Dr. Jekyll and Ms. Hyde

Dr. Jekyll and Ms. Hyde
Dr. Jekyll and Ms. Hyde DVD Cover Art
Directed by	David Price
Produced by	Frank K. Isaac Robert Shapiro
Written by	David Price (story and screenplay) Tim John Oliver Butcher (screenplay)
Starring	Timothy Daly Sean Young Lysette Anthony
Music by	Mark McKenzie
Cinematography	Tom Priestley Jr.
Editing by	Tony Lombardo
Distributed by	Savoy Pictures (USA) Rank Organisation (International)
Release date(s)	August 25, 1995
Running time	90 min.
Country	United Kingdom United States
Language	English

Dr. Jekyll and Ms. Hyde is a 1995 British-American comedy film starring Tim Daly, Sean Young and Lysette Anthony. The film is based on Robert Louis Stevenson's classic horror novel Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.

Plot

Richard Jacks (Tim Daly) is a perfumer fed up working at a major fragrance company where he is the butt of the joke with much of his fellow employees. After his great grandfather dies, Jacks attends the will reading and whilst everyone else receives houses, money and boats, Jacks receives a bunch of science notes, something he is far from happy with. He discovers that his ancestor was in fact Dr. Henry Jekyll and Jacks becomes fascinated about the duality of man, he starts performing experiments to refine the formula that separates good and evil. Realizing that his ancestor's formula increased male aggression, Richard decides to add more estrogen to the mix in the hope that it will prove less dangerous.

After a night of monitoring his vital stats after investing a formula he put together, he gives up and finally attends a job interview. Although everything appears fine at first, Jacks' voice soon changes, his nails grow and the hairs on his arms recede back under his skin. Jacks looks puzzled but then feels some strange feelings from his genitalia area and watches in horror as his penis deflates and transforms into a vagina. However, he is still in denial and only realises what's happening when his hair grows and he develops breasts, all whilst still in the job interview. He panics rushes to his workplace and still in a state of shock, looks horrified as he looks in a mirror and realises he is now female.

The new female alter-ego names herself Helen Hyde (Sean Young) and quickly develops a personality independent of her creator. Hyde loves being a woman and at this point acts more like a protagonist and is actually quite likable. After flirting with several of Jacks' fellow employees, she visits Jacks' fiancee Sarah (Lysette Anthony) and has her to move out of Jack's apartment so she can have it for herself. Soon after this, Hyde transforms back into Jacks.

Jacks returns to work the next day, and, after several comments from his colleagues, realizes that Hyde was real but is unable to access any of her memories due to the fact they are now two separate people. Nonetheless, he feels invigorated and after recent problems with Sarah, he invites her around for a romantic meal. Everything appears to be going well until he realises he is again transforming into Hyde. Hyde then starts sleeping around the office in order to gain advantage, even having sex with a homosexual man. Just when Hyde is about to have sex with Jacks' boss, she starts to turn back into Jacks before running into a toilet, whom is then horrified as he realises the situation he finds himself in and he quickly exits via a nearby window.

Knowing no-one would believe him, Jacks becomes desperate and wants to record the transformation, handcuffing himself to the bed, only to then be horrified as Sarah walks in, finding him handcuffed to the bed and that his closest is now filled with lingerie, it's only after Sarah leaves that Jacks against transforms into Hyde. Angered at Jacks' attempt to reach out to others, Hyde proceeds to burn all of his grandfather's documents and warns Jacks via a video of her intentions to take over completely. He then realises that he is actually starting to spending more time as Hyde than himself and he has to come up with a plan before he disappears completely.

Jacks finally manages to convince Sarah about his transformation (with the help of CCTV footage from the initial transformation) and she agrees to help as Richard comes up with a formula that would effectively destroy the Hyde part of himself, but could also potentially kill him. After he transforms into Hyde, Sarah's attempts to inject Hyde fail with only about 20% of the formula being injected, enough to have spontaneous transformations of random body parts between male and female. Hyde escapes.

Hyde makes her way to the launch of a perfume that she "invented" (it was exactly the same as a scent Jacks had come up with but was initially rejected by the feminist executive at the company), but the formula causes her to temporarily grow stubble and her breasts to shrink. Sarah, who has snuck into the party, hides in the speech podium and waits until the promotion video starts before injecting the rest of the formula into Hyde, whom slowly starts transforming back into Jacks.

The films ends as a relieved Jacks realises it's over but then sees that he's in a room full of colleagues dressed in a dress. He makes a speech about the only way he could understand a woman was to become one.

Cast

• Timothy Daly as Dr. Richard Jacks - Daly replaced Jim Carrey in the role of Dr. Jacks. Carrey left to film The Mask and Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls.
• Sean Young as Helen Hyde - Young was pregnant during filming, but that didn't stop her receiving mostly negative reactions to her performance as Hyde, including being nominated for two "Razzies."
• Lysette Anthony as Sarah Carver
• Stephen Tobolowsky as Oliver Mintz
• Harvey Fierstein as Yves DuBois
• Thea Vidale as Valerie
• Jeremy Piven as Pete Walston
• Polly Bergen as Mrs. Unterveldt

Reception

Reviews of the film were generally mixed to negative. The storyline was heavily criticised and the transformation sequences were also viewed as unconvincing and laughable. However, the film did garner a small cult following upon being released on home video.

Despite most of the cast receiving generally favourable feedback, the film was nominated for three "Razzies," including "Worst Actress" for Sean Young, "Worst Remake or Sequel" for Robert Shapiro and Jerry Leider, and "Worst Screen Couple" for Tim Daly and Sean Young, despite the obvious fact that they don't appear on screen at the same time once.

At the time of writing, the film has a below-average rating of 4.2 on the IMDB.

Home Format

After the film's theatrical run, HBO released the film onto VHS and in 2004, onto DVD. The DVD is now discontinued and as of March 29, 2010, neither HBO or Focus Features, the latter of whom has begun to acquire some of Savoy's movies, has announced any plans to release a new DVD of the film. For these reasons, used copies of the original DVD have gone up for as much as $27 to $40 online.

See also

• List of American films of 1995
• Dr. Jekyll and Sister Hyde, another, earlier, version of the story also featuring a female Hyde.

External links

• Dr. Jekyll and Ms. Hyde at the Internet Movie Database