Last night we saw Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1920), the John Barrymore version; according to Wikipedia, this is the fourth rendition. This is a silent movie with an incredibly irrelevant organ (and later symphonic) accompaniment. My Arts Editor and I are in agreement – the silence was quite disagreeable, and this quality was enhanced by the organ.
This is not to take away from the efforts of the makeup artists and special effects engineers, who did excellent work in creating the execrable Mr. Hyde, nor that of Mr. Barrymore, who evokes an authentic revulsion when he beats Mr. Carew to death with a club, the highlight of a good, if not great, performance. But, in the end, the odd pacing and lack of interaction via audio is sufficient to make this movie disagreeable.
