One of the most genuinely disturbing horror films of the 1930s, this
rendition of Stephenson's tale was made before the tightening of
Hollywood censorship. It benefits by making explicit the repression
and guilt which drive Jekyll's struggle for liberation through
science. Under-rated director Mamoulian sets that struggle against a
haunting back-drop of Victorian squalor, and strikingly achieves
March's transformation without recourse to special effects. The
result is one of the most compelling of horror movies: a film of
extraordinary atmosphere, still startling for its dark intensity and
subtle unease.
