The Two Faces of Dr. Jekyll 1960

In London in 1874, Dr. Henry Jekyll [Paul Massie] is a mild-mannered physician whose personal life becomes entangled with his wife Kitty Jekyll [Dawn Addams], while he leans into dangerous curiosity about the depths of the human mind. Kitty’s loyalties are tested as she becomes involved with his friend Paul Allen [Christopher Lee], a charismatic figure who often borrows money from Jekyll. The trio’s tangled relationships unfold against a backdrop of high society, tense secrets, and a city that never fully trusts what it cannot see.

Driven by a blend of scientific ambition and personal vanity, the doctor experiments with a chemical potion to probe the hidden corners of the psyche. When he tests the formula on himself, he transforms into Mr. Edward Hyde, a young, handsome man who is nevertheless ruthless, impulsive, and given to impulse. Hyde is quick to tire of conventional pleasures and soon fixates on Kitty, a pursuit that turns violent when she rejects him. Hyde’s assault leaves Kitty badly shaken, and the evidence compounds as she discovers a note left on the table—a chilling trace of the danger lurking inside Jekyll’s experiment.

Things spiral further as Hyde’s plans intersect tragically with Paul Allen’s fate. In a room concealed from the party, Hyde locks away a venomous snake and uses it to claim that Paul has fallen victim to a deadly, natural accident. The shock of Paul’s death sits heavy on Kitty, and Hyde’s increasing audacity deepens the sense that the doctor’s experiment has given birth to something capable of terrible acts. Hyde’s next target becomes a dancer named Maria, who is entangled with Jekyll, and she is killed in Jekyll’s own house, escalating the fear around what the potion has wrought. The once-calculated mind behind the experiment now seems to blur the line between scientific inquiry and criminal possession.

As the day following these events dawns, Jekyll fights to restrain Hyde, seeking to regain control by speaking to his other half through a mirrored exchange. Hyde shoots a man in the laboratory and arranges the body in a way that suggests Jekyll’s guilt, then sets the laboratory ablaze as law enforcement converges on the scene. Hyde attempts to misdirect the investigation by feigning that Jekyll is seeking to kill him, a ruse that further complicates the public’s understanding of the tragedy. The investigation moves toward a coroner’s court, where evidence points to Jekyll’s dangerous drug experimentation and its deadly consequences.

The coroner’s verdict seals Jekyll’s fate in the eyes of the law, presenting a grim conclusion that the man behind the potion is responsible for a string of deaths and that he has taken his own life. Yet Hyde’s presence refuses to vanish entirely, and a tense moment occurs when Hyde tries to slip away from the ruin of the lab, only for Jekyll to wrest back control from within the wreckage. Dr. Littauer, played by [David Kossoff], recognizes his long-time colleague, even as the onlookers are left to process the spectacle before them. On a bench in the park, Jekyll, with tears in his eyes, declares that only he could stop Hyde and that he has now destroyed him, a revelation that comes too late for some and too late to erase the bloodstains of the night.

Ultimately, the tragedy unspools toward a harsh, irreversible end as the authorities close in. The film lingers on the uneasy truth that the line between genius and madness can be perilously thin, and the human mind—a field once believed to be a safe frontier—may harbor more darkness than anyone anticipated. The result is a haunting meditation on duality, consequence, and the fragile boundary between science, desire, and danger, a tale told with careful restraint that invites readers and viewers to ponder what lies beneath the surface of ordinary life. Inspector [Francis de Wolff] and others observe a city changed by a single, catastrophic experiment, while the man who began as a cautious physician remains at the mercy of the monster he unleashed, a reminder that some bounds, once crossed, redefine every future step. The final moments leave audiences with a stark question: can there ever be true escape from one’s darker self, or is the cost of knowledge simply too high to bear?