1920 was a big year for Robert Louis Stevenson's masterpiece, with no less than three versions being filmed.
Dr. Henry Jekyll (John Barrymore) is a healer, philanthropist, and generally well to do. His father-in-law, Sir George Carew (Brandon Hurst), naturally thinks he is a terrible catch for his daughter Millicent (Martha Mansfield).
He argues, after all, that at least he has memories of a live welled lived. What can Jekyll say, other than devoting his life to helping others? He taunts Jekyll over this at a dinner party, all but saying the man has wasted his life. This gets Jekyll thinking and soon a Mister Edward Hyde (Barrymore again) is running amuck in London's seedier side.
Taking up an apartment, Hyde brings dance hall girl Gina (Nita Naldi) to live with him and act as whatever he wants. Hyde's appetites grow from dance halls to bars to finally opium dens. Jekyll's increasing disappearances are soon noticed and led to a confrontation between the good doctor and Sir George. The older man soon learns the truth of Hyde and Jekyll's relationship...fatally so.
With Hyde and Jekyll's lives on a collision course, will anyone be left standing?
Barrymore is magnificent in the lead and even plays Hyde initially without makeup. This was also the first version to give Hyde a love interest to counter Jekyll's usually wholesome fiancee.
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