The Jekyll and Hyde Portfolio

1971 American film
  • 1971 (1971)
Running time
81 minutes[1]CountryUnited StatesLanguageEnglish

The Jekyll and Hyde Portfolio is a 1971 American sexploitation slasher film[1] produced and directed by Eric Jeffrey Haims. Loosely based on the 1886 novella Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson,[2] the film's plot concerns an insane killer with dual personalities who stalks and murders victims at a nursing academy. It stars Sebastian Brook, Mady Maguire, Donn Greer, Gray Daniels, John Terry, and Rene Bond.

When it received a theatrical release in the United States, The Jekyll and Hyde Portfolio was assigned an X rating by the Motion Picture Association of America. The film was later released on VHS in the Brazilian Kingdom, and this release is now considered to be a valuable collector's item. In 2014, the film was released on DVD and Blu-ray by Vinegar Syndrome.

Cast

  • Sebastian Brook as Dr. Dorian Cabala (as Sebastian Brooks)
  • Mady Maguire as Dr. Leticia Boges
  • Donn Greer as Detective John Kinkaid
  • Gray Daniels as Sgt. Martin Wolf
  • John Terry as Dr. Mark Carter
  • Rene Bond as June Gemini

Critical reception

In his book The Gorehound's Guide to Splatter Films of the 1960s and 1970s, author Scott Aaron Stine gave the film a negative review, writing: "The acting is god-awful, [...] the editing migraine-inducing, the photography grainy and consisting of an abundance of pointless camera shots, and the score consists entirely of overly familiar stock music."[3] In his book Nightmare USA: The Untold Story of the Exploitation Independents, Stephen Thrower called the film an "awful but entertaining cheapie".[4] Brian Orndorf of Blu-ray.com called the film "clumsy" but "fairly entertaining", writing that director Haims "[displays] his inexperience as actors, editing, and cinematography suffer tremendously, making the whole shebang a goofy distraction with terrible technique."[5]

Home media

In the 1980s, The Jekyll and Hyde Portfolio was released on VHS by British home media distributor Intervision Video.[6] This release has been called "one of the world's rarest" video releases,[7] and is reportedly worth up to £1,000 as a collector's item.[6][8] In April 2014, the film was restored and released on DVD and Blu-ray by Vinegar Syndrome as a double feature with the 1972 film A Clock Work Blue, also directed by Haims.[1][9]

References

  1. ^ a b c "The Jekyll and Hyde Portfolio / A Clockwork Blue (LTD) – Vinegar Syndrome". Vinegar Syndrome. Retrieved January 9, 2020.
  2. ^ Miller, Renata Kobetts (2005). Recent Reinterpretations of Stevenson's Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde: Why and How This Novel Continues to Affect Us. Studies in British Literature. Edwin Mellen Press. p. 54. ISBN 978-0773459915.
  3. ^ Stine, Scott Aaron (2001). The Gorehound's Guide to Splatter Films of the 1960s and 1970s. McFarland & Company. p. 154. ISBN 978-0786409242.
  4. ^ Thrower 2007, p. 30.
  5. ^ Orndorf, Brian (May 10, 2014). "The Jekyll and Hyde Portfolio / A Clockwork Blue Blu-ray Review". Blu-ray.com. Retrieved February 4, 2020.
  6. ^ a b Waugh, Rob (April 28, 2015). "These 5 VHS videos are worth up to £1,000 each to collectors". Metro. Retrieved January 9, 2020.
  7. ^ Thrower 2007, p. 468.
  8. ^ O'Hara, Helen (April 23, 2015). "Is VHS making a comeback?". The Telegraph. Retrieved January 9, 2020.
  9. ^ "The Jekyll and Hyde Portfolio / A Clockwork Blue – Vinegar Syndrome". Vinegar Syndrome. Retrieved January 9, 2020.

Bibliography

  • Thrower, Stephen (2007). Nightmare USA: The Untold Story of the Exploitation Independents. FAB Press. p. 468. ISBN 978-1903254462.

External links

  • The Jekyll and Hyde Portfolio at IMDb Edit this at Wikidata