Nigel P Opening with the least horrific music you could imagine, it seems as if this parody-sounding film could lean towards the comedic. Luckily, however, it isn't long before bright red blood spatters one of the many posters offering rewards of £200 for capture of the Whitechapel Murderer, a top-hatted fiend who carves up the bodies of prostitutes.Wearing long hair that would be deigned decidedly foppish for the Victorian period, Ralph Bates is terrific as the driven Jekyll. His caddish friend, hopeful womaniser Professor Robertson (Gerald Sim) and a scowling Welsh cockney Philip Madoc underused as the low-life Byker flesh out interesting supporting characters in a story that not only acknowledges RL Stevenson's original tale, Jack the Ripper and Burke and Hare too! What drives Jekyll here is the knowledge that his good work will be curtailed by his own eventual death, and so sets about discovering the elixir of life. For that he needs body parts, and therefore the services of the two lecherous scallywag grave-robbers.This is rich, confident story-telling. It is also Director Roy Ward Baker's best work for Hammer in my view. His sprawling depiction of fogbound London is all the more impressive when one discovers the entire project was filmed in the studio.Of the female performers, Bates' future wife Virginia Wetherall plays typically doomed prostitute Betsy, and Susan Brodrick portrays the neighbour who has a crush on Jekyll, Susan Spencer. Brodrick is delightful in a role that could have been irritating and obsessive. Instead, she is appealing and simply naïve, leading to some terrifically witty scenes with the woman she assumes is Jekyll's wife – but who is really Jekyll himself. The mighty, sultry and magnificent Martine Beswick is electrifying as his female alter-ego, the unexpected side-effect of his experiment. The transformation scenes are simple but cleverly effective, achieving the first change in one single take. That Howard Spencer (Lewis Fiander) is instantly besotted with her is entirely understandable (leading to an awkward later meeting between Howard and the male version of the doctor). His/her delight at his/her new body is fabulous, as is Susan's crushed response to hearing ecstatic female laughter coming from Jekyll's room.So enjoyable are the lead performers that it is a true shame they are so inherently evil and therefore doomed. There is a scene when Bates is sweatily hacking away at a new corpse in a backstreet, entirely unaccompanied by anything other than the sounds of distant industry, which is very effective.This remains one of my favourite Hammer films. It is beautifully written by Brian Clemens, played by actors with a slight hint of irony, but emerges as a tragic tale. The inevitability in which evil-doers must die especially when their evil is so entertaining is a necessary evil in itself. Whilst not really frightening, 'Dr Jekyll and Sister Hyde' is steeped in atmosphere, has some pleasantly gory moments and deserved a vastly more widespread reception at a time when Hammer films weren't attracting the crowds they deserved. If it had been released during the company's heyday, it would have been a monster.

BA_Harrison The early 70s saw a wave of sexual freedom and experimentation, with the LGTB rights movement in full swing and androgynous supermodels and glam rock stars blurring the line between genders; as The Kinks put it in their 1970 hit Lola "Girls will be boys and boys will be girls". Keen to keep up with the times, even British horror studio Hammer got in on the act, giving us the amusingly titled Dr Jekyll & Sister Hyde (1971), a gender bending take on Robert Louis Stevenson's classic tale Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde.The film stars Ralph Bates as dedicated scientist Dr Jekyll, who attempts to create an elixir of life using hormones taken from female corpses. When the supply of suitable bodies starts to dry up, Jeckyll employs the services of grave-robbers Burke and Hare, but eventually turns to murder to get what he needs, believing that the good that comes from his experiments will outweigh the bad. Jekyll uses himself as guinea pig for his serum, but there is a strange side effect: the subject changes sex! Dr Jekyll turns into the beautiful but deadly Sister Hyde (Martine Beswick), who slowly tries to take control of his (or her) body.It's rather apt, given the nature of the plot, that Dr Jekyll & Sister Hyde feels like a case of split personality: on one hand, the film's central theme of sexual duality qualifies it as a rather progressive and daring work, but at the same time, the film is very typical of Hammer's output—a Gothic period piece that delivers many of the recognised clichés of the genre (foggy streets, a shadowy killer, helpless pretty victims etc.), along with a large dose of gore and nudity to avoid alienating the studio's predominantly heterosexual male demographic.Although writer Brian Clemens's unique sex swap theme already guarantees a Jekyll and Hyde tale unlike any other, the inclusion of real-life rogues Burke and Hare, a few sly nods towards the infamous case of Jack the Ripper, and plenty of wry dialogue ("It's a queer business", "You'll be a changed man") all go to make this one even more fun.

