Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (28 Jul. 1955)

A little known adaptation of Robert Louis Stevensons' classic

Director:

Allen Reisner

Writers:

Robert Louis Stevenson (novel), Gore Vidal (adaptation)

Stars:

Michael Rennie, Cedric Hardwicke, Mary Sinclair

Cast

Episode complete credited cast:
Michael Rennie	...	Dr. Henry Jekyll / Mr. Hyde
Cedric Hardwicke	...	Mr. Utterson
Mary Sinclair	...	The Girl
Lowell Gilmore	...	Dr. Lanyon
John Hoyt	...	Poole
Karen Scott	...	The Girl Companion
Gilchrist Stuart	...	Policeman (as Gil Stuart)
Keith McConnell	...	The Fiance
Harry Fields	...	The Pianist
Diane Doxee	...	The Singer
Barbara Morrison	...	The Dowager
William Lundigan	...	Himself - Host
Rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Art Gilmore	...	Announcer

Storyline

Told through the Journal left by Dr. Jekyll after Mr. Hyde is killed in the opening scene. This is a bare bones production, but is very stylish never the less. The classic search of man's Duality. More subtle and sublime then the more famous versions.

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Plot Keywords:

character name in title

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Genres:

Drama

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Details

Language:

English

Release Date:

28 July 1955 (USA)

Filming Locations:

CBS Television City - 7800 Beverly Blvd., Fairfax, Los Angeles, California, USA

Company Credits

Production Co:

CBS Television Network

Technical Specs

Runtime:

60 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

The title makes reference to the novel 'The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde' by Robert Louis Stevenson.

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Goofs

When Hyde has requested the potion from his friend that will turn him back into Dr. Jekyll, he closes the curtains and an unknown hand can be seen to the left of the screen parting that curtain.

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Connections

Version of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1912)

User Reviews

Among the best of a bad lot of adaptations.

I stand second to no one (well, okay, Nabokov) in my admiration of Stevenson's brilliantly structured novel, which is popularly thought to be a horror story but is really more about the unleashed id of a normal (that is, both good and bad) man. Gore Vidal's script presents Dr. Jekyll's experiment as an attempt to expose man's soul and dissect it into angelic and demonic-- a misinterpretation of Stevenson, but not bad.

Michael Rennie is a fine Jekyll, but he is no better a Hyde than his precursors have been (no one has yet topped Barrymore). The real problem with this movie-- the reason it isn't worth seeing-- is the production itself. There are just a few stage sets with deplorable lighting and clunky sound-- a made-for-TV product from 1955, with every technical drawback in plain sight. Jekyll/Hyde is too complex a piece-- it demands CGI, in fact-- to really have made a successful transition to early television with its primitive technology. That said, Vidal and Rennie manage to convey the beastliness of Hyde without making him seem like a boogie man. He is evil on a human scale, and Jekyll is tortured by the fact that he craves Hyde's amoral pursuit of pleasure. Kudos for that.