Dr Jekyll and Sister Hyde
00:36:51
About
It’s Hammer Time once again on WTH, and it’s the turn of 1971’s “Dr. Jekyll and Sister Hyde”. A film in which we learn that two’s company, three’s a positive deviation; that Burke and Hare were time travellers; and that an alias inspired by a newspaper headline isn’t always the best idea (just ask Mrs Freddie Starr Ate My Hamster). A title that began as a joke has probably not helped the reputation of this late period Hammer movie, with many dismissing it as an unnecessary watch from a studio long past its prime. But this is a mistake, from the combo of stalwart director Roy Ward Baker and Avengers writer Brian Clemens comes an interesting and vibrant film, that feels more modern than a lot of its stablemates, with bags of atmosphere, a line of still effective gore, some lovely directorial flourishes, and a blackly comic streak in both its characters and dialogue. Ralph Bates and Martine Beswick are a brilliant paring as the two aspects of our protagonist, ably supported by a strong cast, notably Gerald Simm’s disreputable Professor and Philip Madoc’s lugubrious mortuary attendant. Whilst “Dr. Jekyll and Sister Hyde” ultimately fails to adequately explore the concept at its heart, it is certainly the most entertaining of the studio’s few attempts to adapt Robert Louis Stevenson’s classic, and another example of the less well-known Hammer Films being surprising gems that deserve a much greater appreciation. Watch (or re-watch) to avoid spoilers and join us.
Highlights
Transcript
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LeeGood evening and welcome to horror. I'm Lee.
ChrisI'm Chris.
AdamI'm Adam.
LeeAnd we're here as we discussed last time, we're going to be covering 1971's Dr. Jekyll and Sister Hyde, a film that neither myself or Chris have ever seen.
LeeWhich, considering it's a Hammer film, I feel somewhat ashamed to admit I've never.
ChrisThey can't be, there can't be many that you haven't seen.
LeeWell, they did make a lot, but I think what always put me off with this one was it sounded like such a ludicrous trauma.
ChrisRight, yeah.
LeeActually, and we'll come to it, I don't think it was handled badly.
ChrisIt won't take us very long to get to that.
LeeSo yeah, Chris, as it's tradition, why don't you kick us off with your thoughts?
ChrisYeah, within about, you know, three minutes you realize that the the title does not do this film justice.
LeeYeah.
ChrisIt's like, okay, it's clearly got quirky bits, but done in a often subtle kind of way.
Chrisand then you realize actually it's also got some pretty deep bits.
Lee
ChrisYeah, and and you know, the comedy is there, definitely, like, and the the darkness hits as well when it when it needs to.
ChrisSo yeah, I I totally did not expect it to be anywhere near as good and have as many different facets as it it did, and and for the age as well, it felt like very modern.
LeeYeah.
LeeIt it and it's funny, the thing that struck me is how differently it's shot from any other Hammer film, there's like a very kinetic filming style, which isn't what they do at all, and I don't know if it was because they were trying to do a lot of almost like first-person shooting so that they could do the transformations and things, but it didn't it felt like a Hammer film, but it didn't always look like a Hammer film, but it worked.
AdamIt it wasn't so stagy, sort of, yeah.
LeeNo, exactly, yeah.
ChrisAnd I did expect the transformations to be a bit dated and even that, the way they've done it was like that holds up still.
AdamIt's so good that one take, where you just follow around and it's like.
AdamAnd there's there's I mean it's obviously it's essentially, you know, you move move the mirror.
AdamSo it's looking at someone else and everything, you know, it's a fairly simple way of doing it.
AdamBut it just works so well.
AdamAnd it's much better than if you'd have sort of like had like overlay or you'd done like a Wolfman transformation, or the classic, they just go under the table and then come up.
LeeYeah.
ChrisYeah.
LeeIt looked fantastic. I was like I knew it was one of the things people talk about with this film is that one-shot transformation.
LeeAnd as you say, it's very easy to stage, but.
LeeIt when it's done like this, it's so effective because, you know, unless you're looking for those.
LeeYou're looking for the joint and there just isn't one.
LeeIt's brilliant, it's so clever.
ChrisAnd I think using the mirror as well is like symbolic of it's him but her, him, you know, so yeah, it's.
AdamHim well, him him becoming her and sort of like that shock and.
ChrisAlthough ultimately him starting to disappear to her as well.
