Is Dr. Jekyll a woman, a singer or a black man?

THE ADULT VERSION OF JEKYLL AND HIDE [sic] (1971) is another erotic Jekyll and Hyde film: a modern-day doctor discovers Jekyll’s journal, mixes up his formula and becomes a hot, homicidal, bisexual blonde (I assume Doctor Jekyll and Sister Hyde was an influence).

That both Jekyll and his counterpart turn into murderous rapists seems to imply every man has a murderous rapist inside him; then again, I doubt the creators were thinking deeply about subtext. “I don’t remember what I did last night’ things.”

I’d always assumed Kirk Douglas’ turn in the ABC musical adaptation of DR. JEKYLL AND MR. HYDE (1973) was a lost production but luckily it’s not — for some values of the word “luck,” anyway. I was blown away by this as a teen — a classic horror story and a musical in one! — but I’m not surprised it doesn’t hold up.

The template appears to be the Spencer Tracy 1941 version of the story. Jekyll is once again a doctor working to cure the insane, though in this case by rebalancing brain chemistry rather than balancing our good and evil sides. When the local asylum refuses to let him treat their inmates he tests the drug on himself, which makes no sense — his brain chemistry is normal so what good will it do?

For that matter, why does his body change? In Stevenson, it’s explained as the body being an outward expression of the mind; in most of the films, such as this one, it simply … happens (I, Monster, which I rewatched recently, explains it’s because evil is ugly).

Not that it matters. Kirk Douglas can’t pull off the singing and unlike Jack Palance he can’t pull off the role. With Susan Hampshire as Hyde’s mistress, Michael Redgrave as General Carew and Donald Pleasance as a lowlife. “The price of experimental animals has risen, I fear.”

DR. BLACK, MR. HYDE (1976) stars Bernie Casey as “Dr. Henry Pride,” an upscale black doctor who also donates time at a free Watts clinic and dreams of finding a cure for cirrhosis of the liver, which killed his mother. When he kills an old patient by testing his serum on her, Pride decides he’s the only ethical guinea pig (he doesn’t have liver disease but I’m guessing he wants to rule out fatal side effects). The drug is supposed to turn him white but as you can see it makes him look more like he’d rubbed his face in talcum powder. It also brings forth his buried rage over his mother’s death as a housekeeper for a brothel. (“Not one of those women came to help my mother as she died.”).

If not for the title, I’m not sure I’d include this one, as the Jekyll/Hyde aspect (as opposed to “man turns into monster” is slim). That said, it feels like there’s potential here as it touches on class and race issues, inadequacy of medical care for the black community — but it never unearths enough potential to work. With Rosalind Cash as Casey’s true love and Ji-Tu Cumbuka as a cop investigating the serial killer of prostitutes “You’re going to check out this cock and bull story about a black doctor who turns white at night?”

All rights to images remain with current holder.