化身博士

This dichotomous horror cinema progenitor which ripsnortinglydelves into the sordid underside of human psyche, is directed by the Hollywood’s maverick innovatorRouben Mamoulian and made just shy of the scourge of Production Code.

From its unorthodox opening sequences, shot with anovoid vision-bounded subjective angle, immediately viewers realize they are watching something novel, intriguing and challenging the normalcy of our ocular perception of the silver screen. Even appraised in this day and age, Mamoulian’s sleight-of-hand still resoundingly holds court.

In the Victorian London, the respectable Dr. Henry Jekyll (March) concocts a potion which can turn himself into an alter ago of his dark side, Mr. Hyde, whose appearance also changes into a primitive, simian-like reprobate and is immune to any conscience and morality. One of the most extraordinary visual tricks from Mamoulian is the deceptively uninterrupted close-up of Jekyll’s visage morphing into Hyde’s under our direct scrutiny, which he would spill its magic beans decades later. Also, prominent and equally impressive is his implement of montages, in particular during Dr. Jekyll’s first transmogrification, a hallucinogenic concatenation of the extrinsic incentives which tease out a decent man’s darkest facet.

A whey-faced Fredric March wins his first BEST ACTOR Oscar award (shared with Wallace Beery in King Vidor’s THE CHAMP 1931) for buckling down this Janus-faced showcase and rendering it with both ample empathy and pathos, Jekyll’s repeated frustration of consummating with his sweetheart fiancée Muriel (Hobart) works up as the primal trigger of Hyde’s unleashing and persistence, it is rather incisive to link a human’s sexual impulse with his dark side, a motif naturally falls in with Victorian mores and codes of behavior, and looking back, how to lift“sex” from the list of taboos really signifies a big step to understand humanity,

The two actresses serve as trimmings under March’s duopoly, are diametrical in their social statuses, but not so much in their abject thirst of love and blind subjugation to Jekyll’s gentlemanlike front: Miriam Hopkins’ terrorized Ivy Pierson is incredibly harrowing when we all too well really that she is doomed in the cul-de-sac, and Rose Hobart’s ladylike meekness might reflect what one deems as a noble and devoted wife-to-be then (don’t give up your man no matter what), but teeters on the brink of mawkishness quickly seen through a more critical eye. With all the classic oldies now in vogue for revamping and retrofitting,Robert Louis Stevenson’s timeless warhorse could be well infused with a progressive spin (human iniquity is a gold mine to milk) to exhort younger generations, butMamoulian’s ingenuity is nevertheless, substantially nonpareil.

referential point: Fritz Lang’s M (1931, 9.0/10)

我知道管风琴=大反派标配，这是好莱坞传统，但我好像找到了鼻祖？

因为在这个传统出现之前，管风琴代表着宗教信仰，代表神。而在这部电影开头，还能看到管风琴曾经的标签的影子。博士用管风琴弹了一段Ich Ruf Zu Dir Herr Jesu Christ。

只不过被反过来用了，圣咏由基克尔博士弹出来一点都不神圣，还让人后背发凉。最神圣的就是最邪恶的，最干净的就是最脏的。当年的好莱坞导演很有想法啊。

虽然现在类似的梗已经被用烂了，但古早的管风琴反派还挺酷的。

所有人的处境我都能理解。造成这场悲剧是所有人造成的。

剧里最明显的悲剧是Jekyll和Muriel的婚姻黄了。尽管影片里用像猩猩一样的原始样貌野兽行为（其实有点让我想到了西方令人诟病的orientalism）让人认为Hyde就是另外一个人，让观众自然而然地就去把责任抛去Hyde身上。但是Hyde就是Jekyll啊，更是他欲望的表现。欲望就是个无底洞啊，放纵自己越多，就越不能自制，越不能控制自己的欲望，越不能让自己一直保持那个理智的Jekyll，所以便会随时随地变成Hyde。

那什么让他又有了这种想要变成Hyde的想法呢？一是作为科学家的疯狂，像科学狂人一样执着于搞科学实验去窥探未知。片里他也写了信给未婚妻声称若是我死了那是以科学之名而死的。他可以为了科学放弃婚姻。二是他的欲望被压抑了很久得不到满足。他想与未婚妻结婚，但是Muriel的父亲希望拖长这个婚事。Jekyll作为一个绅士理所当然要尊重女方的家长。问题是，两位当事人都很愿意早点结婚。那父亲这里的行为实际上就是家庭对感情的干预了。父亲和Muriel说的“为了爱难道你不能再等等吗？你不等或许就是你不爱我”是在变向地告诉他去压抑自己的欲望。在这里，父亲是在向博士输出自己的价值观。而女儿这里的角色是很困难的，她变成了调停两位的角色。博士向她提出，别管她的父亲跟他远走高飞去巴黎。但是她也不想伤到父亲的心。虽然博士等待了但是在这里他也是在输出自己的价值观。其实在他变成Hyde时候就说了他想要什么就要得到什么，表现出被压抑过久的欲望。双方价值观的碰撞使得这真的是个难题，随便跟一个总有一方要妥协。要是双方都不妥协那可能就要散了。我真的很同情女主角的处境，也觉得最后她很可怜。她一直相信着对方但是对方其实已经放弃她了。尽管表面是Hyde，Jekyll实际上已经移情别恋了（想说出轨但是他们又还没结婚）。最后，她一直对着让她回到自由的博士说，她知道他病了，她会尽她所能帮助她，造成他生病的其中一个原因在她不够努力去说服爸爸。我认为她已经在不撕破脸的范畴里已经尽力了。但如果她真的说服了父亲，那博士最后也不会落得这个田地吧。这真是让人无奈的处境。博士想要，但对方给不了，他又不够耐心，分开或许是必然的。

来说说Ivy吧。虽然她看着是很无辜，不过也的的确确是她先勾引Jekyll引起他的情欲才会发生后面种种。

演技是绝对赞的。Ivy一开始勾引的那种慵懒，后面被虐待得触碰到就僵硬。男主角更是，不同人格下的他走路风格手部动作都不一般。还有时不时的第一人称视角很有代入感。后面喝了药后镜头一直在转也让人体会到那种眩晕感摸不着头脑自己在哪的感觉。斗篷更是男主的一个标志。逃跑的时候清楚地标出了他。其实看Hyde在酒馆那段戏挺有意思的，实现了自己平时或许想象过但是没有敢做出来的事情。就像不想给小费的时候大骂出声或是不爽服务员就弄碎酒瓶意图砸过去。看着还挺过瘾，或许真的每个人都有一头被关着的野兽吧。

人类对于自己永远存在着认知上的二元悖论。一方面是文明却压抑，另一方面是野蛮却真实。什么才是真实的人类，什么才是真正的自由，怎么也说不好。影片的悲剧在于，灵魂的二重性虽然可以被激发被扼杀，但是肉体的唯一性却无法回避。多希望伴随着一声枪响，倒下了丑陋的hyde，我们英俊的博士可以复活。然而我们都知道，他们其实是一个人，就算不想承认，这个事实却无法改变。