Monster of the Day #3062

Updated on July 7, 2020 By Ken Begg 11 Comments

Here’s one that never got around much. It’s the 1920 silent version of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde starring John Barrymore. It was quickly overshadowed by the famous Fredric March version and then the more opulent Spencer Tracy remake. You can watch it on the Cult Cinema Classics on YouTube.

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  • This one used to turn up in the dollar VHS bins a lot though, which where I saw it for the first time. The transformation scenes get maximum effect on minimum makeup just from the power of Barrymore’s acting.

  • Gamera977

    Oh cool, I’ve only seen the Tracy version. Amazon Prime has a version with Jack Palace as Jekyll/Hyde. I love Palace, I’m really looking forward to that one.

  • Gamera977

    Oh and BTW the Critical Drinker has a new review of the ’90s ‘The Island of Doctor Moreau’ up on his YouTube channel. I watched it the theater back when it first ran. And enjoyed Ken’s review. Somehow I didn’t think it was quite so bad a movie. Though Brando’s and Kilmer’s performances were like ‘WTH!?!’ Apparently there’s a documentary out there of everything that went wrong with this movie, I’ve got to look it up someday.

  • Gamera977

    My apologies, the review on this site was by Jason MacIsaac not Ken.

  • It’s called Lost Soul and last time I checked it was on Prime. Well worth the watch.

  • If you haven’t already, check out Palance’s Dracula. Not only is he great in it, it’s also one of the more faithful versions of the novel. German Shepherd stand in for wolves in places, alas, but a great flick nonetheless.

  • Ken_Begg

    Seconded. Lost Soul is hilarious and an instructive examination of exactly how wrong the film business can go.

  • Gamera977

    Thanks GJ, watched it last night. I’m not a person who believes in curses but some things sometimes just seem jinxed from the start. And it’s funny, just watched the Dick Miller documentary the other week. As a guy who came on set on time, memorized and delivered his lines with no muss, no fuss, didn’t start fights with other actors, and didn’t try to push around the director and see how much stuff he could get away with frankly I think Miller was far better an actor than Kilmer and maybe even Brando too.

  • Gamera977

    It’s one of my favorite Dracula films. I love the snarling animalistic way Palace plays the role. It fits with the subhuman vampire I prefer in my movies.
    Only thing I didn’t like about it is the whole reincarnated lost love idea they swiped from the mummy movies. Seems it’s became standard with about half the vampire movies after that.

  • Eric Hinkle

    It still stuns me to hear that simply being ‘on time and sober’ and doing the job you’re being paid to do is enough to get you considered as one of the better performers to work with in Hollywood. Is basic maturity and responsibility that rare in the film business?

    And that’s not a crack aimed at anyone here, just to be clear.

  • I think the reincarnated thing works better here than it did with Coppola’s misfire, but it really didn’t need to be there.