The Adult Version of Jekyll and Hide (1971) Rating: 3.0 stars out of 5.0 stars
See this review the way it was meant to be seen: http://www.jaxfilmjournal.com/bmadultjekyll.html
Cast: Jack Buddliner, Jane Tsentas, Jennifer Brooks, Rene Bond Written by: Robert Birch Directed by: L. Ray Monde Running Time: 91 minutes
"Judging by the marks and placement, I'd say a medical man." ---A coroner gives a detective his snap judgment as to who he thinks could have strangled a bookseller, in The Adult Version of Jekyll and Hide.
After slimy doctor Chris Leeder (Jack Buddliner) is interrupted during an affair with his receptionist (Rene Bond) to go on a shopping trip with his unaware fiancee (Jennifer Brooks), he comes across an old notebook in a rare bookshop. The notebook belonged to the infamous Dr. Jekyll and contains the formula that caused him to become the vicious madman Mr. Hide. Leeder decides it is something he must have. He returns to the shop after hours to retrieve the book but the old bookseller refuses to sell it, so Leeder kills him to obtain it.
Leeder returns home and decides to mix up a batch of the formula himself, despite the warning that Jekyll leaves about the formula bringing out the true nature of whomever drinks it. Instead of becoming a vicious madman though, Leeder becomes a sexy blond with big breasts that likes to make out with other women and castrate drunken sailors that are too rough with her in back alleyways of bars. When the cops become suspicious of Leeder's involvement with the bookseller's death, he decides to lay low as Ms. Hide. Unfortunately, Leeder's fiancee has been chatting with the police and Ms. Hide doesn't care for that, so she decides she must silence her before Leeder is caught.
The Adult Version of Jekyll and Hide is an ultra campy soft-core (bordering on hard-core) sex romp that was produced by the same man who produced Herschell Gordon Lewis' Blood trilogy, David F. Friedman. Although Lewis was well known for being the Godfather of Gore, he and Friedman also had a long career in making sex films. When Lewis and Friedman parted company after Color Me Blood Red, Lewis continued making gore films while Friedman went back to exploitative sex films. There are some scenes of torture in Jekyll and Hide though, that almost seem as if the filmmakers were trying to go for a melding of the two types of films.
It's amazing what movies could get away with in the seventies versus what they get away with nowadays. Although the original release of this film had an X rating (for near explicit sex and a little violence) and actually showed in theaters, in the new millennium this film would never have been rated (as NC-17 is even too tame for this film and X no longer exists) and it would have ended up going straight to video or never being released at all. The film contains sex and violence in a combination that was rather unheard of then and is downright unspeakable today.
The acting in the film is what you would expect from a film made in the late sixties/early seventies, but all of the women in it are attractive. Rene Bond, who plays Leeder's receptionist, was a major player in early seventies adult films and has a following that is easily understandable. She is incredibly gorgeous (and nicely built) and actually is a decent performer as well. Considering that most films like this contain women who are usually not known for their acting ability, it is refreshing to find one that knows how to read a line and actually give a performance. Jane Tsentas does a decent turn as Ms. Hide, displaying sex appeal and menace in equal amounts (and has the two scene stealing moments I mentioned earlier). Jennifer Brooks plays Leeder's sweet-natured fiancee well and although she doesn't bear as much flesh as the other two women, she isn't hard on the eyes either.
Image Entertainment and Something Weird's DVD presents the film in the full frame format and the transfer is immaculate. The source print was taken from an original negative and contains a few minor scratches, but overall it looks incredible. There are sequences that look as if they were shot recently instead of almost thirty years ago. The audio is decent, but there is at least one reel that sounds as if the entire soundtrack, dialogue and all, came off of a vinyl record album as there are pops and hisses throughout it.
The disc also contains a commentary track, featuring producer David L. Friedman and Something Weird owner Mike Vraney, which is very informative and generally free of dead areas. Friedman recalls a great amount of details about the making of the film (including the fact that it was financed by a bunch of airline pilots!) and at times even talks over Vraney's prompts. His recollection of the days when he made exploitation films is interesting, especially when discussing how the films would be cut differently in different states. He's at his most interesting though when he's discussing how people who are offended by his films can remedy the situation without preventing the people who DON'T get offended by them from being able to see them. He also discusses why the film is mistitled as Jekyll and HIDE instead of HYDE as the Stevenson novel originally had it spelled.
Vraney obviously has a great love for the films he releases on DVD and this love shows, not only in the quality and subject of the films he releases, but also in the extras that are packed onto the discs. Besides the commentary track, the disc also contains a theatrical trailer and a still gallery of exploitation films (with such great titles as Ramrodder and Thar She Blows). With this film and others like it, and the release of H.G. Lewis's films, Image and Something Weird solidify their presence as one of the best purveyors of classic cult cinema in the US.
Reviewed by Brian Matherly - bmath2000@hotmail.com AOL Instant Messenger: Widescreen25 The Jacksonville Film Journal - http://www.jaxfilmjournal.com/
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