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| - Frederic March leads as Dr. Henry “Harry” Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, the film focuses on Jekyll/Hyde’s interaction with two particular female characters, Ivy and Muriel played by Miriam Hopkins and Rose Hobart respectively.Harry Jekyll is a charitable medical doctor, scientist and academician in the Victorian era in London, England. The film opens with an interaction between Poole, Dr. Jekyll’s butler played by Edgar Norton, a character derived from the novella and Dr. Jekyll, showing the audience a more personable Jekyll than other adaptations. Jekyll then is seen delivering a lecture where he discerns his ideas of man not being solely one but two. His character quoting the novella states these two parts to man divided as one being good and the other, evil. Harry’s contemporaries and peers leav
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| abstract
| - Frederic March leads as Dr. Henry “Harry” Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, the film focuses on Jekyll/Hyde’s interaction with two particular female characters, Ivy and Muriel played by Miriam Hopkins and Rose Hobart respectively.Harry Jekyll is a charitable medical doctor, scientist and academician in the Victorian era in London, England. The film opens with an interaction between Poole, Dr. Jekyll’s butler played by Edgar Norton, a character derived from the novella and Dr. Jekyll, showing the audience a more personable Jekyll than other adaptations. Jekyll then is seen delivering a lecture where he discerns his ideas of man not being solely one but two. His character quoting the novella states these two parts to man divided as one being good and the other, evil. Harry’s contemporaries and peers leave the lecture skeptical however Dr. Jekyll proceeds with his experiments and creates a concoction that will bring the evil side of his self to full boil. Amongst this Hyde and potion storyline which remains the crux, lies relationship and female roles not familiarized in other adaptations or the original work by Robert Louis Stevenson.Henry Jekyll himself is torn between the innocent Muriel, whose hand in marriage Jekyll asks of Muriel’s father “the General,” and Ivy a singer/entertainer of the night that he becomes acquainted with after helping her after she is attacked by a man on the streets of London.Muriel’s father demands Jekyll wait “8 months” before marrying his daughter, as he had to wait five years to be married himself and the date in 8 months is Muriel’s mother and his anniversary. Shortly after angrily departing from asking Muriel’s father for her hand in marriage, Jekyll walks with his friend, fellow doctor Lanyon, who is also a character derived from the original text. On this walk is where Jekyll comes to Ivy’s aid and an extremely sexually tense scene follows with Ivy sneaking a kiss on the unsuspecting Harry Jekyll who does not fight the kiss nor does he show shame while Lanyon scolds him for the kiss. Jekyll once again uses his argument of the separation of good and evil in men.Dr. Jekyll receives notice that Muriel and her family will be out of the city for a month, here he decides again to experiment with his new potion. That night Mr. Hyde attends the bar where Ivy works, he is instantly captivated by the beautiful blonde singing a song. He demands his waiter to fetch Ivy and proceeds to terrify her with his looks and manages to start a fight with another patron. These first two encounters of meeting Ivy show the differences between Jekyll and Hyde.While Dr. Jekyll acts appropriately and shows constraint towards Ivy, Hyde is the opposite towards Ivy. He berates her and intimidates her into submission. The audience is shown interactions between Hyde and Ivy which show an unprecedented controlling and possessive nature of the character. This narrative focuses on both Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde’s interactions with these two women whereas the novella only briefly mentions female characters. The repression of Dr. Jekyll the gentlemen and Hyde as the sexual deviant is rampant throughout the film.
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