Jekyll, Hyde and fallen women

In the movies, Jekyll and Hyde know a lot of sex workers.

As I’ve written before, Ivy (Miriam Hopkins) in the 1932 adaptation may not be a prostituted when we first meet her. In the face of Hyde’s threats, she does agree to become his mistress and let him support her; even if that’s her first time doing it for money, it’s enough to make her a fallen woman by movie morality.

Then comes Ingrid Berman in the Spencer Tracy version. And many, many sex workers after that. There’s nothing in the story that requires it: Hyde could just as easily demonstrate his immorality by sleeping with unfaithful wives or debauching virgins. Jekyll and Hyde … Together Again is set in the 1980s so Hyde could easily be picking up women in bars; instead his interest is in a sex-worker, named Ivy in a clear hat-tip to the Tracy/March versions.

All of this led me to MARKED WOMEN: Prostitutes and Prostitution in the Cinema by Russell Campbell. It’s an impressively thorough study including not only films from Mexico, Europe, China, Japan, and India and showing how the same cliches show up everywhere. The book is broken down into chapters covering specific tropes: Tragic Fallen Woman, Happy Hooker, Romantic Dream Girl, Nurturing Caregiver, Businesswoman, Trafficked Slave, Avenger, Noble Martyr.

Campbell argues sex worker characters appeal to men because they’re (at least on screen) beautiful, good in bed and there’s no fear of being turned down: if you’ve got the money, she’s got the time. She doesn’t object that you don’t want commitment and she does whatever you want. For women the appeal may be the glamor (some screen hookers live fabulous lives) or the pleasure of watching a woman transgress the Good Girl rules even if the film punishes her for doing so.

Plus the roles can offer lots of opportunity to a good actor. In the 1932 adaptation, Rose Hobard as Jekyll’s fiancee gets to be sweet and loving and … well, that’s it. Hopkins as Ivy gets to flirt and play sexy, beg for mercy, sob and cry in terror and she does one hell of a job. Watching her tell Hyde she loves him with a frozen smile on her face is gut-wrenching but it’s a first-rate performance. Bergman in the Spencer Tracy remake is excellent too.

Both Ivys end up in the Tragic Fallen Woman trope: sure, Hyde pressured them, but once they made the choice to become his mistress, they crossed a line. For their sins they descend into abuse, suffering a finally death. It’s the same pattern followed by far too many of the women in the films ahead. Very few of them get as good an opportunity to act; in Dr. Jekyll and Sister Hyde and Edge of Sanity, the hookers are simply cannon fodder, victims for a psycho to butcher. Campbell says that’s typical of the 1970s and 1980s, when lots of sex workers on screen ended up dead meat. Lots of others survive but end up brutalized, scarred or abused.

The only exception so far besides Together Again‘s Ivy is Linda in Dr. Black, Mr. Hyde, — she becomes Bernie Casey’s nemesis and ultimately brings him down.

I hope to have deeper thoughts on this by the time the book is done.

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