morrison-dylan-fan Reading an old issue of Empire,I found a review by Kim Newman praising Arrow for bringing out Blu-Ray that have caused a major re- evaluation of "Adult" auteur film maker Walerian Borowczyk. Taking part in a poll on ICM for the best movies of 1981 whilst reading the review,I noticed a fellow poster share tantalising screenshots of a Dr. Jekyll adaptation,which led to me looking at Borowczyk for the first time:The plot:Before getting married to Miss Fanny Osborne, Dr. Henry Jekyll has to host a dinner with wealthy friends/family whose approval they need. During the dinner,Jekyll goes to his lab and takes a drinks he has created that transforms him into Mr. Edward Hyde. Losing all of his morals,Jekyll/Hyde goes on a murderous and sexual rampage which Osbourne finds unexpectedly alluring.View on the film:Bringing Borowczyk's Dr. Jekyll into light,Arrow deliver a superb transfer,with the French/English dubs (the title was shot with no original soundtrack) being clean,and Arrow retaining the film grain on the picture.Opening Jekyll's eyes with Giallo black gloves and a stylised,extended first person tracking shot,writer/production designer/director Walerian Borowczyk & cinematographer Noël Véry set their sights on fetish, masochism,with Borowczyk finding an unsettling elegance in shots whirling round a drenched in blood body,and a bath of Jekyll's potion having a grubby earthy appearance. Backed by an excellent simmering electronic score from Bernard Parmegiani, Borowczyk heightens the masochism by taking the Gothic Horror to the level of a surrealist farce,as the guests, Miss Fanny Osbourne and Jekyll become entranced in a cocktail of transgressive aggression and horror decadence.Entering this adaptation of Robert Louis Stevenson's book from a distinctive corner,the screenplay by Borowczyk brews a frosty nightmare horror state of Jekyll's future murder/sex attacks being threaded into the "present" dinner like a darkness on the horizon. Investigating the strange case between Jekyll and Osbourne, Borowczyk brilliantly builds a toxic bond which leads to them bathing in each other's potions, as Miss Osbourne and Dr. Jekyll discover the strange case of Mr. Hyde)

rooee The only other time my path has crossed that of grubby auteur (urghteur?) Walerian Borowczyk was for his infamous 1975 film The Beast. Emerging from the same post-Hays Code generation as Ken Russell and Michael Winner, Borowczyk's censor-baiting specialty was sex. Another art-porn touchstone is Pier Paolo Pasolini, although at least Borowczyk has a detectable sense of humour in pursuit of his exploitation.The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Miss Osbourne – to give it the director's preferred title after it was renamed Docteur Jekyll et les femmes – is a slasher of the trashiest sort (a trasher?), focusing on the relationship between Jekyll (Udo Kier), Hyde (a devilishly creepy Gerard Zalcberg), and Fanny Osbourne (Marina Pierro). We first meet Jekyll and Osbourne as they are entertaining guests, come to celebrate their engagement. Then, a murder. Another. The bodies start piling up. Suspecting the not-so-good doctor, Fanny discovers her fiancé's secret... and chooses to join him in his experiments in "transcendental science".A knowing attack on taste and decency is evident from the off: Borowczyk opens with some painterly compositions, exquisitely lit and lusciously diffused, and proceeds to intercut with images of murder and rape. There's an eerie dream-like quality to some of the early setups, aided by some grimy drone music by electronic pioneer Bernard Parmegiani. But nonsensical plotting and poor pacing stalks the shadows, waiting to pounce. And the most notable knife victim is the editing, which frequently fails at the basic task of depicting who's where in relation to whom.Borowczyk, to his credit, is clearly aware of the preposterousness of his play, wisely employing the likes of Patrick Magee – always good value – to give us a gloriously OTT army general, who at one point shoots the wrong guy and apologises by saying, "This is war... The soldier fires; the good Lord carries the bullets." But it's not enough to defend against the onset of cheap kinkiness, bad acting, worse dialogue, and weirdly tame stabbings. Any surprise? We are talking about the guy who made Emmanuelle 5, here.Some oddities, it seems, are better off consigned to the past. But if the promise of seeing Udo Kier writhe naked in a bath of beef stock is tempting, be my guest.

Michael_Elliott The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Miss Osbourne (1981) ** (out of 4)Walerian Borowczyk's wild, over-the-top sexual fever nightmare has Dr. Jekyll (Udo Kier) and Miss Osbourne (Marina Pierro) having an engagement party but soon the entire thing leads to a disaster when a sexual predator shows up.THE STRANGE CASE OF DR. JEKYLL AND MISS OSBOURNE isn't the first version of the Jekyll and Hyde story to feature a sexual slant. This film is something that many consider a masterpiece but I'm not going to share that much praise. It's becoming rather clear that I respect Borowczyk a lot more than I actually enjoy his films. This movie here is very slow moving but it's beautiful to look at. It doesn't have anything we haven't seen before yet it has moments that are strong enough to hold your attention.The biggest issue with this film is the fact that I simply see it as a fake. Porn, art and horror can go together and several directors have done it. Jess Franco and Jean Rollin immediately come to mind and I think both of them didn't try to hide behind any one genre and they would just jump into the material and go for it. I'm not sure why but it always seemed to me that Borowczyk didn't ever go in full steam. I mean, both this film and THE BEAST took familiar stories, added a touch of sex but I wouldn't say either went to the extreme of what they could have.We basically have a rapist running around the party and, like in THE BEAST, we see an erect penis. Was this meant to be shocking? I guess for some it would have been but to me it was just a silly sequence and nothing that happened was all that shocking. It was well-made and there's no question that the film has a surreal atmosphere and a beautiful image but on the whole there's very little story and it's overly boring. Both Kier and Pierro are good as are the supporting players including Howard Vernon.