ChrisI mean I don't I don't think I know the story that well aside from the obvious that it's.
AdamI mean it's Because I mean it's split personality type.
AdamYeah, cuz I mean I think cuz I I don't think that this does the classic Jekyll and Hyde thing.
ChrisNo, yeah.
AdamWhere it's the cuz it's always Jekyll's quite saintly and in the original, yeah, and then he expresses himself through Hyde.
AdamBut again, it could be like, you know, there's an element of repression that it's because he keeps his darkness in that when it's unleashed, it becomes monstrous and stuff like that.
AdamAnd I don't think that this follows that pattern, mostly because Jekyll's a fucking murderer.
LeeYeah.
AdamYou know, he is he is killing to achieve his goals.
AdamSo it doesn't work in that sense.
AdamBut it's just that sort of.
ChrisI did quite like the philosophical idea of to some degree it feels like he might be doing good, so he has to do the bad to do good.
LeeYeah.
ChrisObviously, you're still doing a lot of very bad.
ChrisBut it's.
AdamAnd it's well, it's that love it's that lovely thing as well where it's like because where he's told, oh well, you're if you're working on this, you know, you're working on a universal panacea.
AdamBut if you're going to solve it one disease at a time, you will never have the time to do it.
AdamAnd it's just like the sort of essentially the arrogance of.
ChrisYeah.
AdamOh, well, okay, well, what I'll do is I'll extend the human lifespan.
LeeYeah, yeah.
AdamAnd then I'll have time to work on my universal panacea.
AdamAnd it's you know, quite a bold sort of like idea that you're just going to.
AdamYeah, it's not it, you know, well, I'll I'll do that, I'll do that first, because that solves that problem.
AdamAnd.
AdamBut I mean I I think this is cuz I think there's there was a lot of there was always this thing, especially when I was sort of growing up and first getting into Hammer and reading about Hammer and stuff like that.
AdamIs there's always a thing that the the first bit of Hammer's really good, then it sort of loses its way and it never gets it back.
AdamAnd I think there's some excellent later Hammer.
LeeYeah.
AdamWhich this is, cuz I mean obviously Hammer's running from like the the horror cycle is running from the fifties, through the sixties, through the seventies.
AdamAnd they only really start losing their way at the point that horror sort of revamps a few years later when you've got like The Exorcist and things like that.
AdamAnd suddenly like it's the game really changes.
AdamAnd there's no that sort of gothic horror falls out of fashion essentially.
AdamBut these ones, and it's like when we did The Witches and we did Plague of Zombies, it's all these ones that sort of got thrown by the wayside where they were like, well, you've not got Dracula in it, you've not got Frankenstein in it, it's not it's not going to be.
AdamYou know, they're they're the sort of lesser ones.
AdamAnd actually a lot of them are the better ones or they've got more in them.
AdamOr they've been allowed to have more in them, you know, people have given a bit more rein with it.
LeeYeah, so I struggled, I had to I struggled to find a copy of this to, you know, to to view online.
Leeyeah, and basically ended up having to buy a second-hand copy on DVD, it's the only way I could find it.
ChrisOh, right.
AdamOkay.
Lee
LeeBut yeah, I I'm glad I did, cuz I'll definitely rewatch this.
LeeI I found it a lot, it's got that very Hammer pacing.
Lee
LeeIt is very slow-going.
Leeit say, and all as you say, it's almost still stagy despite the fact the camera works totally different, it's got very much that stage pacing.
Leebut yeah, I I liked it, I thought it was really good, and it had a really good atmosphere to it, and yeah.
AdamIt's because what what happened was is that so they.
AdamHammer brought in Brian Clemens, who wrote, who basically didn't he didn't start The Avengers, like the TV series.
AdamBut he was the one who came in, became script editor and producer and wrote loads of episodes and turned The Avengers into what The Avengers sort of becomes known as.
AdamAs like that sort of fun, comedy sort of spy, slightly sci-fi, slightly mental 60s sort of show that it was.
AdamAnd so The Avengers had just finished, and so Hammer started speaking to him.
AdamAnd this was essentially like a joke at lunch.
AdamHe was with the director, because the the Blu-ray was actually I believe Chris got me for Christmas one year.
AdamSo thank you very much, Chris.
Adamwas there's like a documentary sort of a little 20-minute documentary on there.
AdamBut apparently, yeah, they were like pitching ideas.
