Directed by Victor Fleming

Produced by Victor Saville

Screenplay by John Le Mahin, Percy Heath, Samuel Hoffenstein

Starring Spencer Tracy, Ingrid Bergman, Lana Turner

Running time: 127 minutes (original version)

Budget: $1,140,000 Box office: $2,351,000

Ten years after Fredric March came Spencer Tracy in the infamous dual role, complete with glossy production values, an A-list cast and Hollywood maestro Victor Fleming (of Gone with the Wind and The Wizard of Oz) as director.  Not so much a horror as a psychological drama, this Jekyll & Hyde is an effective if clearly restrained remake rather than a fresh reading of Robert Louis Stevenson’s novella. The biggest flaw is an unadventurous script which chooses to mimic the earlier film instead of fleshing out material of its own.  However, it’s not a misfire; Tracy (understated as Jekyll, maniacal as Hyde) and Ingrid Bergman (as Hyde’s tortured lover) give compelling performances whilst Fleming’s direction is slick and enough to give the film an edge of its own, even if it’s no match for the superior 1931 film.