Continuing my coverage of Severin Films' new and much coveted box set, THE DUNGEON OF ANDY MILLIGAN COLLECTION...
The more films based on the Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde template I see, the more confirmed I become in thinking that it is actually Stevenson's novella, not Mary Shelley's Frankenstein or Bram Stoker's Dracula, that is the most endlessly interesting, malleable and personal ur-text of the fantastic cinema. Whether it's brought to the screen by John S. Robertson, Rouben Mamoulian, Terence Fisher, Jerry Lewis, or Walerian Borowczyk, Stevenson's moral tale offers the most yielding text I know for a directorial footprint to assert itself, unique and uniquely fascinating. Supporting this notion is Andy Milligan's THE MAN WITH 2 HEADS (1970, 88:38 - originally titled DR. JEKYLL AND MR. BLOOD), "based on a story by Robert Louis Stephenson" (sic) which gives us a surprisingly traditional main text (or Jekyll text) with - now that we can fully hear and understand it - has an unusual eloquence that would not be out of place at Hammer, while at the same time branching off into all the weirdness expected from Milligan (a Hyde text), encompassing a somewhat antiquated setting, a sudden dramatic enlargement of theatricality, shortnesses of temper, bossy and predatory women, furtive males, intimacies leading to emotional and physical violence, and even a secret-knock club where Hyde discovers an entire London sub-culture of his own kind, a room-sized Caffé Cino replete with homoerotic sideshows amid the human braying and indoor smoke.
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| Dennis De Marne as Dr. Jekyll - William Jekyll in this one - dedicated man of science. |
The theatrical version of THE MAN WITH 2 HEADS has always seemed the most ambitious of Milligan's horror films, yet also one of the most frustrating because the aforementioned "secret knock club" sequence offered tantalizing but highly fragmented glimpses of what was taking place inside, cut down to score a GP rating. A couple of years ago, Scorpion Releasing's initial Milligan Blu-ray of the film presented it in 1.78:1 widescreen, which was proved by the extras (presented open aperture) to crop significant visual content out of view; just opening the images up was revelatory. But here we get quite a bit more of the over all film (more than eight minutes more!) - and, alas, a bit less so far as the orgy is concerned. The sad truth is that, while the earlier expurgated version of the orgy room sequence hinted at things that made one's imagination run riot, Milligan had actually been ordered by William Mishkin to make it less sexual and more violent - and the uncut version of the sequence in Severin's new release gives us more tame material (there's literally nothing stronger than a brief glimpse of a bare-assed man roped to a wall), with none of the horrors we might expect to see elaborated upon. The stronger if less coherent sequence is offered as a separate bonus, but it cannot be viewed in context.
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| Dennis De Marne with Julia Stratton. |
Dennis De Marne gives quite an acceptable set of lead performances, sometimes looking a bit like TOOLBOX MURDERS-era Cameron Mitchell in his evil makeup, and overall the acting is generally not bad at all, with Julia Stratton a standout as the beleaguered barmaid and entertainer April Connors (how she is also billed for her performance). Berwick Kaler, who appears in most of Milligan's London pictures, is here docked after his lead role in NIGHTBIRDS to Jekyll's right-hand associate, a thankless and somewhat inconspicuous role owing more to the way it was written than anything to do with his performance. Adding to the film's charm and peculiarity is Milligan's enthusiasm over his new toy, a fog machine, which he uses to obscure the moments of transformation and also to lend a bit (often more than a bit) of London fog, but which more often than not implies that Jekyll's alter ego (here called Danny, supposedly Danny Blood given the film's original title) is giving off a tremendous schvitz of stench. Despite the title change by Mishkin, no one actually grows two heads, but the suggestion allows for an interesting train of thought about THE MANSTER's possible status as another keenly delirious Jekyll and Hyde adaptation.
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| A glimpse of the peacock blue tiles found in Debenham House, one of the principal locations. |
Another benefit of the film's newfound clarity is being able to appreciate that Milligan somehow managed to avail himself of at least one or two rooms inside Debenham House, with its lustrous peacock blue tiles and mosaic walls, where Joseph Losey filmed SECRET CEREMONY with Elizabeth Taylor and Mia Farrow a couple of years earlier. I was startled to recognize the place, having recently done a commentary for the Losey film and spent a good deal of time looking at it, and I'm pleased to see that Stephen Thrower not only included this information in his booklet but even offers a plausible strategy of how the location may have come to Andy's attention. The 2K restoration now makes it easier than ever to notice that various rooms in the story - Jekyll's classroom, Jekyll's laboratory, Jekyll's bedroom, and April's apartment as well - were all shot with the camera facing the same wall, which bears a calendar-like configuration of dates scribbled in chalk - perhaps a production schedule?
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| Classroom wall. Note the wall markings. |
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| Laboratory - same wall markings. |
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| Jekyll's bedroom - same wall markings. |
(c) 2021 by Tim Lucas. All rights reserved.
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