“The Adult Version of Jekyll & Hide” (1972)

Studio: Entertainment Ventures (EVI)
Starring: Jack Buddliner, Laurie Rose, Rene Bond, Jane Louise
Directed by: Lee Raymond
Rated: X
Running Time: 75 min.

Synopsis: A modern day doctor find Dr. Jekyll’s notebook and begins testing out some of his formulas, but he is in for a surprise when he changes into something that he never expected.

REVIEW

Chris Woods

From the master of schlock and exploitation films, David F. Friedman who has produced many great films such as Blood Feast, Two Thousand Maniacs, and She-Freak, just to name a few, now takes a classic tale of horror and puts his own touch on it. I first heard about The Adult Version of Jekyll & Hide sometime in the early 90’s when I read an article on Friedman in Fangoria magazine and they had a picture from the movie, which had Mr. Hyde looking deranged and creepy holding up his cane about to level someone with it with a devilish look on his face. That was my first impression of the movie and recently I finally saw the film for the first time and I was very pleased with the movie.

The film is one-half horror movie and one-half soft-core porn, with lots of blood, sex, nudity, and violence. The movie starts off with a doctor and his girlfriend in a bookstore. The doctor happens to find the notebook of Dr. Jekyll. He gets obsessed with the book after reading some of it and returns later to the store to buy it. The storeowner tells him it’s not for sale, but the doctor demands that he buys this book. In a fit of rage the doctor kills the bookstore owner and takes the book. After reading the notebook, he is able to make Jekyll’s potion and drinks it, but instead of it turning him into a raving maniac, it changes him into a beautiful woman. Meanwhile the police suspect the doctor of killing the bookstore owner and try to locate him. Aware of the police trying to track him down, the doctor continues to transform into the woman to hide from them.

I thought the film was good and very entertaining. It had that great Friedman charm to it like all his films with Herschell Gordon Lewis and even the ones he did without him. The story itself is well put together and it has a good balance of horror and T&A that will satisfy all viewers. The actor playing the doctor is good and looks like he just strolled out of a 70’s porno, which really helps the mood of the film. He also pulls off the role and doesn’t just suddenly want to become a modern day Jekyll and Hyde for no apparent reason. It seems that when he first reads the book it possesses him for some reason. Even when he kills the storeowner he can’t believe what he has done and what has come over him. Then as he continues to read the book, he gets more obsessed with it. There are also plenty of lovely ladies throughout the film that strip down to nothing and get it on with the crazy doctor, both in male and female form.

There are some cool scenes when the doctor is reading Jekyll’s notes, and it flashes back to Jekyll’s time where it shows him turning into Mr. Hyde and torturing and killing young women from the town. They even have the same actor who plays the doctor play the role as Jekyll and Hyde in the flashbacks. Some other stand-out scenes are when the doctor in woman form has sex with a sailor somewhere, and at the end, she or he cuts off his penis. They even show her hold it in her hand after she cuts it off and they use a long dildo for the prop.

The Adult Version of Jekyll & Hide is a good fun exploitation film to watch. It is a great one from David Friedman himself, who always puts out good grindhouse material. Friedman is actually uncredited in the film, but usually some of films he works on never list him or he goes by a different name. The film is worth checking out if you haven’t seen it already.