Anyone else seen this 4-part TV series version of Robert Louis Stevenson's famous story? It's a really interesting adaptation that's set in the present time of 1969 with Jekyll as a university professor who does biology lectures for a bunch of hippie students.
It's written and directed by renowned film and theater actor Giorgio Albertazzi, who also stars as both Jekyll and Hyde. Albertazzi's performance is extremely impressive and he demonstrates a great deal of range as he switches from the handsome and intellectual Jekyll to the creepy and aggressive Hyde, who looks very freaky with yellow contact lenses.
Albertazzi and Massimo Girotti (as his lawyer) give the best performances but the cast also includes lots of other familiar actors that deliver solid work, including Claudio Gora (SEVEN BLOODSTAINED ORCHIDS, BEAST WITH A GUN) as Jekyll's mentor, Bianca Toccafondi (WATCH ME WHEN I KILL) as Jekyll's secretary, Ursula Davis (CRYPT OF THE VAMPIRE, AN ANGEL FOR SATAN) as an Irish student, Orso Maria Guerrini (THE BIG RACKET, KEOMA) as a bar patron who saves a young girl from Hyde, Liana Del Balzo (CROSS CURRENT, DEEP RED) as Hyde's landlady and singer Penny Brown (LIZARD IN A WOMAN'S SKIN) as one of the hippie students.
The pacing is slow, there are too many long dialogue scenes and the emphasis seems to be more on the drama than on the suspense but I still found this quite fascinating. The cinematography is by Stelvio Massi isn't perfect but it's superior to most TV cinematography from this period; featuring some pretty inventive and stylish camera angles. The trippy sequence where Jekyll transforms into Hyde for the first time is particularly well-shot and is accompanied by a really creepy score.
The Italian DVD from Rai Trade is part of their "I grandi sceneggiati della televisione italiana" series and looks pretty decent but it comes with a Rai logo and, naturally, it's in Italian only. Probably not for everyone's taste but it's well worth a look, I'd say.
Some screenshots:
