Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde is a 1920 silent horror film produced by Paramount. The film is an adaptation of the novel "The Strange Story of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde" by Robert Louis Stevenson.

The picture conveys the atmosphere of unreality conceived by the author, which further emphasizes the "dream with a spider" that the main character sees. The actor is believed to have invented the spider costume himself, in which he slowly crawled onto the bed where his double sleeps, shown through a double exposure.

The amazing gloom of the picture, which takes place almost entirely at night, is conveyed in the traditional Broadway realistic manner.

The film is now in the public domain.

Dr. Henry Jekyll is a respected and brilliant scientist, but he goes too far in his experiments. After experiencing an experimental drug of his own preparation, Jekyll releases his sinister dark half – Mr. Hyde-into the world.

As in the other films based on this story, Dr. Jekyll transforms into his dark alter ego by drinking an elixir he developed himself. At the same time, his hair and fingers lengthen, his facial features, posture, gait and other habits change. Over time, Hyde begins to exert more and more influence on Jekyll's body, and this leads to additional transformations: for example, his skull becomes elongated, his hair becomes thinner and thinner.

Unlike Jekyll, who is a model of decency, Hyde is aggressive, vicious, and dishonest. He consorts with degraded women, attacks people, bites and kills them, and even beats up a child for fun.

In order to transform back into Jekyll, Hyde must once again drink the elixir. After a while, Hyde begins to appear without the elixir, and the antidote has an effect for an increasingly short time. One day Hyde comes to Jekyll in a dream in the form of a huge spider, and when the doctor wakes up, he discovers that he has become Hyde.

After Hyde's death, his body changes and he turns into Jekyll.