AdamAnd he said, Dr. Jekyll and Sister Hyde.
AdamThey all had a they all thought, well that's funny, and we're moving on.
AdamAnd then what's his name, Carreras, who ran Hammer was like.
AdamActually, I think this is there's something in that.
LeeYeah.
AdamCan you go away and write it?
AdamAnd Brian Clemens, the one thing, cuz he then later on he did like the anthology series Thriller and things like that.
AdamSo, but he has a real brilliance of funny dialogue and and it's like, you know, just humorous characterization.
AdamCuz I think that's the thing is this doesn't have anyone there's some Hammer, you get, there's always a dull lead.
LeeYeah.
AdamYou know, it's the guy who gets the girl is a lump of wood.
LeeYeah.
AdamAnd, you know, but you've got Lee and Cushion or, you know, whoever sort of they're all sort of like in and they are playing the the meaty roles and actually doing the heavy lifting.
AdamAnd there's always someone quite bland sort of involved.
AdamAnd with this, I think everyone's like all the characters, like the neighbors, the family of the neighbors, they're great.
AdamRob Robertson, like the doctor who he's Jekyll's friend.
LeeYeah.
AdamYeah, it's.
LeeHe's brilliant.
AdamI mean, he is just.
LeeHe is.
AdamSuch a.
LeeHe is a proper and as soon as he turned into a woman, I was like, his mate's going to try and shag her.
ChrisYeah, yeah.
LeeI knew it was going to happen.
AdamYou know, he's a pervy old get. I mean, that's the first thing he says when he turns up and Jekyll's going, we're going to end up with the pox and stuff.
AdamAnd you've got.
AdamI mean, you've got like Philip Madden in there as the multury guy.
LeeYeah.
AdamAnd he's just so fantastically Macab, but again, you've got all these lovely lines in it.
AdamIt's like when it's like when Burke and Hare get lynched, well, Burke gets lynched and gets thrown in the lime pit.
LeeYeah.
AdamAnd it's just what is it, Burke by name, Burke by nature.
LeeYeah, yeah.
AdamAnd and the one that got me and Clair most was when Robertson says to her, oh, well, I'll go because, well, two's company.
AdamThree's positively devious.
LeeYeah, yeah.
LeeYeah.
AdamSo there's a lot of there's a lot of humor in it.
AdamAnd and, you know.
AdamI think that it's and like I say, the neighbors I think are fantastic sort of like like the brother is.
AdamYou know, an enjoyable sort of character because he's just a feckless piss-taking arsehole.
AdamAnd and even the sister, which would be quite a sort of a bit of a nothing role, you at least actually feel sorry for her.
AdamDo you know what I mean?
AdamIt's not cuz usually they're quite whiny, it's that sort of role within a Hammer film is usually quite irritating.
LeeYeah.
LeeBut actually I did found her irritating only because sort of she's had nothing.
LeeShe's tried to say hello to him and he's kind of said hello.
LeeAnd then he goes, she goes down and has dinner.
LeeAnd then when she suddenly just turned up unexpectedly and there's a woman there, she starts giving him a hard time like he's cheating on her.
LeeAnd I was like, he literally let you feed him dinner, like this isn't a relationship, you've got no reason to be pissed with him at all.
AdamShe does she does have a a massive strop at that point.
LeeYeah.
Adamalthough admittedly it's like, you know, it's Martin Beswick's turned up and you're like, well, that's it, I'm not competing there, am I?
AdamSo.
AdamBecause I think Martin Beswick and Ralph Bates are so fucking good in this.
LeeAmazing.
LeeAbsolutely brilliant, both of them.
AdamAnd just how alike they look.
ChrisYeah.
LeeYeah.
AdamYou know, they could they could portray brother and sister.
AdamBut it just, you know, I think it's just so well, and the sort of bits where you just suddenly get like a hand.
ChrisYeah.
AdamAnd it's quite subtle, you know.
AdamBecause I mean, you know, he's given but suddenly sort of like he or she will notice that their hand is changing.
LeeYeah.
AdamAnd it's and again, it's something that's really simply done.
LeeBut when it's done right, it's perfect.
LeeIt doesn't need anything.
AdamAnd actually, one one one thing cuz apparently when Ralph Bates got offered the role, he thought he was going to be playing Sister Hyde as well, he thought he was going to be, he assumed it was like a drag role basically that he'd be.
