Directed: Rouben Mamoulian

Year: 1931

Nominated: Best Actor – Fredric March

Won: Best Actor – Fredric March

Plot in 25 Words: A classic monster story with plenty of action, intrigue and a smidge of romance. Wonderful special effects, and great acting make this a heroic horror.

In My Opinion: I was very excited for this. A first foray into the sci-fi genre and I certainly wasn’t disappointed by the outcome.

This film had a lot of tricks and showed off some amazing camera work and special effects. The first few minutes were shot entirely in a first person point of view, very much in the style of ‘Peep Show’. It confused me a little at first. I couldn’t work out why all the actors kept breaking the fourth wall! There were slides between scenes, I was surprised at how smooth they were.

The thing I was most looking forward to was the transitions between Jekyll and Hyde. I wasn’t disappointed, they were delightfully rubbish and cheesy. The camera starts on Jekyll’s horrified face, pans to his monster hands, and then back up yo his newly monsterfied face. It was nicely done and not at all obvious where the cut was. The makeup wasn’t over-the-top or hulkish. I enjoyed how the transformation was done.

One tiny thing that did annoy me was the pronunciation of Jekyll’s name. Every time I’ve said it aloud (or anyone, anywhere has said it aloud) it’s been Jekyll to rhyme with heckle. But this film they said Jekyll to rhyme with…with…well there’s no word that rhymes! So I guess it sounds like ‘people’!

Star Performer: Fredric March as the title character(s). He veered from hyper-sympathetic to complete psycho-monster with such ease it’s a little worrying!

Overall: I really liked this. Once I’d gotten over the ridiculous pronunciation of Jekyll!