Paul Andrews Docteur Jekyll et les Femmes, or the Bloodbath of Dr. Jekyll as I saw it under, opens to a paragraph of text that reads "there was something strange in my sensations, indescribably new and incredibly sweet. I knew myself, at the first breath of this new life, to be tenfold more wicked and the thought delighted me like wine" - Robert-Louis Stevenson (the Strange Case of Doctor Jekyll and Mr. Hyde). Docteur Jekyll et les Femmes then shows a photo of Big Ben & the Houses of Parliment to establish the fact that we are in London. Then we see a young girl running down a dark deserted backstreet somewhere in London clutching her doll. A shadowy figure pursues her. He finally catches her & brutally beats her with his wooden walking cane, however he is disturbed & runs off. A reception 'in celebration of the engagement of Doctor Henry Jekyll and Fanny Osbourne' is being held in Dr. Jekyll's (Udo Kier) large house where he lives with his Mother & conducts his experiments in his laboratory. The guests arrive one by one, Dr. Lanyon (Howard Veron), a General (Patrick Magee) & his fine looking daughter, Reverend Donald Regan (Clement Harari), a pharmacist named Mr. Moore, Dr. Jekyll's publisher Mr. Enfield &, of course, bride to be Fanny Osbourne (Marina Pierro). First up is a little entertainment in the form of a ballet dancer named Victoria, then it's on with dinner where various discussions take place between the gentlemen & Dr. Jekyll about his work & theories about transcendentalism & his ability to achieve a higher consciousness through science. Victoria becomes sleepy & is shown to her room for the night, dinner ends and the various guests go their separate ways. Later on that night Victoria is brutally attacked, raped & murdered in her room by Mr. Hyde (Gerard Zalcberg). Dr. Lanyon examines the body & comes to the conclusion that whoever performed the attack had an 'organ' that was at least 35cm(!) long and had a sharp pointed head as it had entered her, went right through her and pierced her stomach. After accidentally shooting a servant "misfortune follows misfortune. Madame, I have murdered your Chauffeur. My humblest apologies" the General goes a little bananas & takes charge. He grabs his daughter & stuffs her in a closet as Mr. Hyde enters their room, Mr. Hyde ties the General to a chair as his daughter steps out of the closet, bends over the nearest table & lifts her skirt and underwear up to reveal her rather shapely bottom. Mr. Hyde then proceeds to, well help himself to her rear entrance if you know what I mean as the General looks on. After he's had his fill, & filled the General's daughter(!), Mr. Hyde disappears again. The General has a disapproving tone of voice towards his daughter as she seemed to rather enjoy what Mr. Hyde was doing so he takes some rope and gives her a good whipping on her, still very shapely, bottom. However, Mr. Hyde's acts of debauchery are far from over as he goes after Mr. Moore whom Hyde rapes & kills. Doctor Jekyll's fiancé Fanny starts to become suspicious & worried so decides to try & find Jekyll in his laboratory, in doing so Fanny finds out Dr. Jekyll's secret that Mr. Hyde is in fact Jekyll's alter-ego brought on by bathing in various chemicals! Mr. Hyde is starting to take over Jekyll who can no longer resist him, as the night draws on the surviving guests are terrorised by Mr. Hyde who seems to know no limits of depravity & sadism! Written & directed by Walerian Borowczyk this is one strange adaptation of Robert-Louis Stevenson's Novel the Strange Case of Doctor Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. The best way to describe it would be a horror film with lashings of porn & sadism masquerading as art. The first thing that stands out about Docteur Jekyll et les Femmes is that it is a beautiful film to behold throughout. The photography by Noel Very is superb & captures the wonderful production design by Borowczyk extremely well. Rays of light, shadow, flickering candles & excellent use of space & confinement help make this an absolute pleasure to watch throughout. The period settings & costumes are also top-notch, this is as good, if not better, than any Hammer Horror period piece they produced which is high praise indeed. Docteur Jekyll et les femmes is a little slow at times, but I'm sure that was deliberate & as a whole I still found it both interesting & fascinating throughout it's 90 odd minute running time. I never felt bored or lost patience in it. The film tries to tackle various issues and really goes into the psyche of Jekyll & Hyde to paint a complex picture of them both, I also loved the ending when Fanny bathes in the chemicals, turns into her alter-ego & they both head of in the back of a carriage having rough, explicit, blood smeared sex on the back seat! The cast is very good, especially Kier who is always fun to watch, although disappointingly he is dubbed throughout. This is a very strong film that borders on porn on occasion, lots of nudity by some lovely young ladies, rape, sex, sadism and some violence & gore thrown in for good measure too. I believe the version I watched was slightly cut, according to the IMDb's 'alternate versions' section mine was missing some brief shots but most of what was described as being cut in various versions was there. The film is competently made throughout, much more so than I had expected. A different kind of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde film, but one that is interesting & entertaining throughout. If you have the stomach, aren't easily offended & can actually find a copy then I recommend this as a piece of challenging film-making, although it certainly isn't for all tastes that's for sure!