Adamwhich obviously they were like, well, no, that was never that's never the intention.
AdamBut I also think it's because it is a film, it has its humor and it has, I mean it has some fucking dark moments, and there's some really proper gore.
AdamI mean, like the knife through the neck and things like that.
LeeYeah.
AdamIt really fucking hardcore, because this is the point that Hammer are a bit more sort of like, you know, well, we're getting a bit loose with it.
AdamWe, you know, it's.
AdamFor a while it's been right, we'll have nudie vampire ladies.
AdamAnd then at this point, it's just like, right, we can just fucking put blood everywhere, you know.
AdamI mean, when it goes up the white chapel murder.
AdamPoster and things like that, it's it's almost it's almost sort of comic.
AdamBut.
AdamBut I think that they the one thing that I noticed that watching it this time around, cuz I I saw it.
AdamLike really a long time ago, and I actually now, having watched it again, I'm kind of like.
AdamI don't think I appreciate, I I enjoyed it.
AdamI thought it was a good film.
AdamI just don't think I appreciate how fucking good a film it was when I watched it that first time around.
AdamAnd but I noticed that that never at any point does Hyde become Jekyll and Ralph Bates is stood in a in a dress.
LeeYeah.
AdamBecause I know they I think they've made the wise decision that that's an absurdity too far because then it is just ho ho ho, look bloke in a dress.
LeeYeah, yeah.
AdamAnd so very cleverly, cuz there are bits where clearly that's what's happened, you know, but they sort of they sort of just focus on his face or whatever like that, and it's kind of never spoken about.
LeeBut I thought the point when he pulls the dress out of the wardrobe and then gets angry, I was like, all right, he's got the sense.
LeeWhat he's going to do is he's going to burn that dress and then when she takes over, she can't go out because she's got nothing to wear.
LeePerfect.
LeeBut no, he didn't think of that, silly sod.
Lee
AdamCuz I think there's I I think also there's the cuz there's a bit of inconsistency where like does how much do they remember?
LeeBecause clearly.
AdamBecause clearly they're they're picking up a bit.
AdamYou know, and that sort of changes and varies throughout the film.
AdamAnd that was another bit that I thought was that was bordering on ridiculous.
AdamWhere it's like the headline in the newspaper, and it's like, Mrs. Hyde, Mrs. Hyde.
LeeYeah, yeah.
AdamIt was like, yeah, she's Mrs. London London Gazette.
AdamShe's Mrs. Torry Landslide.
LeeBut it was a couple of things that made me laugh.
LeeOne of them was the when it says the killer in a top hat and a cloak.
LeeI was like that is that is literally everybody who is a working class in London.
LeeYou haven't got to burn your clothes.
Leeand the other thing is, why did they not lynch that bloody whirlygig player, the blind in air quotes.
LeeLike he was on the street corner for every single one of those murders.
LeeAnd yet nobody thought it was him, and then as soon as he said, I know who did it, they all went, I bet I'll lynch him then, and just immediately trusted this blind old beggar.
AdamBut.
AdamBut he's he's Hare.
AdamThat is something I never connected the first time around.
AdamIs he's here after cuz when the mob lynch Burke and Hare, they hang Hare and chuck him in a lime pit, and he goes blind.
ChrisRight, yeah.
AdamAng.
ChrisI agree.
AdamAnd.
AdamUp literally this morning, I was watching cuz obviously that's the weird thing.
AdamCuz obviously they link it up with Jack the Ripper, which is a common thing that happened with Jekyll and Hyde, cuz there's this weird thing where Jekyll and Hyde comes out in 1886.
AdamAnd then by the time of the White Chapel murders in 1888, there was a adapt of it at the Lyceum Theater that was doing really amazing business.
AdamAnd and an actual fact, the guy who was playing Jekyll and Hyde in the play, a guy called Richard Mansfield, was questioned by police.
AdamBecause like members of the audience wrote to the police and sort of like in that sort of way of, well, he portrays a murderer and a a villain on on stage so well, he can only actually be a sadistic serial killer.
AdamAnd, you know, it was sort of that sort of absurdity.
AdamAnd actually there were a few people who at the time was sort of like doing the old video narcissist thing of saying, well, actually, perhaps Jack the Ripper went and saw the play and, you know.
LeeYeah.
AdamIt's twisted his mind and now he's gone off to go and so on and so forth.
