"Free-free at last!"
Dr. Henry Jekyll as Hyde, when exiting Jekyll.
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Phantasmagoric Boredom
TIME September 1, 1941
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde is such a pretentious resurrection of Robert Louis Stevenson's ghoulish classic that it might well serve as a final mausoleum for the bones of the ill-fated Harley Street medico and his test-tube twin. Durable Spencer Tracy, a cinemactor who can really act, plays Dr. Jekyll and Friend Hyde for more than they are worth. When bright Dr. Jekyll decides to put all his evils in one basket by swallowing the laboratory brew which turns him into the dreadful Mr. Hyde, the result is not horrifying. It is laughable when he addresses his captured barmaid (Ingrid Bergman) as "my tired fungus,"' revolting when he spits grape skins in her pretty face, hammy when he chuckles fiendish "Heh, heh, hehs" at his lecherous face in the mirror.
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As for Lana Turner, fully clad for a change, and the rest of the cast (Donald Crip, Ian Hunter, etc.) they are as wooden as their roles. Hyde, heckling Jekyll in the mirror, probably sums it up best. Says he: "How did such a dull, pompous ass like you ever think of anything as charming as this?"
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