By
Hank Reineke
There’s a long-standing Hollywood tradition of blending filmdom’s
most bankable but seemingly disparate genres – horror and comedy – but a
successful marriage of the two is a tricky business at best. The gold standard films of these hybrid would
be, generationally, Abbott & Costello
Meet Frankenstein (1948), Young
Frankenstein (1974) or, I suppose, Ghostbusters
(1984) should one choose to go “modern-contemporary.†Parodies of Robert Louis Stevenson’s Dr.
Jekyll and Mr. Hyde would serve as a virtual cottage industry of horror-comedy fusion,
these pastiches encompassing the silent era, animated shorts, features, and
even pornographic films. Having already
challenged the Frankenstein monster, Abbott and Costello would eventually take
on other classic movie monsters, including Boris Karloff’s Mr. Hyde in an
entertaining 1953 Universal Studios production. I like that one a lot.
Charles B. Griffith’s Dr.
Heckyl & Mr. Hype (Cannon Group, 1980) is one of the odder
entries. It’s difficult to exactly pinpoint
this production’s various misfires, but Dr.
Heckyl & Mr. Hype ultimately displays more madness than madcap charm. This brand new release on Blu-ray by Scorpion
Releasing promotes the film as nothing less than a “Long Sought after Cult
Classic,†and I guess it might be… but only if screened before an audience of
undemanding and sleepy stoners attending a midnight movie. It’s a shame really as
there’s a cadre of proven talent both behind and in front of the cameras. Director Charles B. Griffith cut his teeth in
the movie business contributing playfully winking screenplays to low budget
exploitation films for industry maverick Roger Corman. Some of the quickly tossed-off monochrome films
he helped construct – most notably Bucket
of Blood (1959) and Little Shoppe of
Horrors (1960) – would go on to achieve acclaim as true pop culture
classics.
It’s of interest that simultaneous to the 1960 release of
Corman and Griffith’s Little Shoppe of
Horrors to the U.S. drive-in circuit, a little know twenty-two year old
British actor named Oliver Reed would appear, un-credited, in the Hammer
Studios horror film The Two Faces of Dr.
Jekyll (Terence Fisher, 1960). That
Griffith and Reed work together some twenty-years on Dr. Heckyl & Mr. Hype would suggest – on some cosmic level, I
suppose - a neat closing of the circle. But it’s sadly more akin to the tightening of a noose.
Griffith gets sole credit for the film’s screenplay –
although a sub-title acknowledges his “Apologies to Robert Louis Stevenson,â€
the author of the classic 1886 novella “The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll &
Mr. Hyde.†Griffith’s script, for all
its faults, does offer an interesting twist on the classic tale… even if that
twist is only a variation of Jerry Lewis’s The
Nutty Professor (1963). Oliver
Reed’s Dr. Henry Heckyl is, unlike the prosperous physician of Stevenson’s
creation, an eccentric podiatrist, one of three doctors (“Heckyl, Hinkle and
Hooâ€) operating out of San Texaco’s quirky Robert A. Coogan Memorial Clinic.
What’s different here is Dr. Heckyl, as he himself admits
forthrightly, possesses a “Face that Spoils a Sunny Day.†Though nattily dressed, he is dreadful in
appearance. His skin is of a green-gray
pallor and spotted with skin lesions, festering sores and ulcerations. His nose
is bulbous and serrated. His teeth are
brown, razor-sharp and crooked, and a bird’s nest of a fright wig sits upon his
hideous noggin. One of his eyes is
completely red, the other completely green. He walks stoop-shouldered and slumbering through his sunny suburban neighborhood,
frightening – or, at the very least - making everyone around him uncomfortable in
his approach. Some look away from him in
sympathy, some in obvious distaste.
Heckyl’s only respite is at the medical building where
his equally quirky colleagues see him for the good soul he is. Dr. Hinkle (Mel Welles) is in the midst of
developing a potion that will assist large-frame ladies shed extra weight. Dr. Hoo (Kedrick Wolfe), on the other hand,
seems to have little interest in his chosen profession. He spends most of his office time engaging
his fetishism of tickling clients with a feather. For all of its apparent oddness, it’s clear
that the office is an oasis for him, a place where he’s treated with a measure
of respect and kindness, and not as a monster.
That is until Heckyl ingests Dr. Hinkle’s potion, which
transforms him into Mr. Hype – handsome Oliver Reed sans makeup. The problem is that his transformation not
only changes his physical appearance but his agreeable personality as well. He is now a complete narcissist, a
self-absorbed obnoxious cad. As the
hideous Heckyl he was a good-natured soul who would selflessly toss a coin into
a blind man’s begging cup. As Mr. Hype
he’s such an ass that he steals the last bench seat at a bus spot from a frail
old woman.
Griffith’s meandering story is framed around Dr. Heckyl’s
longing for the beautiful Coral Careen (Sunny Johnson), a pretty blond he takes
the bus into town with each day. There’s another sub-plot involving the police
trying to track down the lothario who is taking advantage of any woman he can
get his hands on. The filmmakers and
on-screen talent appear as though they had a grand old time in the making of
this film, but that sense of fun only occasionally channels to cinemagoers. The cast’s purposeful exaggerated acting
styles and their lighthearted approach to this project were no doubt encouraged
rather than tempered by the director.
There was reportedly no shortage of marijuana and vodka
on set and off, and these consumptions likely account for much of the on-screen
silliness. Reed’s real-life fondness for
alcohol is well documented, and since he takes more than a few swigs from bottles
throughout the film, one wonders if they’re mere props or potent vessels to fuel
him through a day’s work. There are a host of familiar faces popping in and out
throughout the film. These include Jackie
Coogan and Virgil Frye, as well as the revered Roger Corman film-alumnus Dick
Miller. But the success (or failure) of
the film ultimately rests on the shoulders of Oliver Reed who appears to be
having fun, even if most of us are not. I’m
not familiar with Reed’s filmography to the extent that I can simply dismiss Dr. Heckyl & Mr. Hype as the nadir
of an otherwise celebrated career, but I would imagine this film would surely
rate near the bottom.
The cheapness of the production is apparent everywhere,
from the green greasepaint covering his head and neck that’s suddenly becomes absent
under his shirt collar, to the disappointing transformation scenes. They’re handled in a totally non-dramatic and
unconvincing manner, the annoying flash of strobe lights masking the fact that
not much is really happening. There’s no
way of watching these conversions without nostalgically pining for Karl
Struss’s still-amazing camera work in Rouben Mamoulian’s classic 1931 version where
we visually experience Fredric March’s transformation from Jekyll to Hyde in
real time and right before our eyes. While
I’m pleased that I finally have had the opportunity to catch the “cult classicâ€
that is Dr. Heckyl and Mr. Hype – and
this Blu-ray from Scorpion Releasing is practically flawless in presentation – this
is sadly not a film I will revisit anytime soon.
This Blu-ray edition of Dr. Heckyl and Mr. Hype is presented here in 1080p High-Definition
Widescreen 1:78:1 from a new 2019 HD master and in DTS-HD Master Audio. The lone bonus features included with this
new release - save for removal English subtitles - is a gallery of theatrical
trailers. The trailers include such oddities
as 3:15 (1986), Night Visitor, The Cycle
Savages (1969), P.O.W: The Escape
(1986) and Hell Camp (1986).
(This title does not appear to be available on Amazon USA at this time. However, it can be ordered from Diabolik DVD).