AWARDS AND HONORS

Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde was nominated for three Academy Awards including Best Cinematography, Best Editing and Best Musical Score.

The Critics' Corner: DR. JEKYLL AND MR. HYDE "Let's be gentle and begin by admitting that the new film version of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde has a point or two in its favor. It has, for instance, one Ingrid Bergman: as the luckless barmaid pursued and tortured by an evil she could not understand, the young Swedish actress proves again that a shining talent can sometimes lift itself above an impossibly written role. There is also at least one superbly photographed chase of the maddened Hyde running amok through the fog-bound London streets, his cape billowing behind him like a vision of terror. The film has, finally, the extraordinarily polished production that only Hollywood's technical wizards can achieve...Mr. Tracy has taken the short end of the stick by choice. Though his facial changes, as he alternates between Dr. Jekyll and his evil alter ego, may be a trifle subtler than his predecessors in the role, Mr. Tracy's portrait of Hyde is not so much evil incarnate as it is the ham rampant. When his eyes roll in a fine frenzy like loose marbles in his head he is more ludicrous than dreadful."
– The New York Times

"Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde...is such a pretentious resurrection of Robert Louis Stevenson's ghoulish classic that it might well serve as a final mausoleum for the bones of the ill-fated Harley Street medico and his test-tube twin. Durable Spencer Tracy, a cinemactor who can really act, plays Dr. Jekyll and Friend Hyde for more than they are worth...This unfortunate portrayal is the result of actor Tracy's and director Victor Fleming's...refusal to play the hoary fable for its horror. They have dressed it up with overtones of Freud in which Tracy's transformation to Hyde is accompanied by symbolic montage shots...Only grave, good-looking, lyrical Ingrid Bergman wrings credit from the tortured script. Her portrayal of the unfortunate barmaid who charms Jekyll only to fall victim to Hyde's sadism is a refreshing element in a preposterous part. As for Lana Turner, fully clad for a change, and the rest of the cast...they are as wooden as their roles."
- Time Magazine

"In the evident striving to make Jekyll a 'big' film, by elaborating the theme and introducing new characters and situations, some of the finer psychological points are dulled...Nevertheless, it has its highly effective moments, and Spencer Tracy plays the dual roles with conviction. His transformations from the young physician, bent on biological and mental research as an escape from his own moral weaknesses, to the demoniac Mr. Hyde are brought about with considerably less alterations in face and stature than audiences might expect. Ingrid Bergman plays the enslaved victim of Hyde's debauches. In every scene in which the two appear, she is Tracy's equal as a strong screen personality."
- Variety

"Not a patch on Mamoulian's 1932 version, since it jettisons the overt sexuality....and never really allows us to identify with the demonic protagonist, thus forfeiting the opportunity to make the audience complicitous in his guilt. Furthermore, though Bergman...makes a reasonable barmaid, Turner is badly miscast as the upmarket fiancée. Well shot by Joseph Ruttenberg, and the transformations are effectively handled, but it's generally shallow and anemic.
- Geoff Andrew, TimeOut Film Guide

"Poor Spencer Tracy comes up far behind either of his predecessors in the 1941 version. Evil just wasn't his thing, not on the screen at least. But Lana Turner and Ingrid Bergman are as young and lovely as anyone could wish, and there's a great dream sequence in which Spence wildly lashes a whip over the gals' heads while they pull his chariot.
- Alan Vanneman, Bright Lights Film Journal

"Tracy and Bergman are excellent in thoughtful, lush remake of Robert Louis Stevenson's classic, which stresses Hyde's emotions rather than physical horror."
- Leonard Maltin's Movie & Video Guide

"While director Victor Fleming creates a very literary-minded film, he misses the point of making a horror movie, removing much of the sadism and sordidness necessary to make Robert Louis Stevenson's story play well in the cinematic medium. Instead, we're left with something that's pretty, but ultimately hollow. Stripped of its dark underbelly, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde leaves us with the feeling that, despite this all-star team, the results could have been much better."
- Nate Yapp, classic-horror.com

Compiled by Andrea Passafiume