Bessie Smyth
Great story, amazing characters, superb action, enthralling cinematography. Yes, this is something I am glad I spent money on.
Lidia Draper
Great example of an old-fashioned, pure-at-heart escapist event movie that doesn't pretend to be anything that it's not and has boat loads of fun being its own ludicrous self.
Abegail Noëlle
While it is a pity that the story wasn't told with more visual finesse, this is trivial compared to our real-world problems. It takes a good movie to put that into perspective.
Lee Eisenberg
Lucius Henderson's "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde" is the second movie adaptation of Robert Louis Stevenson's novel, and the oldest surviving version. There was a 1908 version of which no prints are known to exist, making it a lost film. This movie is only about 11 minutes long, so they only adapted the most basic things about the story. Most of it's pretty anticlimactic.The Thanhouser Company, which made the movie, produced about 1,000 movies between 1909 and 1918. This is the first one that I've ever seen, and I watched it on Wikipedia. Apparently, Florence La Badie (Jekyll's sweetheart) got killed in a car wreck a few years after the movie got released.I suspect that most of my generation first learned of the story from Looney Tunes cartoons. For example, there was "Dr. Jerkyl's Hide", in which Sylvester is running from some dogs. He accidentally swallows some of the formula and turns into a monster who makes mincemeat of the bulldog but always reverts to his normal appearance when in the presence of the small dog. And then of course there was "The Nutty Professor" (both the Jerry Lewis version and the Eddie Murphy version).This is an OK version. Nothing impressive. You're just not going to end up with any great adaptation of a classic novel if you only have eleven minutes. The best adaptations are the ones with Fredric March and Spencer Tracy.
skybrick736
The earliest Jekyll and Hyde movie known to this date stood the test of time for me by the end of the quick 10 minute film. When it comes to silent films the music chosen in the background has to be near perfect, although it sounded good at times, the music screeched too often leaving me cringe at moments. Cruze's portrayal of the doctor and the madman was fairly well done and the initial transformation scene was better than I expected. The film could have added a few more shots of written in story lines but the plot was easy to follow. This movie is the start of my deep dive in old horror classics and Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde 1912 silent film was a good way to begin.
Theo Robertson
The nearest I've come to reading Robert Louis Stevenson's original text of DR JEKYLL AND MR HYDE is via a Marvel comic book adaptation so I've no idea how well it compares to its source and can only judge it on its own merits and of the contemporary comparisons of cinema Being only little over twelve minutes there is a brevity to the storytelling which doesn't harm it all and despite eliminating any complex character studies on the dark side of the individual that Stevenson might have included in his novel the story does bring a tight plot to screenDirector Lucius Henderson doesn't bring the jaw dropping visuals J Searle Dawley brought to the 1910 version of FRANKENSTEIN and you can easily guess how the transformation was achieved of Jekyll in to Hyde , one of stopping the camera , putting the make up on actor James Cruze and then having the camera run again . Very simple when you know how in 2013 but one that probably impressed an audience one hundred years agoOf course if you want to be cynical you could claim that Cruze interpretation of Hyde is very hammy and unsubtle but let's not forget that method acting didn't exist in silent cinema and everything is melodramatic with an unwritten rule of the time that someone always has to to hold their hand to their forehead when emoting any strong feeling of surprise bus as I said you have to remember the context of when it was made
Michael_Elliott
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1912) *** (out of 4) The Thanhouser Company released this version of the classic tale with James Cruze in the title role. This version runs around ten-minutes and is a bit weird but it works nonetheless. Cruze is very good as Jekyll but another actor plays Hyde in most of his scenes. Nothing too new is done with the story but this is still a nice version to watch.This is available on DVD along with six other shorts from Thanhouser. Other sources are out there as well but the picture quality on them aren't as good and a couple contain no soundtrack.