manchester_england2004 Many of Hammer's horror movies from the 1970s era have been unfairly maligned. Whilst some movies suggested the company was in decline, there were others that showed that there was plenty of life left in this amazing company. This movie definitely fits into the latter category.The most creative idea behind DR. JEKYLL AND SISTER HYDE is the way it blends together a number of themes associated with traditional horror movies and famous novels. This movie blends together the Jack the Ripper murders in Whitechapel, with the Jekyll and Hyde story, and even includes Burke and Hare!The plot revolves around Dr. Jekyll's research into finding cures for diseases. He has ambitions about developing cures for so many plagues. But after being reminded by his friend that such work could not be completed during his lifetime, the good doctor realises he needs to find a way of prolonging his life so he can gain time to complete his work. He refers to this as "cheating death". As he walks down the Whitechapel streets, he says in his mind an excellent line summing up his dilemma. You can find it on this website under the "Memorable Quotes" section.Once the basic idea is in place, Jekyll realises the only way to prolong life is by injecting himself with female hormones. Jekyll will do anything, even kill, to extract these female hormones he needs to fulfill his lofty ambition. Eventually, he transforms into a woman whom he dubs Sister Hyde. Unfortunately, Sister Hyde has plans of her own and a battle of wits comes into play. I'm sure you can imagine the rest.Hammer do a wonderful job in recreating the Victorian atmosphere of 1880s Whitechapel, London. The streets are foggy, a somewhat sinister blind man is seen in many scenes, London bobbies lurk around every corner, and there are plenty of females willing to sell their "wares". In this respect, far more effort was invested by Hammer in this venture than they put into their Dracula and Frakenstein franchises.Some superb killing scenes occur, usually with the most horrific details left to our imagination. These scenes are very intense and prove that Hammer is no longer just a company who produces tame cheesy movies.The watchful censors predictably insisted on cuts to the movie before allowing it to be released to cinemas. The fully uncut print may sadly no longer survive. However, the producers managed to work around difficulties imposed by the censors with some carefully crafted re-editing techniques.But, it is the acting that I want to draw attention to next.The late great Ralph Bates appeared in several Hammer productions around this time, including TASTE THE BLOOD OF Dracula, THE HORROR OF FRANKENSTEIN, LUST FOR A VAMPIRE and FEAR IN THE NIGHT. But it is in DR. JEKYLL AND SISTER HYDE where he gives what his easily the best performance of his career as the doctor faced with a terrible dilemma. He invests maximum effort into his performance. His facial expressions, mannerisms, tone of voice and body language are perfect in every scene. He was a highly underrated actor who died when he was not much more than 50 years of age. He will always be remembered by his fans such as myself.Martine Beswick also gives what is easily the best performance of her career as the ultimately sexy yet manipulative, devious and evil Sister Hyde. It is very surprising that she did not become a regular leading lady in Hammer movies.Gerald Sim has a great time playing Professor Robertson, Dr. Jekyll's lecherous friend and colleague. He delivers some of the best lines in the movie. Every scene he's in is a true joy to watch and it's a real pity he was never given an opportunity to play anything other than supporting roles.Lewis Fiander, whilst not as good as Ralph Bates, proves himself a superb supporting actor in the role of Howard Spencer, Dr. Jekyll's upstairs neighbour. He far outshines many of the younger actors appearing in Hammer movies from this period, especially the very bland young supporting actors in TASTE THE BLOOD OF Dracula and the equally bland actor who appeared alongside Ralph Bates in THE HORROR OF FRANKENSTEIN. Mr. Fiander's character is also very interesting and he clearly has a good time playing him.Susan Broderick plays the somewhat introverted sister of Lewis Fiander's character, a role that looks as though it were written for Veronica Carlson. She is in love with Dr. Jekyll and makes attempts to arouse his interest. Unlike many other Hammer actresses, who are prepared to get their kit off and use their bodies to arouse the viewers, Miss Broderick remains fully clothed and behaves like a true lady throughout. This is not to say I dislike other actresses who behaved differently, I merely make the point to illustrate how Susan Broderick differs from her counterparts in other British horror movies of this time. It is also why I consider Miss Broderick's character the most likable in the entire movie.The highly underrated Roy Ward Baker directs this movie. He worked on so many great movies, including QUATERMASS AND THE PIT, ASYLUM, SCARS OF Dracula and VAULT OF HORROR. However, it is in DR. JEKYLL AND SISTER HYDE where he demonstrates his finest talents as a director. His clever direction is evident during the killing scenes and during the scenes where Dr. Jekyll changes to Sister Hyde or vice versa.Overall, this is a superb, highly atmospheric movie with excellent acting, scripting and direction. Everyone involved in this production have good reason to be proud of what they have created.I highly recommend this to fans of Hammer horror movies. I also recommend this to those who perceive Hammer horror movies as tame and cheesy because I believe they might be in for a pleasant surprise.

Michael_Elliott Dr. Jekyll & Sister Hyde (1971) ** 1/2 (out of 4) Hammer's gender blending version of the Stevenson novel has Henry Jekyll (Ralph Bates) experimenting with extending life but he accidentally turns himself into the beautiful but deadly Mrs. Hyde (Martine Beswick). This here is certainly an ambitious little film that works a lot better than it should have. I think the biggest key is the screenplay by Brian Clemens, which throws everything into the picture and just hopes it sticks. Not only do we get the gender bending version of Jekyll and Hyde but we also get Jack the Ripper elements thrown in and we also get Burke and Hare elements added for good measure. We've basically got three different movies going on here and it's all held together with some very good direction by Baker. He handles the material quite well and mixes it up nicely and for the most part delivers a good film. The biggest problem is that the movie starts to run out of steam towards the end and the final ten-minutes are pretty dragging. Another strong aspect are the performances by Bates and Beswick. It's remarkable how much they look alike and this adds to the story of them being brother and sister. Both are very strong in their roles with Bates really shining and I'd say he's one of the better Jekyll's out of any of the versions. Susan Broderick is also very good as the neighbor who loves Jekyll. I think this film is a lot better than Hammer's previous attempts at Jack the Ripper or the Jekyll/Hyde tale and the added sexuality makes this one to watch.