AdamSo weirdly, because they're so sort of recent and there's Christopher Freyling's book Nightmare talks about it.
AdamWhere it's like they Jack and Hyde become linked with Jack the Ripper in a weird way.
AdamBecause in the book, Hyde kills one person.
AdamBut in most of the adaptations, Hyde is a murderer of women.
LeeYeah.
AdamAnd so, you know, they sort of put those two and two together.
AdamAnd wisely, again, wisely with this, is at least they don't, it's not explicitly the victims of Jack the Ripper because that would be extremely distasteful.
AdamHowever, what they do do is transport Burke and Hare 60 years in the future.
AdamAnd move them to London.
LeeYeah.
AdamAnd have them as the body snatchers, and obviously Burke and Hare were real.
AdamBut I.
AdamBecause what happened was is Burke because they were in Edinburgh in which is where Robert Louis Stevenson came from as well, and he actually wrote a short story called The Body Snatcher, which was based because of the stories of Burke and Hare.
Adambut they were obviously active in yeah, it was exactly 60 years earlier.
AdamSo they were like sort of 18 1828.
AdamAnd.
AdamWhen they got found out, Hare basically turned what, would it been king's or queen's king's evidence.
LeeYeah.
AdamAnd basically sold Burke out, and so Burke hung and Hare and Hare got away.
Lee
AdamAnd I hadn't heard this before, I knew that Hare got away with it, but I hadn't heard before until I was watching Murder Maps with Vicky McLure this morning.
Adam
AdamAnd it was a Burke and Hare episode, just so happened to be that that's the first one they've done, and I was like, oh, well, I'll watch that.
AdamAnd apparently there is like a there was a story or a rumor that Hare got then sort of he got sent out of Edinburgh.
AdamBut a mob cornered him and threw him in a lime pit, blinded him, and he ended up begging on the streets.
Lee
AdamAnd apparently there's no there's no evidence for that.
AdamBut I think it was just one of those things where the story came out mostly because it's a bit more satisfying that.
AdamOne half of this brutal duo paid for his crimes as much as the guy who actually got hung, rather than you know.
AdamOh, because he grazed his mate up, he fucked off.
AdamI think in reality, apparently he just I think they said he just went he like moved to Ireland and died in the poorhouse or something like that.
AdamBut.
AdamYou know, so I'd never heard that thing before, and I was like two and two that it's like he's in this that it's obviously so he would know Jekyll.
LeeYeah.
AdamAnd then that's why sort of like they go to him and everything else like that.
AdamAnd what cuz it it doesn't make it too clear at the start.
LeeNo.
AdamCuz if if anything, I'm sitting there going, I know that bloke who plays the the the blind guy.
LeeOh, I thought that, but not enough to have actually gone and checked, otherwise, yeah, I would have yeah.
AdamAnd then and then it was only when they sort of take him in the pub and then it's like, oh shit, it's here, that's why I'm why I'm saying you know he is.
Adam
AdamBecause yeah, and that sort of thing of the comeuppance where it's like.
AdamCuz again, I mean, you know, it's odd it's odd thing that they stick Burke and Hare in there.
AdamBut it's it suits it.
LeeIt does work.
ChrisIt doesn't seem to overload it, yeah.
AdamNo, I think it's just I mean, really, it's it's in a way, it's shorthand, I suppose.
AdamThat it's like, well, we want to put these characters, we want we want this type of character in here.
LeeYeah.
AdamSo we might as well just use the two genuine ones.
LeeYeah.
AdamExactly.
AdamAnd let's face it.
AdamAt that point, it's like that's not quite as distasteful in the sense that it's like, well, they're a pair of murdering bastards anyway, so who cares if we fucking defame them by putting them in a silly Hammer film?
Adam
LeeAbsolutely.
LeeI've got to say so when I started watching it, when Martine Beswick turned up, at first, I was like.
LeeI've definitely seen her in something.
LeeShe looks so familiar.
LeeAnd then I worked out what it is, I've not seen her in anything, I don't think.
LeeWhat I recognize her from, and I'm pretty certain about this, there was a there was a Hanna-Barbera cartoon.
LeeFrom 1980, it was like a whole series, called The Drak Pack, did anybody remember The Drak Pack?
AdamI remember The Drak Pack, yes.
LeeAnd Vampira, she's got the same hair, but she's got the same mouth and everything.
