I Watch Films: I, Monster

I, Monster

It’s Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, with Christopher Lee in the role of experimental doctor and violent fiend. Except for some reason the doctor is called Charles Marlowe and the other man named Edward Blake.

This moves through all the stages of the original story. There are a couple of interesting novelties – Blake is rebuffed by a woman in a pub, stalks her into a factory and murders here against a backdrop of enormous machinery. Marlowe is a follower of Freud, and is looking to use the drug he develops therapeutically, allowing his patients to explore their repressed feelings. So a young woman who consults him as she feels desperate tries to seduce him. A brash older man reverts to childhood fears. Marlowe discusses this with his friends, who include Peter Cushing, and suggest the drug is supressing the super-ego allowing the id to have free rein.

A fairly straight forward period adaption, lifted by a superior cast, revolving around Lee’s transformation, Cushing as his friend and intellectual sparring partner, the supporting friends in the club, patients and Marlowe’s long-suffering butler doing a good job with the cliched roles.

Watch This: Old school, classic period horror with two masters acting in it
Don’t Watch This: You’re not impressed with Jekyll and Hyde and have no interest in seeing more