The second switch occurs during daylight in a park, as Jekyll sits happily listening to a lark. A black cat suddenly enters the picture and lunges toward the bird, whereupon the Hyde half of the doctor's personality is aroused. In a close-up, Jekyll grasps at his throat; as before, his hand and face begin to devolve (via the filter effect). The camera jibs down as the hand lowers (to show that both hands have changed) then follows them as they rise to cover Jekyll's face. When he withdraws his hands, we see that Hyde's face has degenerated further — makeup artist Wally Westmore had applied false teeth and a fright wig to the leading man.
After Ivy's murder, Hyde reverts to Jekyll in Lanyon's home. The turnabout is shown in close-up and employs dissolves. However, instead of the silent version's simple method of "morphing," a half-dozen barely perceptible makeup changes are gradually blended together. An 8 x 10 Graflex camera was mounted alongside the movie camera. The actor's position was drawn in on the camera's ground glass, so he could go off to the makeup chair and still be returned to his exact position. Cinematographer John P. Fulton, ASC later plied this technique in Werewolf of London (1935) and the Wolf Man films.
In the fourth mutation, Jekyll is presented in profile while he spies Muriel through a French window. After he sees his hand ripen, the camera cuts to an angle behind the silhouetted Jekyll as his shoulders broaden and he sprouts six inches taller.
Cornered in his laboratory, Jekyll becomes Hyde in a series of nine dissolving close-ups that are smoother because there is little movement in the scene. The last metamorphosis — the death of Hyde — is also exposed in profile. A dozen 8 x 10 plates captured by Frank Bjerring with a Graflex were rephotographed onto movie film and connected by dissolves.
March's doppelganger performance is a tour de force that almost amounts to a one-man show. He is featured in 218 of the film's 305 scenes, appearing in 110 as Jekyll and 108 as Hyde. The kind and gallant Jekyll, who chafes under societal restraints, has 297 lines, including his address at the medical college. The rampant satyr Hyde, a bestial lover with murderous instincts, speaks a mere 81 sentences. When the monster first emerges from Jekyll's laboratory into a hard rain, he joyously throws his head back to savor his newfound savagery. He indulges in malicious pranks, such as tripping a waiter, poking his cane up an old lady's skirts and inciting a riot. Furthermore, his scenes with Ivy (Miriam Hopkins) are the essence of sexual sadism.
In a newspaper interview conducted shortly after the picture's release, March recalled, "I tried to show the devastating results in Dr. Jekyll as well. To me, those repeated appearances of the beast within him were more than just a mental strain on Jekyll — they crushed him physically as well. In the last scenes he looked as though he already had one foot in the grave. Hyde was killing Jekyll physically as well as mentally."
The actor experienced that torture firsthand during the excruciating makeup process. An early version of the prosthetics utilized an overall layer of liquid latex and landed March in the hospital. "I had to get up every morning at five o'clock to be at the studio at six," March told Ed Sullivan for his June 14, 1938 newspaper column. "Wally Westmore would start immediately on my eyes. First he'd put collodion under my eyes, so that no perspiration would come through. Then he'd weight the under part of the eye with pieces of surgical cotton to force open the eyeball. The idea was that every time I talked, the eyes would open in an unnatural leer. To accomplish this, he'd attach threads from the cotton down the cheeks and tie them under my chin. As a result, every time I opened my mouth, the lower eyelid would be dragged down an inch. It was horrible at the time, but [it's] interesting to look back at."
A perfect complement to March's performance was blonde thespian Miriam Hopkins, who could sometimes be "difficult" on the set but is superb as Ivy, a tragic product of the London slums. Rose Hobart, a dynamic stage actress relatively new to moviemaking, had wanted to play Ivy, but instead was cast as Jekyll's devoted fianc�e — a difficult role, played impressively and often in close-up. Also fine are Halliwell Hobbes as Muriel's autocratic father, Edgar Norton as Jekyll's faithful servant, and Holmes Herbert as Dr. Lanyon, Jekyll's friend turned nemesis.
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde opened to great acclaim on Dec. 31, 1931, at the Rivoli in New York City, and was later awarded first prize at the Venice Film Festival. March received a well-deserved Academy Award for his performance, edging out Wallace Beery (for The Champ) by only one vote — the Academy opted to give Oscars to both actors. Heath and Hoffenstein were nominated for Best Adapted Screenplay, and Struss for Best Cinematography. Certain that the German cameraman would win, Paramount sent out his portrait with the caption, "Karl Struss, who last night at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences banquet received that organization's gold statuette for the outstanding cinematographic achievement of 1931-32 for his work behind the camera on Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, a Paramount film." Alas, the coveted Oscar went to Lee Garmes, ASC for Shanghai Express.
In 1935, Paramount submitted the picture to the much stronger Production Code Administration for reissue, and, of course, cuts were demanded. Later, MGM purchased the property for its plush 1941 remake with Spencer Tracy, Ingrid Bergman and Lana Turner. Further cuts were made when MGM reissued the 1931 film on a triple bill with Mark of the Vampire and Mask of Fu Manchu. Now, restored to its original 98-minute length, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde is available on video.
