Dr. Heckyl and Mr. Hype

Dr. Heckyl and Mr. Hype (1980)

* (out of 4)

Rather horrendous horror-comedy-spoof has Oliver Reed playing an ugly and disfigured Dr. Henry Heckyl. Most of the time the nice Heckyl wishes he could be beautiful and he gets his shot when a co-worker comes up with a serum that does a wide range of things including making him handsome. The only problem is that he also turns into a jerk and a murderer. Director-writer Charles B. Pierce made some good movies in his time but I'm really not sure what he was trying to do with this thing because the "spoof" of Robert Louis Stevenson's story had already been done with THE NUTTY PROFESSOR. This film here is really a complete misfire and for the life of me I can't see how this thing could have gotten a greenlight and especially in 1980. You could possibly see this coming out in the early 70s to a drive-in crowd but I'm not sure it would have played any better then. The biggest problem is that the entire film is just so slow and boring that it's impossible to really care for anything going on. At 97-minutes this here is at least thirty-minutes too long and by the hour point you're already willing to give up on it. The movie has a weird sense of humor but this doesn't mean that it gets any laughs. Most of the humor is aimed at how ugly Reed's character is and there's also a running joke of a doctor creating a chemical that will allow obese people to become skinny in the matter of hours. The make-up on Reed looks decent but at the same time it's more weird than anything else. As for Reed, he turns in a decent performance as Heckyl but he's rather too bland and boring as Hype. Sunny Johnson clearly steals the film as a love interest and we also get supporting bits by the likes of Mel Welles, Dick Miller and Jackie Coogan.

Oliver Reed plays an ugly (almost monster like) foot doctor who turns into a handsome from a formula created by a fellow scientist (mel welles), but with violent reaction. Lots of funny moments and well-written film that should've been a cult classic. Lots of great supporting stars (which features most of the cast from Griffith's UP FROM THE DEPTH and LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS), but character actor Dick Miller steals the scenes as a garbage man who talks to himself (Miller told me Jonathan Haze was supposed to be the other garbage man, but couldn't do it, so Dick had to play other roles like a schizo!). I was surprised Reed did this film at the time, and he did a performance that most people would've never thought he could do. Maybe if this film was released bigger, more people would've saw Reed can do comedy. Recommended.

..... mixture of spoof, return to the earliest Three Stooges brand of yok-yok comedy, and morality tale. No one could ever believe in Oliver Reed as the traditionally handsome love interest -- so how about an off-beat, chemically alluring (artificial pheromones?) hunk of sleaze? this was written, cast, directed, filmed, and packaged as a Midnight Madness "D" grade flick for T.V. cultists. And very successfully. I get a huge kick out of it on those rare occasions when I have a chance to see it again. One of these days I hope to be able to save a copy of my own -- then I can see it at least once every six or seven months. If you want a real horror flick, though, look somewhere else. And if you only like Acadamy Award selections, DEFINITELY take a pass on this little marvel.

Supposed spoof of Dr. Jeckyl/Mr. Hyde films turns out to be a lame attempt at a "modern" version. Perhaps the filmmakers (chief on the list of wrongdoers would be Griffith, who wrote great fly-by-night scripts for R. Corman) thought the reverse angle -- Heckyl is ugly but nice, and Hype "handsome" (we're talking about Oliver Reed here) but sadistic -- would sustain the film. It doesn't, and neither does Reed, up to his usual method-inspired hysterics here. When you see that this movie expects you to believe Reed is handsome with OR without makeup, you can realize how stupid it is. I mean, I like a comedy, but in order to be funny it has to hold up its straight aspects, for chrissakes.

Some redemption is that Reed's Hype is so distasteful that you actually start to like him in the bad makeup! Welles is a fellow podiatrist, and Coogan a cop chasing the monster. The dialogue is stilted, and if there was a laugh to be culled out of it you wouldn't be able to pick it up on the soundtrack. Some jokes that might make adolescent boys laugh just from the sicko aspects (body part fetishes, etc.). Awful photography. Just not a good film. Don't see it, even if you're a fan of Griffith and Corman, unless you really want to be bored.

I'm amazed that this movie was ever made and NOT surprised that it wasn't made my any of the big studios -- they're simply too stupid to understand or appreciate it. Everything about this film defies convention, in a smart, funny and effective way. The people who disapprove of this movie are likely the very people whom it is satirizing. The editing, directing, acting and sound editing are marvelous and refreshing. The dialogue is wonderfully acerbic and sarcastic. I only wish I could find in on DVD. As is, the only copy I have is a VHS taped from commercial TV. If you get the chance to to see it, by all means do. It's a rare pleasure.

UPDATE: Thanks to modern technology, I have now burned my VHS copy to DVD for preservation. As of February, 2006, the film is STILL NOT AVAILABLE anywhere. The viewer who wrote that he saw it on late night TV with Elvira is correct -- that's the copy of the screening I have, complete with her interspersed comments (and cleavage).