Slow pace in the most part of the movie.

Good films always raise compelling questions, whether the format is fiction or documentary fact.

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

A clunky actioner with a handful of cool moments.

During the course of his experiments, the reclusive Dr Jekyll (Paul Massie), creates a personality changing drug which he tests on himself turning him into a much younger and handsome man called Edward Hyde who turns out to be his evil alter ego. He visits the high class Sphinx club in London where he discovers Jekyll's friend, the parasitical Paul Allen (Christopher Lee), a compulsive gambler who scrounges money off him to pay his debts, is having an affair with his wife Kitty (Dawn Addams). Meanwhile, Hyde begins an affair of his own with Maria (Norma Marla) a snake woman at the Sphinx while offering to bail Allen out of his debts in return for introducing him to the city's forbidden pleasures in the vice dens. But, Jekyll starts losing control of his transformations into Hyde - even destroying his formula proves useless as they start occurring of their own accord - and his tendencies become homicidal. He sets a trap for Allen and Kitty - the former refused to loan him his mistress in return for settling his debts - and meets his demise at the hands of Maria's snake. On discovering Allen's body, Kitty commits suicide and Hyde strangles Maria as he turns back into Jekyll. Both personalities are battling it out for control, but to destroy one would mean destroying the other...Hammer's adaptation of Robert Louis Stevenson's classic story was a spectacular flop on its original release in 1960. But, seen today, it emerges as an interesting film with enough merits of its own leading one to conclude that it was unfairly overlooked at the time. In any case, Hammer and Terence Fisher films are almost always worth watching.It is graced by fine acting all round with Lee offering one of his best performances as the parasitic, unscrupulous playboy Paul Allen. We would have expected him to have played the Jekyll and Hyde part, but on his own admission he said that he wanted it but Hammer "shot that one down". Yet, the star would get a shot at it a decade later in the flawed but worthwhile Amicus film I Monster (1971) in which Jekyll and Hyde were for reasons unknown called Dr Marlowe and Mr Blake. Paul Massie does fine work in the role though. He skilfully brings out Jekyll's unashamedly evil alter ego in Hyde and the former's kind hearted nature. There is a stand out scene where Jekyll sees his alter ego reflected in a mirror and he asks him why he committed the murders. "To punish you", he replies. "Society will blame you and you will have to hide as I have had to hide". Then he adds "I can't destroy you without destroying myself" before urging him to "end the struggle (he) must lose." Dawn Addams also offers a strong performance as Jekyll's bored and neglected wife who has an affair with the unscrupulous Allen in search of a more exciting and fulfilling life.Terence Fisher's direction is as accomplished as ever displaying his talent as a storyteller and a strong feeling for character, place and period. He succeeds admirably in bringing out the central theme of the story, which is summed up admirably in the closing sequence in a coroner's court. The coroner in delivering his verdict looks directly into the camera as if he is addressing us and says the case is "a solemn warning to us all not to interfere in things that are the divine will of nature" referring, of course, to the doctor's obsessive and reclusive quest for forbidden knowledge.The film also benefits from exquisite set design (Bernard Robinson) and Jack Asher's technicolor cinemascope cinematography is gorgeous in every single frame and they combine to heighten the atmosphere and sense of place of the proceedings.

