Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1920).

It chanced on one of these rambles that their way led them

down a by-street in a busy quarter of London...

Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

by Robert Louis Stevenson

 

 

 

 

The film is brilliant. Why film directors from the past are so gentle and attentive with books' screen versions? Even Dracula by Tod Browning with wrong relationships between characters and absent pieces is full of "the book" more than Dracula by Francis Ford Coppola. But I'm not speaking about the book b B.Stoker, although I want to. I'm speaking about Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, which is a 1920 horror silent film, based on Robert Louis Stevenson's novella The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Both Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde were played by John Barrymore. The film was directed by John S. Robertson.

I didn't find many different kinds of angles or camera high and this makes the film a bit theatrical. But the characters are always in focus and in the centre of the picture, except of this moment:

 

Definitely POV of Mr. Hyde's victim. The director is still using eye-level angle shot, but the face of the main character is below.

 

 

 

P.S. to be continued.