''I, Monster'' is a 1971

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...

horror film directed by Stephen Weeks (his

feature Feature may refer to: Computing * Feature (CAD), could be a hole, pocket, or notch * Feature (computer vision), could be an edge, corner or blob * Feature (software design) is an intentional distinguishing characteristic of a software item ...

debut) for

Amicus Productions Amicus Productions was a British film production company, based at Shepperton Studios, England, active between 1962 and 1977. It was founded by American producers and screenwriters Milton Subotsky and Max Rosenberg. Films Prior to establish ...

. It is an adaptation of

Robert Louis Stevenson Robert Louis Stevenson (born Robert Lewis Balfour Stevenson; 13 November 1850 – 3 December 1894) was a Scottish novelist, essayist, poet and travel writer. He is best known for works such as ''Treasure Island'', ''Strange Case of Dr Jekyll a ...

's 1886 novella ''

Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde ''Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde'' is a 1886 Gothic novella by Scottish author Robert Louis Stevenson. It follows Gabriel John Utterson, a London-based legal practitioner who investigates a series of strange occurrences between his old ...

'', with the main characters' names changed to Dr. Charles Marlowe and Mr. Edward Blake.

Plot

Psychologist Charles Marlowe (Lee) invents a drug which will release his patients' inhibitions. When he tests it on himself, he becomes the evil Edward Blake, who descends into crime and eventually murder. Utterson (Cushing), Marlowe's lawyer, believes that Blake is

blackmailing Blackmail is an act of coercion using the threat of revealing or publicizing either substantially true or false information about a person or people unless certain demands are met. It is often damaging information, and it may be revealed to fami ...

his friend until he discovers the truth.

Cast

* Christopher Lee as Marlowe / Blake *

Peter Cushing Peter Wilton Cushing (26 May 1913 – 11 August 1994) was an English actor. His acting career spanned over six decades and included appearances in more than 100 films, as well as many television, stage, and radio roles. He achieved recognition ...

as Utterson * Mike Raven as Enfield *

Richard Hurndall Richard Gibbon Hurndall (3 November 1910 – 13 April 1984) was an English actor. He is best remembered for replacing William Hartnell in the role of the First Doctor for '' Doctor Who's'' 20th anniversary special '' The Five Doctors''. Caree ...

as Lanyon * George Merritt as Poole * Kenneth J. Warren as Deane * Susan Jameson as Diane *

Marjie Lawrence Marjie Lawrence (21 January 1932 – 16 June 2010) was an English theatre, film and television actress. She spoke the first words uttered on ITV. Early life Born in Birmingham, Warwickshire, Marjie undertook weekend acting classes from a ...

as Annie *

Aimée Delamain Aimée Delamain (21 April 1906 – 18 June 1999) was an English actress, known for spending most of her career playing elderly ladies. Biography Her father, Colonel Frank Delamain was a member of King Edward XI's Bengal Lancers. Upon his ret ...

as Landlady (as Aimee Delamain) *

Michael Des Barres Michael Philip Des Barres (born 24 January 1948), the 26th Marquis Des Barres, is an English actor and rock singer. He appeared as Murdoc in the original '' MacGyver'', Nicholas Helman, Murdoc's mentor, on the new reboot of '' MacGyver'' (2016 ...

as Boy in Alley

Production

It stars Christopher Lee as the doctor and his alter ego, and

as Frederick Utterson, a central character in Stevenson's original story. Mike Raven and Susan Jameson also star. It was photographed by Moray Grant, with

music Music is generally defined as the art of arranging sound to create some combination of form, harmony, melody, rhythm or otherwise expressive content. Exact definitions of music vary considerably around the world, though it is an aspe ...

Carl Davis Carl Davis, (born October 28, 1936) is an American-born conductor and composer who has lived in the United Kingdom since 1961. He has written music for more than 100 television programmes, but is best known for creating music to accompany si ...

Peter Duffell Peter Duffell (10 July 1922 − 12 December 2017) was a British film and television director and screenwriter, born in Canterbury, England. The British actor Christopher Lee called Duffell Britain's "most under-rated director." Biography Duffe ...

, who had previously worked for Amicus, was offered the movie to direct, but turned it down. Financing came from British Lion and the

NFFC Nottingham Forest Football Club is an association football club based in West Bridgford, Nottinghamshire, England. Nottingham Forest was founded in 1865 and have been playing their home games at the City Ground, on the banks of the River Trent ...

. It was intended to be shown in 3-D utilizing the

Pulfrich effect The Pulfrich effect is a psychophysical percept wherein lateral motion of an object in the field of view is interpreted by the visual cortex as having a depth component, due to a relative difference in signal timings between the two eyes. Overvie ...

, but the idea was abandoned upon release.

Reception

The film performed poorly at the box office, however recent reviews have praised the film for its faithful direction from the source material with Drew Hunt of '' Chicago Reader'' listing it as one of Christopher Lee's five best roles.

Differences from the source material

Apart from changing the names for the character Henry Jekyll/ Edward Hyde to Charles Marlowe/ Edward Blake, as well as changing the character to a Freudian psychoteraphist instead of a doctor, the story is fairly faithful to the original novella. The final act is changed, however. In the original novella, Utterson and Poole smashes Jekyll's door to find the body of Hyde dead by suicide, after Jekyll has failed to keep Hyde in check. In the film, Blake kills Poole for fearing he would divulge his secret, and goes on to fight Utterson, who however resists, and accidentally kills Blake by pushing him down the stairs. Blake's face transforms into Marlowe's while Utterson and his maid stare in shock.

References

Sources

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External links

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''I, Monster''
at BFI Screenonline 1971 films 1971 horror films 1970s British films 1970s English-language films British horror films British Lion Films films Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde films Films directed by Stephen Weeks Films scored by Carl Davis {{1970s-horror-film-stub