Dr. Heckyl and Mr. HypeThey say that beauty is only skin deep; I guess the same holds true for ugliness. Dr. Heckyl and Mr. Hype is a satirical take on Robert Louis Stevenson's classic tale of a doctor who becomes a monster set in contemporary times. It is a black comedy and (often absurd) horror movie, riddled with camp appeal. Starring Oliver Reed as the main character (characters?), he portrays both of his characters' personalities in extremes. Dr. Heckyl is physically disformed, with a corpse-like pallor, mismatched eyes, and two club feet. (Ironic for a podiatrist.) Determined to kill himself, he takes an experimental drug which has the unexpected side effect of not only not killing him, but making him into an insecure yet debonair lady killer...in every sense of the phrase.
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I first saw (at least a part of) Dr. Heckyl and Mr. Hype courtesy of "Elvira's Movie Macabre". Unfamiliar with the story upon which it was based, I thought the movie--even as a kid--was truly bizarre...like some kind of weird, sugar-addled dream. Over thirty years later, my opinion has not changed much. That said, Dr. Heckyl and Mr. Hype is playful and subversive, a word often used in conjunction with Charles B. Griffith, who writes and directs this picture. This is a "B-movie" through and through, and there is the overwhelming sense that Oliver Reed is relishing every minute of hamming it up here, especially when he transforms into Mr. Hype. The outdoor sets look like movie sets, or something cheaply shot from the side of the road like when Mr. Hype careens through the hills in a stolen Cadillac. The doctor's office where Heckyl works is truly odd, looking like some kind of Roman bath or luxurious spa, where his colleagues (and Heckyl) treat patients via the most absurd methods, not even trying to look like something resembling an actual medical practice. The most obvious example comes by way of the magical diet medicine which Heckyl's fellow "doctor", Dr. Vince Hinkle (Mel Welles), gives to his obese clients, but just one drop of it for "safety" reasons. Another doctor, Dr. Lew Hoo (Kedrick Wolf), spends his time tickling his clients with a peacock feather. (Yep, this movie defies realism.) Anyway, Heckyl's biggest problem isn't his appearance but his overwhelmingly negative attitude instead. True, the other characters in Dr. Heckyl and Mr. Hype are almost all totally shallow, insensitive, and superficial, so one could forgive him for being such a wet blanket. On the other hand, he is chronically obsessed with his appearance in both of his incarnations to such an extent that he really is unlikable when he's like this. The movie aims at the start to endear us to Heckyl by showing the audience just how awfully he is treated by people on the street, like when people on the bench at the bus stop sidle away from him when he sits down. But at his practice he is treated with respect and courtesy despite his appearance instead. So as unfortunate as his appearance may be to inconsiderate passersby, Heckyl takes his looks far too personally. He fixates on a beautiful young woman named Coral Careen (Sunny Johnson), who he only knows from the bus stop until she coincidentally shows up as a client at his office. Heckyl comes off as kindly and shy during her office visit, but aside from an initial scream, she is overall pleasant and kind to him. But for Heckyl, what she really represents is an idealized image of beauty and the prospect of sex, even more than a person or a client. Not much changes with Heckyl's transformation, except that he becomes even more of a boorish egomaniac...and kills women.
