LH first saw it at the Lido in Bolton, circa 1937, on a re-release.

‘It was my first experience, in our well-behaved town, of an audience cat-calling and rough-housing during a performance.  Mum said comfortingly that they only did it to prove they were not scared by Jekyll’s transformations into Hyde; I was, but tried not to show it…’

The story needs no introduction, but the version is the one for which Frederic March won the Best Actor Oscar, as the tormented split-personality of the title.

‘Outstanding among the elements which make this film a classic is Frederic March’s performance; in the first place he is warm, vibrant and impulsive, then under the Hyde make-up an unrecognizable animal.’

 

Director Rouben Mamoulian also rated praise:

‘…perfectly and elegantly filmed by Rouben Mamoulian, that master innovator who ran out of innovations.…technically [he] has produced a masterpiece of cinematic flow and invention.’

Halliwell sums it up:

‘This fifty-year old film has excitement and ingenuity in every frame: there is no way at all in which it could be improved by the techniques of the eighties.’