EDGE OF SANITY [1989]

 "RIP!  CLEAN AS A CODFISH FROM BILLINGSGATE MARKET!" 

Sleazy and queasy, grotty and dotty, Anthony Perkins performing Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde seems like such a natural idea that it's a wonder it took until 1989 for somebody to make it happen.  That somebody in the director's chair was Gérard Kikoïne:  a porn director!  It should be said that he was a porn director in France where hardcore movies were much more like actual movies than something in say the American porn industry.  Kikoïne in fact directed 2 of these 'erotic' films for the nascent Playboy Channel which are actually available on a double feature blu ray:  LADY LIBERTINE and LOVE CIRCLES which I plan to watch someday.  The former film is a "woman dresses as a boy to get ahead in this man's world" and the latter film is apparently a remake of the Max Ophuls 1950 classic LA RONDE!).  But perhaps it took a porn director to bring to the century-old novella the sexual perversity needed to really convey what was unleashed when Dr. Jekyll monkeyed around in his laboratory.  And Henry Jekyll has some real sexual peccadillos here caused apparently when, as a child, he saw a naughty strumpet in the barn expose herself to the young boy and then have it off with (I'm presuming) his father.  Young Henry falls from the top level of the barn and is caught by a chain hanging upside down.  Discovered, Henry's bottom is bared and his (presumed) father spanks him while the strumpet looks on and laughs.  This seems to cause a massive fire pit of sexual hangups and perversions banked deep down inside Henry Jekyll.  While working on a new anaesthetic, Jekyll's lab monkey Charlie knocks over a glass beaker which, combined with the experimental anaesthetic, causes a cloud of smoky fumes which Jekyll inhales.  The good doctor transforms into a stringy-haired, pale bad boy called Jack Hyde.  Hyde sets off on a violent rampage slitting the throats of prostitutes.   

EDGE OF SANITY onviously combines 'The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde' with the Jack the Ripper murders (going so far as to rename Hyde as Jack).  This is an obviously not only a natural leap by the filmmakers but also hearkens back to the actual Jack the Ripper murders when briefly the well-known Victorian stage actor Richard Mansfield was actually a suspect in the murders due to his terribly convincing stage portrayal of Mr. Hyde.  The film is a real oddity in other ways as well.  It definitely takes place in Victorian London circa 1888; however, there are scenes (usually when Jekyll has transformed into Hyde) that look VERY 1980's -- particularly those set in the house of ill repute).  Johnny (played by Ben Cole) is particularly eighties-ish in style and appearance; also sporting one eye with heavy makeup a la Malcolm McDowell in A CLOCKWORK ORANGE).  The lighting also goes quite 80's neon in these scenes and I'm sure this was a deliberate stylistic decision.  I'm not sure what message this was trying to convey but somehow it works in a Ken Russelly kind of way.  (This comparison was originally made by noir critic Alain Silver).  In fact, EDGE OF SANITY has a couple scenes inside the whorehouse which feature a sex room featuring a naked crucified Christ and some naughty nuns echoing the previous year's Ken Russell horror film LAIR OF THE WHITE WORM -- so I think there is a definite Ken Russell influence on this film.  Another very 80's touch is Jekyll's anaesthetic being a powder which the doctor sniffs as well as smokes using what can only be construed as a crack pipe. 

Not sure if this film had an actual theatrical release but it definitely looks and plays like a direct-to-VHS release that somehow I missed on the video store shelves at the time.  This is not to say the film looks cheap because it doesn't.  The sets and costumes are actually top notch and it was shot mostly in Budapest (a budget saver) with a few exteriors shot in London.  I've never been much of a Jekyll & Hyde movie fan since most of them are overly familiar and rather dull; the bad ones far outnumber the good ones.  The 1941 version with Spencer Tracy, the Hammer TWO FACES OF DR. JEKYLL and the Amicus I, MONSTER are three particularly dire efforts. 

The best version still to me is the 1931 version starring Fredric March.  The original novella by Robert Louis Stevenson is very enjoyable to me but the thing that MUST be remembered is that the story itself has been totally spoilered!  The fact that Dr. Jekyll is himself Mr. Hyde is a twist ending and should not be known going in.  Unfortunately EVERYBODY knows Mr. Hyde is actually the transformed Dr. Jekyll so that mystery is long spoiled.  Therefore, the big secret at the heart of the story is no secret and hasn't been for about 100 years.  So any film version of Jekyll & Hyde needs something to spice it up or some new angle to make it fresh.  Hammer did this with DR. JEKYLL AND SISTER HYDE.  And EDGE OF SANITY does this as well; enough to make this a really enjoyable film!  The changes in the story are just enough to make it seem fresh, the direction by Kikoïne is surprisingly brisk and what can I say about Anthony Perkins.  I mean, the man's just gold!  Even here, only a few years before his death, Perkins is giving it his all -- not with over-the-top campiness but just enough juice to make every time he's on screen riveting.  There are several moments when Anthony Perkins is just wicked, wicked, wicked!   EDGE OF SANITY is no classic but it IS very entertaining and one Jekyll & Hyde movie I can recommend!