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June 12, 2009
Friday Flickers: Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde
It's perfect material for the movies: The struggle between good and evil. Man's dual nature. The conflict between earthly desires and heavenly aspirations. There's a good girl and, naturally, a bad girl; all neatly folded into a narrative that wrestles with questions of free will and man's place in G-d's universe.
There's also kinky Victorian sex, a secret lab with bubbling beakers, and banks of rolling fog over slick cobblestones. Delicious stuff for the silver screen.
Previous to the 1941 Spencer Tracy/Ingrid Bergman version of the R. L. Stevenson classic “Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde” there were several well regarded Hollywood productions.
The silent film, (1920) starring John Barrymore is an effective split personality morality tale, but Barrymore's Mr. Hyde make-up is over-the-top, grotesque, and makes too overt man's dual nature.
This film, however, offers one of the few opportunities to view the tragic, sadly forgotten Martha Mansfield, real name Martha Ehrlich. A former Ziegfeld girl, Mansfield was a lovely and promising actress who died in 1923 when, on location for The Warrens of Virginia, a carelessly thrown cigarette match ignited her voluminous Civil War period costume. Mansfield died in agony of third degree burns the next day. She was 24-years old.
Also in a co-starring role as Poole, Jekyll's butler, is the young George Stevens who went on to become one of Hollywood's great directors.
In 1931, Rouben Mamoulian directed a fine production starring Frederic March. Miriam Hopkins is sensational as bad girl “Champagne” Ivy. She blows March off the screen for he comes across as a taciturn and dispassionate Jekyll. There's little evidence of the pulsating fire that should be corrupting Jekyll's soul. This version was produced before the The Production Code was enforced, thus Hopkins is clearly identified as a prostitute and she brings just the right heat as a cheerily manipulative tramp.
As in the Barrymore production, March's Hyde is a hunched, scampering, ape-like human—sort of a missing link—making it hard to believe that Ivy could fall under the spell of this degrading and degraded creature.
Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde publicity photo: Lana Turner, Spencer Tracy, and Ingrid Bergman.
Director Victor Fleming and master screenwriter John Lee Mahin—who collaborated with Fleming on numerous productions—were determined to make their film more realistic, aiming for emotional truth.
Tracy's transformation make-up is limited and the evil in his nature come across overwhelmingly as the yetzer ha-ra, the evil inclination, which, according to Jewish thought, is present in every man.
Ingrid Bergman, brimming with luminous sensuality, plays temptress Ivy, a barmaid—wink, nudge—in MGM's ravishing vision of a squalid London dance hall. Bergman writes in her autobiography that she loved the Ivy character and implored Fleming to cast her in the role. Fleming couldn't see it. Like producer David O Selznick, Fleming saw Bergman as a “peaches and cream girl,” the opposite of Ivy. But Bergman persisted and Fleming made a screen test that convinced both director and producer.
The up and coming starlet Lana Turner is solid and absolutely convincing as Jekyll's very proper and innocent fiance. Turner had little technique at her disposal, but was capable of finely nuanced work when paired with the right director, and Fleming was one of the greatest.
The following clip is brief, but conveys everything that is best about this film. Tracy and Bergman warily circle one another with stunning precision. Tracy did noble perhaps better than any other player in Hollywood, but it could get tedious. Here, under Fleming's careful eye, Tracy's nobility is flawed, and self destructive fractures are all too apparent. Being a good man is hard work, and Tracy, in every reaction shot and line reading, skillfully weaves Dr. Jekyll's inward struggle.
Bergman, carrying on a love affair with Fleming—both were married—during the production, gives a fascinating, multi-layered performance as a born-to-the-streets pro who comes across like a high school virgin bewildered by her powerful desires. The attraction between Jekyll and Ivy is palpable, beautifully modulated, and the emotional realism that Fleming and Mahin sought is lovingly fulfilled.
Karen and I wish all our friends and relatives a restful and meaningful Shabbat.
Posted by Robert J. Avrech at June 12, 2009 04:02 AM
Comments
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Robert,
Does it get any better than standing between Lana Turner and Ingrid Bergman?
Posted by: Gary at June 12, 2009 08:57 AM
Gary:
A little bit of heaven on earth.
Posted by: Robert J. Avrech ![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.seraphicpress.com/nav-commenters.gif)
at June 12, 2009 10:09 AM
Spencer Tracy, with no dialogue in the kitchen scene at the end of Woman of the Year, conveyed a wider range of emotions than most of today's actors have done in their entire careers.
Posted by: Johnny at June 12, 2009 05:20 PM
Don't know if you've read Michael Sragow's sprawling bio of Fleming (VICTOR FLEMING-AN AMERICAN MASTER), he states that Ingrid Bergman was initially cast as Beatrix and Turner as the sensual Ivy. Another actress who auditioned for the part of Ivy was Edythe Marriner who later gained fame as Susan Hayward. Sragow also notes that the film rights were actually acquired with the idea of making it as a vehicle for Robert Donat. Donat would have kept the character a Brit but one has to wonder if 'Mr. Chips' would have had the chops to pull off Hyde's bestial antics.
Posted by: Jim Long at June 15, 2009 07:26 AM
Johnny:
Tracy was a great reactive actor, which is the name of the game in movies.
Posted by: Robert J. Avrech at June 17, 2009 08:23 AM
Jim:
The book is on my night table, should get to it in the next week or so. Greatly look forward to it. Thanks so much for the valuable info. Amazing to think what could have been.
Posted by: Robert J. Avrech at June 17, 2009 08:25 AM