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Amicus Studios' screen version of Robert Louis Stevenson's famous novel 'The
Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde' is a fairly traditional affair, unlike
Hammer's less orthodox take on the story, Dr Jekyll and Sister Hyde (d. Roy Ward
Baker), released the same year. (Hammer had already made a more faithful, and
more lurid, version in 1959.) While Hammer added sexual politics to the tale by
having Jekyll's concoction change him into a beautiful woman, Christopher Lee's
tranformation from Dr Marlowe to Edward Blake is less dramatic yet more
effective.
Lee's performance contributes greatly to the effect. The repulsive depravity
of Blake is achieved with the minimum of make-up; the actor's posture,
expression and demeanour do the rest. In one scene, the transformation is
depicted using only a shadow on the wall. As Blake descends to greater and
greater depths of evil, so his appearance reflects his moral decay, with make-up
artist Harry Frampton gradually adding more and more physical evidence of his
festering soul to his rotting visage.
The application of Freud's theories to the story adds an interesting angle,
and clues to Marlowe's evil side are sown throughout the film. We learn that his
father used a gold-topped cane, like the one Blake steals, with the implication
that he used it to beat his son. Marlowe's female patient's attempted seduction
is presumably inspired by her discovery of postcards of nudes in his office; it
is left to our imagination whether or not he succumbs to her advances.
I, Monster was originally to be shot using a new 3-D process, which was
eventually abandoned, leaving a great deal of footage on the cutting room floor.
The film does contain some underdeveloped scenes, but otherwise the editing
problems have been well disguised and I, Monster succeeds as a dark and
unsettling exploration of the struggle between good and evil within a man's
soul.
Jo Botting
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1. One becomes an angel (1:24)