LeeIt's like they've based Vampira on her.
LeeAnd she it looks so much like her that it looked familiar, and then I was like.
LeeHang on a minute, I'm thinking of a cartoon clearly based on this actor.
LeeAnd that was what it was.
LeeBut yeah, then once I watched it, I was like.
LeeOh my god, it is like they've just taken her face perfectly and that same accent as well and just made it the villainess in The Drak Pack.
AdamWell, cuz cuz Martine Beswick's Jamaican.
LeeOh, is she?
AdamWhich is really when you actually listen to and especially like there's a interview with her on the disc.
AdamAnd you can hear it more there, but yeah, she was like, she was a former Miss Jamaica.
AdamAnd she is she's one of the silhouetted women in the first ever James Bond title sequence, the title sequence of Dr. No.
Leethat's cool.
AdamAnd then she actually was in she was in two Bond films, so she was like a Bond girl, and I think she was like the first.
AdamShe was like the first person who sort of certainly the first like returning Bond girl.
Adamcuz she was in Thunderball and from Russia with Love.
AdamAnd before this, she was in the Hammer films 1 Million Years B.C. and Prehistoric Women.
Lee
AdamAnd
AdamBut also that she was she's lifelong mates with Caroline Monroe.
LeeOh, is she?
AdamAnd they they did a they did a film, I've never seen it called House of the Gorgon or something like that, which I think was like a it was fairly recent.
AdamBut I think it was like one of those things, you know, where it's like, oh, we can get these stars in these former Hammer stars into bring a bit of that into proceedings, sort of thing.
Adambut no, I mean, I think she's terrific.
AdamRalph Bates is amazing, do you remember I don't know if you would remember it, Chris.
AdamBut do you remember Dear John, Lee?
LeeNo.
AdamOh, right.
AdamBecause that's that is how in my head, that's Ralph Bates.
AdamDear John was a sitcom that ran for two years on the BBC, and it basically was he was a hapless bloke whose wife left him.
AdamAnd he went to a place called the One to One Club, which was like for separated and divorced people.
AdamAnd it was like, you know, just in a community center once every week, and it was based around all the sort of characters that were there.
AdamAnd there was a.
LeeOkay.
AdamThere was a nerdy guy and a bloke who fancied himself as being a bit John Travolta, so he was a flashy sod with a quiff and stuff like that.
AdamAnd the woman and the woman who ran it.
AdamWho was just a marvelously inappropriate upper-class woman who basically ended every inquiry with like when they were when they would talk about what happened with their relationships or why they were divorced or whatever like that.
AdamAnd her thing always was, were there any sexual problems?
LeeAnd.
AdamAnd
AdamSo that in my head was that was Ralph Bates, he was in Dear John for two years, and he actually died really young, he was about 50.
AdamWell, young for us, he was he was in his 50s.
LeeOh, young for us.
AdamAnd he died of pancreatic cancer in the 90s.
Adam
AdamAnd but yeah, Hammer kind of were grooming him to be their next star.
LeeOh, he's in Taste the Blood of Dracula, wasn't he?
AdamYeah.
AdamHe's in Taste the Blood, he's also in, oh, Taste the Blood, we should do Taste the Blood.
AdamThere's there's a lot of there was me sitting there going, oh, you know, the the odd ones are crap.
AdamNo, there's some bloody bell in the within the the franchises.
AdamI mean, obviously 80 1972 for Dracula, but Taste the Blood is a fantastic one as well.
LeeAmazing.
AdamAnd yeah, so he's in Taste the Blood of Dracula.
AdamHe actually plays Frankenstein in The Horror of Frankenstein, which was kind of like a they decided to try and reboot their Frankenstein cycle.
AdamSo they went back to an original.
AdamIt's him and I think it's Dave Prows as the monster, and at this point the monster looks like Karlof.
AdamLike they've they've sort of negotiated so they can have him with the square head and the stitches and stuff like that, so it's sort of like, so I think they were hoping to go back to basics on that.
AdamAnd then he was in Fear in the Night and Lust for a Vampire.
AdamSo he did quite a lot with he did quite a fair bit with Hammer.
Adamand I mean this is he is a bloody good actor.
AdamAnd it's it's just weird for me because like I say, in my head, he's just it's like having I don't know.
AdamLike, you know, Ronnie Barker or something like that, he was just someone who was in sitcoms that I watched as a kid.
