Docteur Jekyll et les femmes

Docteur Jekyll et les femmes, also known as Blood of Dr. Jekyll, is a 1981 horror film directed by Walerian Borowczyk. The film is a variation on Robert Louis Stevenson's 1886 novella Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde and stars Udo Kier, Marina Pierro, Patrick Magee, Howard Vernon, and Gérard Zalcberg.

Docteur Jekyll et les femmes
Directed byWalerian Borowczyk
Produced by
Written byWalerian Borowczyk
Based onStrange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde
by Robert Louis Stevenson
StarringUdo Kier
Marina Pierro
Patrick Magee
Howard Vernon
Gérard Zalcberg
Music byBernard Parmegiani
CinematographyNoël Véry
Edited byKadisha Bariha
Production
company
  • Whodunit Productions
  • Allegro Productions
  • Multimedia Gesellschaft für audiovisuelle Information mbH[1]
Release date
  • June 17, 1981 (1981-06-17) (France)
Running time
92 minutes
Country
  • France
  • West Germany[1]

The film, a co-production between France and West Germany, was released in France in 1981 and won an award for Best Feature Film Director at the 1981 Sitges Film Festival for Borowczyk.

Plot

Dr. Henry Jekyll (Udo Kier), where the doctor is being feted prior to his engagement to the austere Miss Fanny Osborne (Marina Pierro). The guests arrive and are various dignitaries and officials. After a meal, the doctor is summoned to his laboratory, to get his will. He returns to the living room when a scream is heard where one of his guests has been discovered raped and murdered.

Henry Jekyll transforms to his alter ego, Mr. Hyde (Gérard Zalcberg), by taking a bath filled with a chemical cocktail. He emerges physically transformed. His alter ego has none of the restrictions of morality and he proceeds to rape and torture various guests.

Eventually Fanny witnesses one such transformation. She leaps into the bath to be transformed as well. The two transformed leave the house and in a carriage they depart, whilst undertaking blood letting of each other, and love making.

Cast

Release

Borowczyk wanted to call his film Le cas étrange de Dr.Jekyll et Miss Osbourne but his distributors UGC insisted it be released under the title Docteur Jekyll et les femmes.[2] The film was released in France on June 17, 1981.[1] Docteur Jekyll et les femmes never opened commercially in the United States and in Britain it played at one cinema for one week.[3]

The film was released theatrically in the UK under the title The Blood of Dr. Jekyll and then later on video as Bloodlust.[4] On the film's presentation at the Sitges Film Festival, it was shown under the title Docteur Jekyll et Miss Osborne.[5] Arrow Films released the film in both the US and UK on April 21, 2015 on Blu-ray and DVD.[6] This was the film's first legitimate commercial release in any medium in the US, and the first in the UK since the VHS era. Arrow also restored Borowczyk's preferred title The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Miss Osbourne.[7]

Reception

The film won Walerian Borowczyk the award for "Best Feature Film Director" at the 1981 Sitges Film Festival.[5]

See also

Notes
  1. "Docteur Jekyll et les femmes". Filmportal.de. Retrieved March 16, 2015.
  2. Atkinson, 2008. pg. 167
  3. Contemporary Reviews (booklet). Arrow Films. 2015. p. 20. AV005.
  4. Binion, Cavett. "Docteur Jekyll et les Femmes - Cast, Reviews, Summary, and Awards - AllRovi". Allmovie. Rovi Corporation. Retrieved December 11, 2013.
  5. "Sitges Film Festival - Festival Internacional de Cinema Fantàstic de Catalunya » Archives › 1981". Sitges Film Festival. Retrieved August 7, 2011.
  6. Gingold, Michael. "More Arrow U.S. Blu-rays: Bava's "BLOOD," Borowczyk's "JEKYLL" art/details". Fangoria. Retrieved December 11, 2013.
  7. Arrow Blu-ray release of "The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Miss Osbourne", extras and booklet

References
  • Atkinson, Michael (2008). Exile Cinema: Filmmakers at Work Beyond Hollywood. SUNY Press. ISBN 0-7914-7378-3.
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