Despite this assessment of Heckyl, the movie instead prefers a "beauty and the beast" dynamic between Heckyl and Coral; she becomes increasingly attracted to Heckyl, even sloughing off a fling she seems to be having with her boss in the process. Yet even though Heckyl and Hyde occupy the same body (sort of), she is utterly repulsed by Hyde, who becomes more and more unhinged as the movie progresses. Hyde correctly surmises that the miracle "paste" which Hinkle has been passing around doesn't truly result in weight loss as much as it makes manifest the user's idealized version of themselves instead. This leads to a hilarious moment near the end of the movie when Dr. Hoo takes some of the paste and transforms...into the office secretary with the (ahem) tongue-in-cheek name of Miss Finebum (Maia Danziger). As Hype gallivants around town, killing women indiscriminately, he draws the attention of a true "flatfoot" (and patient of Heckyl's who feels no pain) named Lt. Mack Druck (Virgil Frye). (The punny names getting to you yet?) Druck is, of course, inept, and arrests Heckyl on the flimsiest of pretenses...only to release Hyde later when he finds him in the jail cell instead of Heckyl. (He's a real Columbo, that one.) There is some slapstick involving the police in Mr. Heckyl and Mr. Hype, including with a bumbling cop named "Sgt. Fleacollar" (Jackie Coogan) and a pair of "identical twin" garbage men named Irsil and Orson (Dick Miller) who work for "Flynn's Bins", and keep getting perturbed at having to dispose of dead women. (Hype can't be bothered to take the time to actually bury his victims or anything, so he just chucks them in the trash.) But Dr. Heckyl and Mr. Hype falls back far too often on zany, madcap antics and makes everyone in it into pretty much idiots. Hyde constantly tries to hint to Hinkle that he is actually Heckyl...but it takes him until the end of the movie to figure it out. There is some fun in how Reed does the inner monologue of his characters, where Hype is devil on Heckyl's shoulder, and Heckyl seems trapped inside of Hype while he runs amok. (One has to wonder if this served as any inspiration for Marvel's "Moon Knight" series.) The best way to approach Mr. Heckyl and Mr. Hype is as if it were some kind of sanitized Troma movie, or a movie that is having a schizophrenic episode about whether it is a horror movie, a black comedy, or The Three Stooges...sometimes all at once.
Recommended for: Fans of a batty, low-budget comedy/horror flick, where nothing is serious at all, and for those who don't mind a silly movie made on a shoestring budget with arguably the most recognizable actor (Reed) being a complete goofball...actually, that doesn't sound too bad. It's not really a movie for kids, but it lacks any excess gore or foul language, making it at least tolerable for younger audiences...even if they may not enjoy the camp appeal anyway.
Despite this assessment of Heckyl, the movie instead prefers a "beauty and the beast" dynamic between Heckyl and Coral; she becomes increasingly attracted to Heckyl, even sloughing off a fling she seems to be having with her boss in the process. Yet even though Heckyl and Hyde occupy the same body (sort of), she is utterly repulsed by Hyde, who becomes more and more unhinged as the movie progresses. Hyde correctly surmises that the miracle "paste" which Hinkle has been passing around doesn't truly result in weight loss as much as it makes manifest the user's idealized version of themselves instead. This leads to a hilarious moment near the end of the movie when Dr. Hoo takes some of the paste and transforms...into the office secretary with the (ahem) tongue-in-cheek name of Miss Finebum (Maia Danziger). As Hype gallivants around town, killing women indiscriminately, he draws the attention of a true "flatfoot" (and patient of Heckyl's who feels no pain) named Lt. Mack Druck (Virgil Frye). (The punny names getting to you yet?) Druck is, of course, inept, and arrests Heckyl on the flimsiest of pretenses...only to release Hyde later when he finds him in the jail cell instead of Heckyl. (He's a real Columbo, that one.) There is some slapstick involving the police in Mr. Heckyl and Mr. Hype, including with a bumbling cop named "Sgt. Fleacollar" (Jackie Coogan) and a pair of "identical twin" garbage men named Irsil and Orson (Dick Miller) who work for "Flynn's Bins", and keep getting perturbed at having to dispose of dead women. (Hype can't be bothered to take the time to actually bury his victims or anything, so he just chucks them in the trash.) But Dr. Heckyl and Mr. Hype falls back far too often on zany, madcap antics and makes everyone in it into pretty much idiots. Hyde constantly tries to hint to Hinkle that he is actually Heckyl...but it takes him until the end of the movie to figure it out. There is some fun in how Reed does the inner monologue of his characters, where Hype is devil on Heckyl's shoulder, and Heckyl seems trapped inside of Hype while he runs amok. (One has to wonder if this served as any inspiration for Marvel's "Moon Knight" series.) The best way to approach Mr. Heckyl and Mr. Hype is as if it were some kind of sanitized Troma movie, or a movie that is having a schizophrenic episode about whether it is a horror movie, a black comedy, or The Three Stooges...sometimes all at once.
Recommended for: Fans of a batty, low-budget comedy/horror flick, where nothing is serious at all, and for those who don't mind a silly movie made on a shoestring budget with arguably the most recognizable actor (Reed) being a complete goofball...actually, that doesn't sound too bad. It's not really a movie for kids, but it lacks any excess gore or foul language, making it at least tolerable for younger audiences...even if they may not enjoy the camp appeal anyway.