A Filha do Médico e o Monstro

I read some of the other comments regarding this movie, and I have to disagree with them...I found this obscure movie starring Gloria Talbott and John Agar to be entertaining. Granted, this a low budget movie so I didn't have a lot of expectations. But I found the atmosphere to be appropriately spooky and I thought it was an interesting twist on the Jekkyl and Hyde story. The plot line is rather predictable, and the special effects are not great, but if you are a fan of low budget 1950's horror flicks, or love John Agar and Gloria Talbott, you should enjoy this movie. I am a fan of low budget horror movies so this probably made a difference in the way I viewed this movie. Gloria Talbott was very pretty and capable in her role, although John Agar looked like he wanted to be anywhere than in this movie. (What was with the striped jacket he had to wear throughout the whole movie?!!) I found this movie to be fun. Just don't expect too much and you will enjoy this.

Technically this should be listed under "Goofs" as it not so much a review. While watching the film I noticed during the two scenes that occur around the breakfast table if you look out the window, just past the fake foliage, you will notice late 1950's cars whisking by on an obviously very busy street. The story is set on an isolated wooded estate 20 years after the death of Dr. Jekyll which should put this in the early 1900's. Gloria Talbott is seen wearing a corset and a bustle with high button boots and John Agar wears a striped jacket like those worn by barber shop quartets. Obviously there should not be sedans whizzing by the estate. The only reason I wanted to see this film was due to the participation of Gloria Talbot-a real 50's fave and quite the knockout. She did not disappoint.

Edgar G. Ulmer began his career as a set designer to the famous theatrical impresario Max Reinhardt; by 1920 he was working in films, and although often uncredited labored on such legendary films as Fritz Lang's DIE NIBELUNGEN and METROPOLIS. By 1927 he was in Hollywood, and set design work led to assignments as a director. In 1934 Ulmer brought the full force of his talents upon Universal's THE BLACK CAT--a brilliantly realized film that many consider among the finest horror films of that decade. But Ulmer's affair with script girl Shirley Castle, wife of a studio executive, resulted not only in his termination at Universal but placed him on an industry-wide blacklist as well. He would never work at a major studio again.

But Ulmer had a knack for getting the most out of a tiny budget, and he soon found himself in demand as a director at second-string studios and for independent productions. Between his dismissal from Universal in 1934 and his death in 1972 he would direct more than forty films, and he was often noted for his ability to bring a remarkable artistic vision to the screen in spite of low budgets and questionable casts.

All that said, the 1957 DAUGHTER OF DR. JEKYLL was, according to daughter Arianne, a project undertaken for the sake of a paycheck; it is far from Ulmer's most memorable. Even so, as 1950s B-horror flicks go, it is far from the worst--in spite of tenth-rate special effects Ulmer manages to endow the movie with an entertaining atmosphere and the occasional jab of humor, and it is considerably more coherent than most of its kind.

The story concerns orphaned Janet Smith (Gloria Talbott), who has now reached her twenty-first birthday and arrives at the home of her guardian Dr. Lomas (Arthur Shields.) She brings with her future husband George Hastings (John Agar), who soon wins Dr. Lomas' approval, and all seems pleasant. But Janet is in for a surprise: Dr. Lomas tells her that she is heiress to the estate, left to her by her father, the notorious Dr. Jekyll, and no sooner is Janet in residence than corpses begin to crop up. Has she somehow inherited her father's chemically-induced evil? The script here is extremely transparent, and you'll know what's going on long before Janet does. It is also more than a little odd, managing to wrap ideas about vampires and werewolves into the whole Dr. Jekyll package. Add to this extremely obvious miniatures awash in dry ice, mediocre special effects, and a cast that tends toward the obvious at every possible turn--well, the overall effect is somewhat hooty, to say the least.

THE DAUGHTER OF DR. JEKYLL will never rank along side the likes of Ed Wood's PLAN 9 FROM OUTER SPACE in the "so bad it's good" cult movie derby--Ulmer is too much of an artist to permit tipsy tombstones--but it is actually amusing in its low-rent efforts. Recommended to fans of the genre.

GFT, Amazon Reviewer

Most of the time this movie is creepy and decently shot reminding me at best of "Night of the Hunter" and at worst of atmospheric fog machine filled horror. I thought of "Night of the Hunter" during the scene where the Daughter waits outside her father's tomb while in the same shot we see the big village man carving a stake. Very ominous. That said, the stake death is the worst I've seen.

The technique of superimposing one shot over another for action/dream sequences worked well in my opinion, but others may find it unoriginal. Monster make-up and blood effects were pretty good. Over all the movie is serious with a comic moment I liked with the Monster showing obvious joy as he views a women in her night clothes through an open window. The narration at the beginning and the Monster's ridiculous line don't fit the mood of the picture.

Not one of Edgar G. Ulmer's best, but I'm glad they saw fit to release this one on DVD. However, if you're looking for another little Ulmer classic like BLUEBEARD (1944) or DETOUR (1945), you'd better look somewhere else 'cause this ain't it.

Gloria Talbott, the daughter of the late Dr. Jekyll, is slowly being hypnotized and pumped full of drugs into believing that she is the killer of a couple of women who were found near her late father's estate. She is slowly being driven mad by the real killer who wants her to take the blame for it.

Of course she isn't the one because she's the heroine and we can't have the heroine turn out to be a bad guy. This is the 50s, after all.

We also have John Agar as the Talbott's fiancée and Arthur Shields as the weirdo who is the executor of the late Dr. Jekyll's estate. They don't really add much of anything to all this beyond chewing up some film time. That is, until the very last 5 minutes of the film.

But what's really a bummer is that the killer is revealed in the very first flashback of the film, so why Ulmer threw away the element of surprise is a real mystery. I guess you'll just have to see it for yourself.

And considering the fact that Allied Artists didn't always use the best of film stock, the digital remastering looks as good as can be expected for a low budget film like this. No more excessively grainy prints to look at.

I'll give it a 4 out of 10 for at least being worth a look, especially if you're into Ulmer's films like I sometimes am.