Hammer Studios put a unique spin on this classic story by Robert Louis Stevenson: Professor Henry Jekyll (Canadian born Paul Massie) is a homely schmuck working on proving that old theory about the duality of humankind. When he tests some experimental serum on himself, he transforms into the much more handsome and suave Edward Hyde. Unfortunately, he can't really control these transformations, and Hyde becomes the dominant personality more and more, and Hyde shows himself to be an effectively conniving and nasty individual.Sir Christopher Lee is great fun in a supporting role, playing Paul Allen, Jekylls' friend and a compulsive gambler. Paul has also been carrying on with Jekylls' wife Kitty (Dawn Addams) for quite some time. It's rare that Sir Christopher got a chance to be this funny, or to be so loose in a performance. Likable Massie is quite good in the two vastly different primary roles. He's so charming as Hyde that you can't help but like Hyde to some degree, until his ruthlessness comes out. It's similarly refreshing that the wife is not that loyal, or understanding, and the lovely Addams does a capable job. David Kossoff (as Jekylls' colleague Ernst), and Norma Marla (as the alluring exotic dancer Maria) offer excellent support. The physically imposing Francis De Wolff only comes in towards the end, not given much to do as a police inspector who picks up Hydes' trail. And keep an eye out for a very young Oliver Reed as a tough talking pimp!Hammer mainstay director Terence Fisher is in fine form, and the production design by Bernard Robinson is sumptuous, as you would expect after seeing his work on other Hammer horror films. The color photography just pops, and it's a treat that Hammer decided to shoot this in Megascope (a 2.35:1 aspect ratio). Screenwriter Wolf Mankowitz crafts an adaptation that is entertaining if ultimately light on horror elements. For one thing, we never seen an on screen transformation from Jekyll to Hyde, or vice versa. It's Massies' performance that sells those moments.Overall, not bad. Worth a look for Hammer fans.Seven out of 10.

Hammer Studios were probably the king of producers for Gothic horror flicks. Well known for their creepy sets that produced movies starring monsters from classics (Dracula, Frankenstein, Wolfman & Mummy) the studio churned out these movies every year usually with success. So why not a movie starring the famous mad scientist, Dr. Henry Jeckell from the Robert Louis Steveson classic story?However, like most Hammer films, they like to put on their own little spin to make the story a little less redundant. In The Two Faces of Dr. Jekyll, the character is regarded as a quiet nebbish type scientist who speaks in a soft voice. He is also already married--to a beautiful redhead wife, who unfortunately is only concerned about her selfish whims and presently carrying on an affair with his friend. The friend, Paul Allen--played by the immortal Hammer studio star, Christopher Lee is a scoundrel who gambles away his money, and like Henry Jekyll's cheating spouse--only concerned for his own pleasures. So of course, this leads to poor Dr. J's disastrous experiment, which he transforms into a handsome but the cruel evil rake, Mr Hyde. Like Clark Kent in Superman, no one usually recognizes or connects the two men together. But the evil Mr Hyde takes the tortured Dr Jekyll to London's pleasure houses and commits various cruel tricks on people. Mr Hyde also makes Dr. Jekell confront that his wife is a no good cheating woman. But as you may guess, Dr. Jekyll loses control of his alter ego, and that's when the serum literally hits the fan.This movie is well acted but it seems to lend sympathy to the character of Dr. Jekell. He seems to be so tortured by his wife infidelity but lacks the strength of character to confront the problem. But again, we have to agree as mad scientists go---it really is his own fault that these tragedies happen.Not a bad flick, if you like the Hammer Film genre--I'd say it's a good bet for a late night popcorn viewing

Determined to find a cause for human behavior, a scientist's experiments with a special serum inadvertently trigger his change into a boorish, violent degenerate that enables him to live out his inner most devious fantasies, which come to pass when he discovers his wife's affair.Despite having a rather interesting take on the famous story, this entry isn't really all that special. One of the biggest problems here is that the change-over into his new personality doesn't bring about any real reason to fear him, for he looks like himself without the facial hair and lack of old-age wrinkles, or in other words just an ordinary man. This isn't a change into a twisted, deformed brute that looks slightly different from modern society but rather exactly the same as the other people around him, so he doesn't exactly inspire a great deal of fear amongst those around him as he goes through the motions of the story. In fact, several times he's shown to be knocked-out or even manhandled with extreme ease, and it's really only minor details about what he wants his friend to do that inspires any sort of terror. In fact, those actions are downright lame in any sense, not making it seem like there's a big dramatic, horror-inspired fate for what's going on but rather just an ordinary man asking his friend to do some pretty weird things for about an hour, making this one take an eternity to get going. The last half, when he goes about setting on revenge for the affair does it get going as there's some life to the film, as well as the potential for the some chills as he finally engages in actions that put others in the line of his temper, and it goes somewhat towards restoring some fear to him, but the majority of the film is so bland that there's not a lot of good that can come from it.Today's Rating/PG-13: Violence, sexual situations and drug use.