While it’s far from the
worst blaxploitation horror flick—compared to Blackenstein (1973), anything is a masterpiece—this Afrocentric
riff on Robert Louis Stevenson’s immortal novella The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde is not good. Lots of
interesting ideas bubble under the surface, notably the concept of a serum altering
a man’s race, but Lawrence Woolner’s atrocious script bungles everything from
character motivations to simple continuity. Even the basic premise of the
picture, the specific nature of how a man transforms into a monster, is fuzzy.
The first time the main character injects himself with the serum that releases
his inner beast, he becomes an animalistic killer who can barely utter monosyllables.
Later, however, he retains his hyper-educated speech patterns after
transforming. Furthermore, in his first outing as a monster, the main character
flinches from a small knife wound, but later he shrugs off bullets.
Alas, the
inability to properly track sci-fi “rules” is ultimately the least of the
picture’s problems. Dr. Black, Mr. Hyde
is the sort of discombobulated mess in which characters come and go based on
what’s convenient for any given scene, so, for instance, the main character
never seems to share the same space with his coworker/girlfriend outside of the
lab they share. Huh? Bernie Casey stars as Dr. Henry Pryde, a scientist
developing a means of regenerating liver tissue because his mother died of
liver disease. He works alongside Dr. Billie Worth (Rosalind Cash), and he
volunteers at a free clinic where one of his patients is a prostitute named
Linda (Marie O’Henry). Eager to test his theories, Henry injects himself and
becomes a quasi-albino killer who gets mistaken for a white man while he
rampages through Watts, accruing a body count of street people. Cops investigate
the murders, but Linda, the booker, figures out the culprit’s identity first
and confronts Henry. A lengthy chase featuring a King
Kong-style climb of the Watts Towers concludes the film.
Director William
Crain, who previously helmed the enjoyable Blacula
(1972), suffers badly for association with inferior material. He stages a few
decent action beats, and the intimate scenes between Casey and Cash—as well as
those between Casey and O’Henry—have real warmth. Crain also coaxes humor from
the banter between black cop Jackson (Ji-Tu Cumbuka) and white cop O’Connor
(Milt Kogan); Jackson delivers the amusing line, “Brother man,
this situation is rapidly becoming insalubrious—meanin’ we about to stomp a mud
hole in yo’ ass.” In other words, this unholy mess of a picture isn’t without
its enjoyable moments, but the crappy storytelling and deadly pacing are as
murderous to enjoyment as the half-assed monster makeup created by FX icon Stan Winston.
Dr. Black, Mr. Hyde: LAME
Always felt that Bernie Casey was wasted on much of the dross he got to play during his long career. I first noticed him alongside Burt Reynolds in the fantastic, and much underrated, Sharkeys Machine. A real shame because the guy could act, and he had the same tough but accessible charm as Eastwood, Reynolds, etc.
ReplyDeleteThat's so true---it's Casey's committed performance as both Jekyll and Hyde that really makes this film work, as well as the two cops, whose banter is hilarious. He was a very good actor, often underrated, who deserved better material, which he gradually did get over his career. I like the film, since it has some things to say about how a black person should go back and use their talents to help other black people. It's also interesting how when Dr. Black turns into Hyde, he becomes a white dude---nice little twist on the Jekyll/Hype story, though.
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