Great piece on the BFI website listing the
10 Greatest Silent Horror Films of all time…
The list includes the great John Barrymore
taking a tilt at the dual roles of Doctor Jekyll and Mr Hyde in 1920. The BFI
piece, penned by Pamela Hutchinson, made us want to run out and see the movie
immediately…
The famous Shakespearean John Barrymore
shoulders the dual roles of man and monster in this hugely popular adaptation
of the Robert Louis Stevenson novella. Fellow stage thespian Brandon Hurst
plays Jekyll’s leering colleague Dr Carew, while vamp Nita Naldi is the
dance-hall darling who brings out his inner Hyde. And all the while the
intertitles ramp up the tension, they are also casting a moral burden out to
the audience: “In each of us, two natures are at war – the good and the evil.
All our lives the fight goes on between them, and one of them must conquer. But
in our own hands lies the power to choose.”
Barrymore’s own hands, extended by
gruesome, gnarled fingers, are a tribute to Famous Players-Lasky’s makeup
department, but there’s far more to this than gore and shocks. The final scenes
capitalise on a new character inserted by a previous stage adaptation, Jekyll’s
fiancée Millicent, to add a little heartbreak to the horror.
(We’re discussing Jekyll and Hyde on Part
Three of our Halloween podcast this month.)
A
London Walk costs £9 – £7 concession. To join a London Walk, simply meet your
guide at the designated tube station at the appointed time. Details of all
London Walks can be found at www.walks.com.

