Horror 2025 Countdown: The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1968)

The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1968), dir. Charles Jarrott, Dan Curtis Productions 

Beginning things this year, per tradition, with a mad scientist yarn and who madder than the tale of Jekyll and Hyde?

Dr. Henry Jekyll (Jack Palance) is trying to conduct a lecture on the nature of human duality, specifically the good/evil personification and the ability to isolate one from the other via chemical means. The lecture is heckled quite thoroughly by Jekyll's rival Sir John Turnbull (Leo Genn) to the point where Jekyll leaves but you can tell he was seconds away from screaming "I'll show them, I'll show them all!"

And he does that very night; instructing his butler Poole (Gillie Fenwick) to admit no one, Jekyll retires to his lab with some chemicals he bought from Mr. Stryker (Oscar Homolka). He starts to black out when we cut to commercial. 

When we next see the esteemed doctor, he's in bed nursing what appears to be a massive hangover. He doesn't recall anything of the night before, but given the trashed state of his lab plus his empty cash box, he must of had some fun. A flyer for a bawdy house clues him in; when he visits the place none of the working swear they know him but they're a bit tired you see. Some free spending gent popped in last and nearly tore the place, some strange fellow named of Hyde. 

From there Hyde's influence starts to grow while Jekyll's weakens. Hyde quickly goes from rouge to monster as he nearly murders quite a few people. he apparent closeness to the good doctor raises some eyebrows too, from the police to Stryker. 

Soon Hyde doesn't need Stryker's drugs to come out. Can Jekyll's friend Devlin (Denholm Elliot) save his friend from himself?

Decent, but Palance is woefully miscast. His Hyde is passable, but Jekyll is stiffer than a medical school skeleton. Everything else works and works perfectly. It is clearly aping the 1931 version, albeit limited to ABC's standards and practices but the backgrounds and effects work together to lift what could have been a drab soundstage affair.