AdamSo it was sort of, yeah, it always.
LeeYeah.
Adam
AdamI always, excuse me, I always find it he's also in The Monster, the one with Joan Collins.
Adamwhich is a which is a pretty good, that's a pretty good film.
AdamBecause I had it in a the weirdest fucking box set ever, cuz it was that, The Uncanny and Hands of the Ripper.
LeeOh God, yeah, that's that's a very odd.
AdamThat's a very odd little weirdly enough.
AdamI didn't realize this, this was made at the same time as Hands of the Ripper, so Hammer were having a a ripper year or something like that.
AdamYeah.
AdamAnd
AdamBut also they this got released on a double bill with Blood from the Mummy's Tomb.
AdamBut apparently didn't didn't do all that in.
Adamdidn't do all that on the box office, you know.
LeeI seem to remember Blood from the Mummy's Tomb being very slow-going, even for a Hammer, very slowly paced.
AdamYeah.
AdamIt's it's again, it's that sort of weird element whereby
AdamAgain, the mummy ones are sort of like very hit and miss, because and again, I think it's you had this weird push where some of them I think there was within Hammer, there was like a a bit of a sort of dynamic where some of them were like, no, stick to our guns.
AdamWe'll do as we've done for the last 15 years, we do films like that.
AdamAnd then the other half were kind of like, no, we want to branch out, and so you get things like this.
AdamAnd after this, Brian Clemens did one other film for them, which was Captain Kronos.
Leeyeah.
AdamAnd again, and and actually he directed that, it was the one film he directed.
Adamand again, you get that sort of thing where it's quite lively, there's a interesting change on the mythology.
AdamAnd there's humor in it, it's quite an adventure film, Captain Kronos.
AdamI mean, it's that's one I'd love to do on the show at some point.
ChrisThey they do seem pretty skilled at, you know, adjusting things without ruining them or arguably making them better without taking away from the original.
AdamWell, cuz I mean Hammer had done they did, I can't remember what one it's called, there's like the strange they did sort of like two other versions of Jekyll and Hyde.
AdamYeah, so they did The Two Faces of Dr. Jekyll in 1960.
AdamAnd I don't know if you've ever seen that, Lee.
AdamIt's fucking dull.
LeeOh, is it?
AdamIt's it's really weird because it's again.
AdamLike you were saying, it's it's everything that we've said this film isn't.
AdamYou know.
AdamIt's it's very typically Hammer, apart from the fact that it there's just nothing.
AdamThere's not much to it.
AdamIt's weird.
AdamYou know.
AdamThere's it just doesn't but they also did one in 1959.
AdamCalled The Ugly Duckling.
LeeOh, with Bernard Bresslaw?
LeeI've never seen it, but I need to.
LeeI think it's on YouTube.
LeeI keep meaning to watch it.
AdamYeah.
AdamOh yeah, it's it's it's.
AdamIt's funny, but you know.
AdamI mean, but it's a it's a deliberately non-serious take on it, because basically the story is Bernard Breslaw is a meek sort of guy, and then he becomes a Teddy Boy.
AdamBecause that was like considered that's that's like the that's the cool criminal of the day, you know what I mean?
AdamSo he takes the potion, becomes a Teddy Boy.
AdamAnd John Pertwe's his dad, and he's great in it.
AdamBut it's just.
AdamYeah, it's just that that that that's weird.
AdamAnd weirdly, like I said, that feels more like a sort of obviously because of the people involved that feels quite carry on, and it's deliberately deliberately funny.
AdamWhereas I think this has just such a a lovely flare to it.
AdamOf it's dark.
AdamAnd like you say, Chris.
AdamThere are there are some meaningful stuff in there.
ChrisYeah.
AdamAnd and actually it's it's it's again there's there's not really other than Sandra Spencer.
AdamI the the sister.
Adamother than her.
AdamThere's not really a saintly character in it.
LeeNo.
AdamCuz you know, like Paul Whitsun-Jones, like the police sergeant, is fantastic in it.
AdamBecause it's like, yeah, I'm diligent in my job, but I will also can you fucking whiskey what I'm sitting here.
LeeYeah.
LeeYeah.
LeeI did.
AdamAnd obviously Robertson is like, oh, well he's usually here on time, and it's like, yeah, but he's had a he's had a whiff of fanny.
AdamSo he ain't coming, you know.
