Jekyll Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		1.5
Audio		4.0
Extras		3.0
Overall		3.5

Jekyll Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman January 10, 2024

Note: This television series is available on Blu-ray as part of Severin's Danza Macabra: Volume Two — The Italian Gothic Collection.

Severin released Danza Macabra: Volume One — The Italian Gothic Collection in 2023, and as I mentioned in our Danza Macabra: Volume One — The Italian Gothic Collection Blu-ray review, it was maybe just a little strange that the collection did not include the film from which it culled its very title. That situation has been rectified with this "new, improved" Volume Two, which includes not just the two alternate versions of Danza Macabra / Castle of Blood, both offered in 4K UHD and 1080 presentations, but three other somewhat later Italian gothic offerings (in 1080) as well. As usual, Severin has aggregated some really appealing supplements to help sweeten the pot (cauldron?).

What with all the sociopolitical turmoil in Italy of the 1960s that has been well documented in any number of films, is it possible someone slipped a considerable dose of some hallucinogenic into the water supply at Radiotelevisione italiana, otherwise known as RAI, Italy's equivalent of the state owned BBC in England? That at least might help to explain this fascinating if often gonzo adaptation of Robert Louis Stevenson's iconic tale made for Italian television in 1969. Now, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde has provided source material for innumerable versions on both the large and small screen, including Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (Academy Award winner for Frederic March), Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Dr. Jekyll and Sister Hyde, Abbott and Costello Meet Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, and kind of strangely two 2007 productions bearing the very name of this Italian enterprise, Jekyll, a British miniseries, and Jekyll, a feature film. Now this already abbreviated list only offers films with the redolent character name in the actual title, and fans of Stevenson's legendary tale will now either Jekyll and/or Hyde show up in any number of other properties, including at least allusively in the currently running Wednesday: The Complete First Season .

Since the back cover of this release touts actor, writer and director Giorgio Albertazzi's connection to one of the monoliths of French cinema, Last Year at Marienbad, and I myself have offered a laundry list of American and British productions above, I figured we might as well jaunt on over to Japan for a brief moment and talk about how the opening scenes of this weird adaptation play like some midcentury modernist Italian version of Rashomon. In a nutshell (emphasis on the nut part), some kind of attack has happened, though witness accounts of it are about as variable as they are in Kurosawa's classic. Among the characters introduced is a lawyer named John Utterson (Massimo Girotti), who has a connection to molecular biologist Edward Jekyll (Giorgio Albertazzi), who in turn has a connection to the attack and a subsequent attempted payoff of the victim.

My joke above about psychedelics is actually ultimately salient to this adaptation, because its late sixties milieu is used to draw perhaps fitful parallels between Jekyll's experimentations (and near feral outcomes) to what might be called the "drug culture" or "hippie movement" of that same general time frame. What adds to the presentational oddness of it all is a kind of quasi-futuristic production design that seems to take place in some nebulous timeframe that one way or the other divorces it from the Victorian ambience of the original in more ways than one. Rather fascinatingly, Jekyll more or less espouses the kind of "mind expanding" wishes that are prevalent in the writings of everyone from Aldous Huxley to Timothy Leary in terms of those legends' uses of consciousness changing drugs.

Jekyll Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Jekyll is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Severin Films with AVC encoded 1080p transfers in either 1.33:1 or 1.46:1, depending on the episode. I wish I had better news to report about this effort, but as even the varying aspect ratios may suggest, this presentation has any number of issues. Severin states these were culled from "RAI-TV tape masters", and while these indeed may come from some kind of transferred videotape, they often had some of the weird anomalies associated with older kinescopes. In that regard, neither of the aspect ratios struck me as looking completely correct in that things could look either very slightly anamorphically squeezed or very slightly anamorphically stretched. Also on the minus side are any number of just flat out more "video-esque" issues like tracking problems, some pretty severe quasi-warping, especially toward the middle of the frame, and ghosting. Macroblocking is very much in evidence in darker scenes in particular. Contrast is somewhat problematic as well, but at least there are moments that offer pretty secure merits in that regard, though they're counterweighed by other moments that are either blown out, with noticeably blooming whites, or on the murky side, so that shadow definition can be negligible. While both my PC drive and BD Info confirmed a progressive presentation, interlacing artifacts can still abound, assumedly remnants of the original workflow. There's considerable damage on display throughout all of the episodes, with various nicks, blotches and other signs of age related wear and tear, but there are also recurrent issues of what may have been electrical vestiges of the original broadcast, where momentary horizontal disruptions can appear throughout the frame.

Jekyll Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Jekyll fares considerably better on the audio side of things, with a DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 Mono track that has few of the issues afflicting the video. Both dialogue (which includes a number of quasi-monologues) and sound effects are presented with good fidelity, and a really interesting score by Gino Marinuzzi Jr. offering everything from 20th century atonal stridency to pastoral folk cues. Optional English subtitles are available.

Jekyll Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Disc One

• Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Albertazzi (HD; 7:24) is an interview with actor Giuliano Disperati. Subtitled in English.


• Building the World of Jekyll (HD; 9:13) is an interesting interview with set designer Emanuele Taglietti. Subtitled in English.

Disc Two

• The Double Spiral Staircase of Jekyll and Hyde (HD; 14:42) is a well done video essay by Joseph Dwyer which offers even more referents than the above review does.

Jekyll Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

As a final example of the many ways both Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde have penetrated into the cultural zeitgeist and how malleable so many versions of Stevenson's tale have been, my list above didn't include theatrical adaptations, and in that regard I served as Music Director for a fascinating "immersive theater" production (where the audience can walk through the set and get up close and personal with the actors) of a version of Stevenson's work which the playwright had relocated to the American wild west circa 1880s (I was supposedly a saloon pianist and I had to be ready to talk to audience members if necessary). Like many of Stevenson's works, there's a surface story and then something quite unique lurking "underneath", rather like Jekyll and Hyde, in fact, which probably makes these adaptations all the more alluring to creatives. This Italian miniseries is certainly one of the weirder adaptations, and it casts a very psychedelic spell. Video is unfortunately hobbled by a problematic source, but audio is fine and the supplements very enjoyable. With caveats noted, Recommended.