General Data:
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
USA 1920
Direction: John S. Robertson
80 Min
16mm silent, english intertitles
Short and Sweet:
The young, virtuous doctor Dr. Jekyll is a respected scientist and benefactor who treats the needy for free in his clinic. This leaves little time for his fiancée Millicent, prompting his future father-in-law to try and tempt and test him with seductive entertainment in a nightclub. 
To resist possible temptations, Jekyll comes up with the idea of separating the good and evil within the human soul. In his laboratory, he develops a serum that transforms him into the ruthless Mr. Hyde, allowing him to wreak havoc in this guise. Jekyll withdraws more and more from public life, as he can barely control the effects of the potion and reverse the transformations. Or perhaps Jekyll even finds pleasure in the cruelty of his alter ego…?!
About:
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde from 1920 is a film adaptation of the novella The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by British author Robert Louis Stevenson. The dual role is excellently portrayed by the famous stage actor John Barrymore. With the pantomimic play of his gestures and expressions, he performs the transformation from the impeccable gentleman Jekyll into the monstrous Mr. Hyde for the first time in a single take, without makeup or special effects.
Musical Score:
New solo piano score by Wilfried Kaets. The music is created in reminiscence of the great tradition of silent film scores of the 1920s in Germany. Structurally, it follows the film
music dramaturgical approaches of the silent film era, partially using themes from film libraries of the 1920s, but it is a new composition. This achieves an exciting balance of “old images” and “new sounds,” which do not simply run counterpoint to or against the film but create a dramaturgically coherent interweaving. The music will sound as it might have in a cinema in 1901 – it aims to bring the qualities of the film to life musically, closely aligned with the original, and to breathe acoustic life into the silent performance.