Dr Jekyll and Sister Hyde (1971)

Country of Origin: UK
Year of Production: 1971
Running Times: 94 mins (USA)     97 mins (UK)
Length: 8,652 ft
Format: Technicolor     35mm
Ratio:
Sound:

PRODUCTION
Production Companies: Hammer Films / EMI Films Ltd
Producers: Albert Fennell, Brian Clemens
Production Manager: Don Weeks
Production Supervisor: Roy Skeggs

SCRIPT
Script: Brian Clemens
Story: Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Sister Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson

DIRECTION
Director: Roy Ward Baker
Assistant Director: Bert Batt

PHOTOGRAPHY
Director of Photography: Norman Warwick
Camera Operator: Godfrey Godar

EDITING AND POST-PRODUCTION
Editor: James Needs

MUSIC
Musical Supervisor: Philip Martell
Music: David Whitaker
Song: Brian Clemens (He'll be There)

SOUND
Sound: Bill Rowe
Recording Director: A.W. Lumkin
Sound Editor: Charles Crafford
Sound System: RCA Sound Recording

COSTUMES AND MAKE-UP
Make Up: Trevor Crole-Rees
Hair: Bernie Ibbetson
Wardrobe Supervisor: Rosemary Burrows
Wardrobe Mistress: Kathleen Moore

DESIGN AND SET CONSTRUCTION
Production Designer: Robert Jones
Construction Manager: Bill Greene

MISCELLANEOUS
Continuity: Sally Ball

LOCATIONS
Locations: EMI-MGM Elstree Studios, Hertfordshire, England

CASTING
Casting Director: Jimmy Liggat

CAST
Ralph Bates (Dr Jekyll)
Martine Beswick (Mrs Hyde)
Susan Brodrick (Susan Spencer)
Lewis Fiander (Howard Spencer)
Gerald Sim (Professor Robertson)
Dorothy Alison (Mrs Spencer)
Ivor Dean (Burke)
Tony Calvin (Hare)
Virginia Wetherell (Betsy)
Paul Whitsun-Jones (Sergeant Danvers)
Philip Madoc (Byker)
Irene Bradshaw (Yvonne)
Neil Wilson (older policeman)
Dan Meaden (town crier)
Geoffrey Kenion (1st policeman)
Anna Brett (Julie)
Jackie Poole (Margie)
Rosemary Lord (Marie)
Petula Portell (Petra)
Pat Brackenbury (Helen)
Liz Romanoff (Emma)
Will Stampe (mine host)
Roy Evans (knife grinder)
Derek Sleen (1st sailor)
John Lyons (2nd sailor)
Jeannette Wild (Jill)
Bobby Parr (young apprentice)
Julia Wright (street singer)

PLOT SUMMARY

Dr Jekyll embarks on an obsessive quest to find an elixir of life. He thinks he's found it in a potion derived from female hormones which he obtains from bodies in a nearby morgue. When that supply dries up, he employs body snatchers Burke and Hare - who eventually turn to murder - to find the body parts he needs. But his experiment is only a partial success - when he drinks his elixir, he transforms into a young woman who passes herself off as the widowed Mrs Hyde. When Burke and Hare are attacked by an angry mob, Mrs Hyde begins to murder prostitutes in Whitechapel, giving rise the the Jack the Ripper legend...

Expanded from an off-hand gag by Brian Clemens, Dr Jekyll and Sister Hyde was the sort of shot in the arm that Hammer needed at the start of the 70s. It never takes itself seriously for one minute and the reunion of Brian Clemens and Roy Ward Baker gives it that same off-the-wall, slightly surreal charm that they brought to TV's The Avengers (1960-1969). An altogether better effort than Hammer's other would-be horror comedy, the lamentable The Horror of Frankenstein (1970).

UK
Theatrical Distributor: MGM-EMI Film Distributors Limited (on a double bill with Blood From the Mummy's Tomb (1971))

USA
Theatrical Distributor: American International Pictures
Video Distributors: Home Box Office (HBO) Home Video; Republic Pictures Corporation

Finland
Rating: banned in 1972

Norway
Rating: 16

Sweden
Rating: 15

UK
Rating: X; 18

USA
Rating: PG

1971
February
22: UK - principal photography begins

March
30: UK - principal photography ends

July
13: UK - rated X by the BBFC (with cuts, for theatrical release)

October
17: UK - theatrical release

1972
April
Day Unknown: USA - theatrical release

May
31: Sweden - theatrical release

1986
June
16: UK - television broadcast (on Thames Television)

2000
August
26: UK - television broadcast (on Channel Four)

2003
February
23: UK - television broadcast (on BBC1)

The sexual transformation of a man into a woman will actually take place before your very eyes!

This film is filled with... SHOCK! AFTER SHOCK!

PARENTS: Be sure your children are sufficiently mature to witness the intimate details of this frank and revealing film.

Hammer strikes again!

Barbara il mostro di Londra - Italian title
Dr Jekyll och syster Hyde - Swedish title

SEE ALSO
Abbott and Costello Meet Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde (1953)
Docteur Jekyll et les femmes (1981)
Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde (1908)
Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde (1910)
Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde (1912)
Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde (1913)
Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde (1920a)
Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde (1920b)
Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde (1931)
Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde (1941)
Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde (1968)
Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde (1973)
Dr Jekyll and Ms Hyde (1995)
I, Monster (1971)
Jekyll and Hyde (1990)
Jekyll and Hyde Together Again (1982)
Mary Reilly (1996)
Strannaya istoriya doktora Dzhekila i mistera Khajda (1985)
Le testament du Docteur Cordelier (1959)
The Two Faces of Dr Jekyll (1960)

MAGAZINES

The Dark Side September 1995 p.20 (UK)
credits, review

Dark Terrors no.14 (June 1997) p.29 (UK)
illustrated article

Filmfacts vol.15 no.15 (1972) pp.144-146 (USA)
reprinted reviews

Filmfax no.61 (June / July 1997) pp.34, 35 (USA)
illustrated credits, review

Hollywood Reporter vol.220 no.42 (10 April 1972) p.3 (USA)
review

The House That Hammer Built no.8 (April 1998) pp.417-420 (UK)
illustrated credits, synopsis, review

Kine Weekly no.3311 (27 March 1971) pp.14-16 (UK)
credits

Monsterscene no.6 pp.45-46 (USA)
review

Monthly Film Bulletin vol.38 no.454 (November 1971) p.218 (UK)
credits, synopsis, review (by David Pirie)

Today's Cinema no.9883 (23 February 1971) p.4 (UK)
credits

Today's Cinema no.9948 (15 October 1971) p.9 (UK)
review

Variety 27 October 1971 p.18 (USA)
credits, review

Video Junkie no.1 p.22 (USA)
review

BOOKS

English Gothic pp.185-187
illustrated credits, review (by Jonathan Rigby)

The Hammer Story pp.148-149
illustrated article, review (by Marcus Hearn and Alan Barnes)

Hoffman's Guide to SF, Horror and Fantasy Movies 1991 - 1992 pp.110-111
credits, review

Ten Years of Terror pp.99-100
illustrated credits, review (by Matthew Conniam)

jekyll and hyde, prostitution, blindness, transformations, scientists, potions, morgues, fog, grave robbers, sex changes

Last Updated: 15 October, 2008