AdamAnd actually, lovely little story as well.
AdamIs Betsy, the prostitute who gets murdered by Dr. Jekyll, is Virginia Virginia Weatherall.
LeeYes, I was about to bring that up.
LeeFrom Curse of the Crimson Altar.
AdamYes.
AdamBut also, that was when they met, and they got married, had two kids, and we're together till Ralph Bates died.
LeeOh, really?
AdamShe's she's the trustee of his like there's a foundation because he died of pancreatic cancer, and it's like the and so she's like the trustee of a charity that's like a research charity for cancer.
Adamand
LeeOh, wow.
AdamBut also she used to run a shop called Virginia in London that was like a fashion, like a vintage clothing shop.
AdamFor years, like she ran it from the 70s to like the mid 2000s.
LeeOh, wow.
AdamAnd half the fashion industry went through there, models, Madonna was a a patron of the shop and stuff like that, and she used to supply two museums and things like that.
AdamSo, yeah, I mean she was and she's in like Clockwork Orange and stuff like that.
AdamSo, but yeah, she was
AdamYeah, this is where they met.
AdamAnd which is.
LeeYeah.
AdamIt was lovely, you know, do you remember that bloke I bet you was killed you know.
LeeYeah.
ChrisI know.
LeeI murdered you.
AdamAnd.
AdamI murdered you in cold blood and it was love at first sight.
Leeexcellent.
Leebut yeah, as I say, it was one of those.
LeeIf I'd known I I'd sat quite long, if I'd known how good it was and hadn't always just been on the assumption that it was going to be daft.
LeeYeah, I would have seen this so much earlier because it it was one of the Hammer ones that.
LeeI am aware of, but just, yeah, it just never appealed.
LeeBut yeah, so I'm so glad we suggested it.
Leewell, I wasn't so glad when you suggested it cuz I thought, I've not watched that for a reason, but yeah, no, I was wrong, it was really good.
ChrisI mean it's funny it's one of like the title does just sound really silly, and yet I get it because it's Mr. Sister.
LeeYeah.
ChrisYou know, it's the right word, really, but it does just make it sound like, what, that's just going to be a bit.
LeeI don't mind it, but I don't mind it.
AdamYeah.
ChrisYeah.
AdamIt's.
AdamYeah.
AdamBut then.
ChrisYou think it could be all right.
ChrisBut yeah.
AdamMind you, if you want undermining, the tagline on the poster warning the sexual transformation of a man into a woman will actually take place before your very eyes.
LeeYeah.
AdamSo Hammer was still quite you know, they were like fuck it.
AdamI think that's that was a lovely thing though, is I think it's like Brian Clemens.
AdamAnd sort of like a few people they come in and it's like, well, actually, while we're doing Dr. Jekyll and Sister Hyde.
AdamNow it's a darf title.
AdamBut we can actually, we'll knock up something decent here.
AdamAnd it's like.
ChrisYeah, yeah.
AdamYou know.
ChrisProper bit of subversion.
Lee
LeeYeah, yeah.
LeeVery good.
LeeGreat film.
LeeSo,
LeeYeah.
AdamI'm glad you enjoyed it.
AdamGens.
LeeYeah, definitely.
LeeSo if you haven't seen it, go and dig out a copy.
LeeFor our next episode, again, we're covering something that neither myself nor Chris has ever seen.
Leewe're going to be covering whatever happened to Baby Jane.
Lee
ChrisI've not heard of that.
LeeYeah, a VHS that has been on Lady Jennifer's shelf since we met, I think, and, yeah, I've never seen it.
LeeSo, I might even just watch it on VHS at this rate, just to see it how it was supposed to be seen.
ChrisThat's going to be a bit of an experience now, yeah.
LeeYeah.
LeeIt could be fun.
ChrisI wonder if it'll feel authentic or awful.
LeeWell.
LeeWe shall see, I'll give it a go and I'll let you know.
LeeYes, so thanks ever so much for listening everybody.
LeeGo and check out Dr. Jekyll and Sister Hyde, if like me, you've always thought it was going to be ridiculous, it isn't, it's a very good film.
Leewe're all in agreement on that, and we will cover whatever happened to Baby Jane in the Fortnight.
LeeThanks ever so much for listening.
LeeGood night.
ChrisGood night.
AdamGood night.
ChrisHow many more surprises have we got to come?
