Dr. Jekyll and Sister Hyde (1971)

The Sexual Transformation of a Man into a Woman Will Actually Take Place Before Your Very Eyes!

Dr. Jekyll and Sister Hyde

Did you honestly think I would start off Hammer Horror week with one of their monster classics?  Dr. Jekyll and Sister Hyde was released in 1971 as Hammer Studios scrambled to reinvent itself to challenge the emergence of exploitation cinema.  Many Hammer movies from this period promised explicit and shocking scenes to get butts in the theaters which the films ultimately failed to deliver.  They were essentially the same style of Hammer Gothic horror with a little more nudity and a little more blood thrown in.  Dr. Jekyll and Sister Hyde is one of these films.

A young, handsome fellow called Dr. Jekyll is working on a cure for all the diseases of mankind until he realizes that his research is progressing so slowly that he will die of old age before his dream of eradicating the illnesses of the world can be achieved.  So he does the logical thing and starts collecting hormones from the cadavers of young women to create an elixir that will prolong his life.  Unfortunately, the two brutes who "collected" the bodies of the young girls were killed by an angry mob so Dr. Jekyll is forced to start murdering them himself.  The film starts to resemble a Jack the Ripper story more than Robert Louis Stevenson's tale.

Also, the elixir turns Dr. Jekyll into a woman.  To explain this strange woman who periodically appears in his flat, he tells the others in his building that she is his widowed sister Mrs. Hyde.  As himself, he starts a relationship with a girl who lives upstairs.  As Mrs. Hyde, he starts an affair with the young girl's brother.  They begin to question the inconsistencies of his/her behavior, the police start to close in on him as the murderer and Mrs. Hyde attempts to take control of Dr. Jekyll's soul.  How does it all end?  In a dull manner, I must admit.

When you watch as many over the top grindhouse films as I do, the Hammer films come of as entertaining but very tame.  They are not shocking in the least no matter how much the poster art tells me they are, but I thoroughly enjoy them for the story, costumes and atmosphere.  Most will be quite bored if they watch this film, or any Hammer film, with the expectations that it will be as explicit or graphic as other grindhouse films.  Ultimately, Dr. Jekyll and Sister Hyde is worth watching, just don't expect it to be something it's not.  It's a Hammer film, after all.

Violence Rating/Index: 2 out of 5
Booby Rating/Index: 2 out of 5  - Click to see the nude scenes.