G.K. Chesterton wrote that Robert Louis Stevenson’s story of Jekyll and Hyde was for us “a gargoyle of the greatest spiritual edification.” An exploration of a man using science to control his own fallen nature by giving it a conscience-free outlet, this film also illustrates man’s struggle with his own darker side as not merely a personal matter, but one that will inevitably result in hurting even those he most loves. Of all the different film versions of this story, Rouben Mamoulian’s 1931 adaptation best preserves Stevenson’s Christian themes, provoking and disturbing the viewer with one of the best Gothic allegories ever designed on film.
—Jeremy Purves