Rating summary

Movie		2.0
Video		2.5
Audio		2.5
Extras		0.0
Overall		2.5

The Two Faces of Dr. Jekyll Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Martin Liebman December 22, 2020

Note: Mill Creek has released 'The Two Faces of Dr. Jekyll' as part of a twenty film Hammer Horror collection and shares a disc with These are the Damned. The film was previously released in a two pack. This version features slightly different video and a new lossless soundtrack.

The place: London. The year: 1874. Dr. Henry Jekyll (Paul Massie) is a scientist obsessed with understanding man's inherent duality. He believes that in every human "two forces struggle for supremacy." He's so engrossed in his work that he's come to distance himself from his wife Kitty (Dawn Addams) who has taken to having an affair with her husband's friend Paul (Christopher Lee). Jekyll cannot concern himself with such things. He's close to a breakthrough, and against the better advice of his colleague Ernst Littauer (David Kossoff), he injects himself with a compound of his own making that transformers him into "Mr. Hyde" (also played by Paul Massie) who meddles in Jekyll's affairs.

Some people just can't help themselves. Especially these whacky, self-absorbed, wannabe kings-of-the-world scientists. In The Two Faces of Dr. Jekyll, it's yet another man utterly obsessed with his work, determined to make something of his life and work, ignoring not only the world around him but the warning signs that all point to disaster. And that's exactly what comes. The split personality angle works crudely, but effectively, in the film, but it's so haphazard, so bizarrely scripted and orchestrated, that the more serious emotional impacts of Jekyll's work is lost to the film's barrage of oddities that put a damper on the otherwise classic story of one man dealing with two very distinct personalities. The film, at its core, remains true enough to the thematic essence of the original Robert Louis Stevenson story, but it's a far cry from the most classic stylings, literary motifs, and dramatic core details of the source.

The Two Faces of Dr. Jekyll Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

There appears to be little change between this version and that which Mill Creek put to market in 2016. Direct comparisons reveal a slightly altered color temperature on this new release, looking like tones are slightly deeper and contrast adjust upward ever so slightly. The master appears to be same; the picture retains the same source elements. Please click here for a full review, but do keep in mind the slightly different color timing.

The Two Faces of Dr. Jekyll Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

For its inclusion in the Hammer Ultimate Collection, Mill Creek has tuned the soundtrack to the DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 encode, upgrading from the previous release's Dolby Digital 2.0 lossy presentation. As with the other films in this set which have been similarly upgraded, there's not a monumental sense of improvement but rather a series of subtle fine tuning that probably only the most ardent audiophile is even going to notice. Music is slightly fuller and the larger sound design a hint more inviting and detailed. The tracks share the same channel configuration and the same spatial limitations but seem to make slightly better use of the fronts, offering a decently expansive musical landscape and, while score certainly never reaches the peak of fidelity perfection, offers a solid foundational detail within the mildly scratchy elements. A slight hiss remains under much of the content as well. Dialogue doesn't image perfectly to the center but doesn't drift too far away, either. Even as it's been upgraded to lossless, the original elements continue to struggle to offer the richness and lifelike clarity superior tracks enjoy.

The Two Faces of Dr. Jekyll Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

As with the previous Mill Creek release, this version of The Two Faces of Dr. Jekyll contains no supplemental content.

The Two Faces of Dr. Jekyll Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

The Two Faces of Dr. Jekyll is a bizarre adaptation of the classic story. It's decent, if only because it's different, entertainment. It captures the core essence of the original tale well enough but is otherwise a fairly disparate entity and a disposable film. Mill Creek's featureless Blu-ray boasts decent 1080p video and, for this release, boosts audio to a lossless two-channel configuration. Rent it.