiments, which his confused friends assume to be "very, very good," whatever they are. He travels through the grimy city, where the strong class distinctions are considered "the way it was meant to be," and arrives at an asylum, where he tells the head doctor that he can "cure" the insane patients via chemistry. The head doctor, however, denounces human experimentation as "witchcraft" and dismisses him. On the way home, Jekyll meets resourceful pickpocket Fred Smudge, who offers to help him with any task. But when Jekyll requests a healthy "lunatic," Smudge tells him to look in a mirror. Determined to "change the human animal" with science, Jekyll drinks his own concoction and soon finds himself changing both physically and mentally, experiencing a "sudden feeling for sin."
Deciding that he need no longer "hide" his baser instincts, Jekyll dubs himself "Edward Hyde" and pays Smudge for a private tour of the seedy Soho neighborhood. He spends the evening carousing and flouting the "rules" of society. When the potion wears off in twelve hours, Jekyll finds himself returned to normal – and locked in a jail cell, but he manages to convince the jailer that he has imprisoned the wrong man. He then visits his fiancée, Isabel Danvers, having missed their dinner of the night before, and surprised her with his newest whimsical purchase, a bicycle. Isabel is charmed, though her stuffy father disapproves of her immigrant paramour's lighthearted ways. Jekyll begs Isabel to marry him that very day, but she declines, explaining that she must obey her father's wishes for a formal courtship. Jekyll again willingly transforms into Hyde and spends a raucous night at a music hall with Smudge. He later claims that one of the dancers, Annie Lyons, is a troublemaking "radical," causing her to be sacked from her job. Hyde finds Annie on the street and charmingly offers to be her "patron." When she accompanies him back to a private rented room, she quickly realizes that she is more like his prisoner.
Jekyll arrives late to his formal engagement party, where General Danvers sadly admits to his daughter that "our time together" will come to an end when she marries and leaves home. Jekyll is surprised to hear that a "lunatic" broke into Parliament and caused a scene. He argues that the world actually needs "a cure for sanity" in order to throw off the shackles of polite society. Danvers and the other men assume that he's joking, but they soon begin to question his increasingly strange behavior and long absences. They hope that he's involved in some "very proper sport" – while in fact he is enjoying long bouts of hedonism as Hyde. Hyde soon entraps a young match girl, Tupenny, and brings her to Annie as a servant of sorts. Annie tries to comfort the terrified girl, assuring her that they will be "two fine ladies" with Mr. Hyde's support, but she then causes a distraction and allows the girl to escape. Annoyed, Hyde finally takes Annie from her makeshift prison and takes her to a graveyard, where she is horrified to see her own headstone. Hyde describes in detail how he has spread the story of her untimely death all around London.
Jekyll begins seeing a vision of Hyde as a separate entity and realizes that he is rapidly losing control of his sanity. He writes to his "research associates" and frees them from his service. Meanwhile, Smudge finds that Annie has gone insane from the trauma of Hyde's torment. He offers her to Jekyll as the "lunatic" he previously requested, but Jekyll declares his experiment ended. When Smudge spots a familiar walking stick, he finally makes the connection between the two very dissimilar men. Jekyll sadly takes Annie to the asylum and tells the doctor of his scientific failure. When he attempts to make amends to Isabel, she tells him that she has made peace with his "secret life" and wishes to marry him all the same, promising to convince her father to accept him. Moved, Jekyll ponders his regrets and decides that Isabel is "the key to happiness." However, when he visits General Danvers, he suddenly transforms back into Hyde and murders the man in a rage. He rushes home and is denied entry by Jekyll's butler Poole, who does not recognize him. Regardless, he breaks in and desperately ingests the restorative potion.
In the morning, the police arrive with Smudge, whom they believe to have committed the murder with Jekyll's stolen cane; Smudge furiously accuses Jekyll's alter ego. Jekyll flies into a panic, swearing that he is truly Henry, but his heightened emotion forces him to switch back again. Hyde fights with the police, but quickly realizes that he can't be saved and allows himself to fall through the glass roof to his death, leaving Isabel, Smudge and the policeman to wonder which man lies before them. Commercials deleted.
Details
- NETWORK: NBC
- DATE: March 7, 1973 9:30 PM
- RUNNING TIME: 1:17:45
- COLOR/B&W: Color
- CATALOG ID: B:32136
- GENRE: Drama, fantasy/science fiction
- SUBJECT HEADING: Drama, fantasy/science fiction; Drama, mystery/suspense; Musicals; Literature - Adaptations
- SERIES RUN: NBC - TV, 1973
- COMMERCIALS: N/A
CREDITS
- Burt Rosen … Executive Producer
- David Winters … Executive Producer, Director
- David W. Orton … Associate Producer
- Sherman Yellen … Writer
- Robert Louis Stevenson … Based on the story by
- Lionel Bart … Music by
- Norman Sachs … Music by
- Mel Mandel … Music by
- Irwin Kostal … Music by
- Eleanor Fazan … Choreographer
- Kirk Douglas … Cast, Dr. Henry Jekyll / Mr. Edward Hyde
- Susan George … Cast, Annie Lyons
- Susan Hampshire … Cast, Isabel Danvers
- Stanley Holloway … Cast, Poole
- Donald Pleasence … Cast, Fred Smudge
- Michael Redgrave … Cast, General Danvers
- Judi Bowker … Cast, Tupenny
- Geoffrey Chater … Cast
- John C. Moore … Cast
- Geoffrey Wright … Cast