Dr Jekyll & Sister Hyde (1971)

(In French, On Cable TV, December 2021) I’ve seen so many Doctor Jekyll and Mr. Hyde films by now that it takes a lot to register something distinct — Most of the remakes are alternate takes on specific aspects of the story, whether transforming the story into psychological thriller (with no physical transformation) or viewing the story from another perspective. But Dr Jekyll & Sister Hyde goes for something that still feels, fifty years later, stranger and more perverse — making the murderous alter ego to the meek Doctor Jekyll as a seductive woman passing herself off as his sister. There’s a clear exploitation angle to the result — notably through some not-so-gratuitous nudity — but the subtext made overt by this change is often far more interesting than conventional takes on the same material: the female being deadlier than the male, the frisson of instant transsexuality and all that. Now, is it feminist? I have no idea, and I’m the wrong person to ask — but there’s something just a little bit needling in having Stephenson’s story reuse the femme fatale trope. Bond Girl Martine Beswick is remarkably good here, and her resemblance to Jekyll-playing Ralph Bates is used to good effect. While the first half-hour is ordinary (albeit enlivened by the story’s explicit integration of the Jack the Ripper myth, as well as the infamous Burke and Hare), the film kicks in high gear once Hyde makes her appearance. I’m not sure Dr Jekyll & Sister Hyde ends on that high a note, but there’s a lot of gender-bending, expectation-subverting fun along the way for those who are familiar with the Jekyll/Hyde story.