Hammer Films produced a number of classics and an even larger number of very good, entertaining films and a few misses. While Dr Jekyll and Sister Hyde is not a classic, it is one of their better later films, and much better than Hammer's other Jekyll and Hyde re-imagining The Two Faces of Dr Jekyll.Dr Jekyll and Sister Hyde looks incredibly good, no surprise seeing as Hammer's films always looked good no matter the quality of the rest of the film. The sets and lighting recreate the Victorian London era with lovingly and evocatively and they look sumptuous and splendidly Gothic. One also has to love the rich colours and the beautiful and atmospheric photography. It is not just that the production values look great that is really well done, but also how much it contributes towards the feel and atmosphere of the film, here the atmosphere is wonderfully moody and has a real sense of fear throughout, which were not always there as effectively in other later Hammer films.The film also has a chillingly haunting, with also some touches of lush romanticism, score with an at times Rachmaninov sound to it, the dark richness of the orchestration adding so much. It also has the advantage of being well placed and used effectively, excepting some overblown moments in a couple of the transformation scenes. Dr Jekyll and Sister Hyde is very intelligently scripted, with some witty and thought-provoking dialogue, while the story(with one of Hammer's most innovative and pretty ingenious premises) is incredibly clever and enormous fun, the suspenseful and often very creepy atmosphere staying consistent all the time and the chills and scares come off tastefully and unsettlingly. Loved the use of the Jack the Ripper mystery, which really did give off a sense of dread, and the nod to Sweeney Todd. The transformation scenes are beautifully shot and boast good effects work and a real edge-of-your-seat tension. The film is strongly directed, the characters carry the narrative very well and the acting is solid; with Ralph Bates giving by far his best performance in a Hammer film and Martine Beswick- youthful beauty at its best- even better in a menacing but never over-the-top performance.It's not perfect however, but comes close. There are a few pacing longueurs, where a few scenes towards the start dragged just a little. And while the film is incredibly entertaining, rich in atmosphere and does a great job with the majority of its ideas, others did come off rather clumsily, especially the anachronistic and out of place inclusion of Burke and Hare, leaving one wonder why they were included in the first place(a nod to Stevenson's story The Body Snatcher perhaps?).Overall, while not without flaws and not one of the Hammer classics, it's one of their better later films and never fails to entertain, chill and engage, making the most out of a great premise. 8/10 Bethany Cox

This Hammer flick was a major turn in the career of Martine Beswick. Her first flick could have been a major role in Dr. No but the director preferred Ursula Andress instead but promised her another role in another James Bond which became From Russia With Love. After Jams Bond she appeared in a lot of flicks but had one problem, she didn't want to do nudity. Even as she was asked to do it she refused in way that her career was influenced by it. But to cut a long story short, she was asked by Hammer to have a lead in this flick, an era were Hammer had a lot of nudity in their flicks and so she agreed to appear naked. Only her breasts should be shown but due a game of the director he asked her to go full monty and somehow the studio was full of people watching her strip. She wasn't offended by going nude and after the Hammer flicks she went into Italian soft core flicks. Once that she was done with that she went to television for series and commercials. So here we have her for the first time in her nudies. Luckily for the Europeans it came in an uncut edition, sadly for the US the nudity was cut out to have a commercial rating. The flick itself hasn't really a typical Hammer Gothic feeling but it still works. It's based on the Jekyll and Hyde story combined with the Jack The Ripper story. The filming is sublime and the acting is really good. Of course there is blood in it but you never see the knife going in, the effects are up to today's standard laughable, especially the transformation from Jekyll to Hyde. Nevertheless, it's enjoyable and surely one to watch and to have in horror collection.

This is a very strange variation on the old Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde story. In this re-imagining of the Stevenson tale, Jekyll has been trying to create a serum to prolong life and reasoned that as women live longer, it must be something about the hormones. But his experiments allow him to change gender!!! There is no MR. Hyde in this one! But, to continue his work, he finds he needs to kill young ladies--and here the story seems a lot like Jack the Ripper. There's even the infamous Burke and Hare (famous for grave robbing in Edinburgh long ago) making an appearance in the film. So, we have sex changes, Jack the Ripper-style murders and Burke & Hare (who influenced Stevenson to write "The Body Snatcher")--this film has a ton of plots crammed into it. Oh, and lest I forget, a bit of a soft-core porn film, as when Mrs. Hyde appears, it's often naked time! That's because like many of the Hammer films of the 70s, they spiced it up with some nudity to try to draw in audiences--as film revenues were way down from the studio's heyday. I think this film actually suffers from too many plots. Now I would NOT have made yet another Jekyll & Hyde film---there have already been too many. But to have so many divergent ideas in the film seemed to muddle things a bit. A sharper focus would have made for a better film. It also didn't help that the acting and dialog were rather weak...especially the dialog. As a result, this seems like a rather weak horror entry by Hammer.By the way, get a load of the way that Mrs. Hyde so easily crafts a red dress from just a curtain! It reminds me of the "Gone With the Wind" take-off from "The Carol Burnett Show"--minus the curtain rod!

Pretty good late Hammer. Not much to do with the original Stephenson story regarding the battle between good and evil within man but gives us an interesting twist. Indeed this mixes the aforementioned tale with that of Jack the Ripper and throws in Burke and Hare for good measure. And of course one of the more exciting added ingredients here is the lovely, Martine Berwick as Jekyll's alter ego or 'sister'. She's great throughout. His changes into her are effective, his gleeful peeks at herself fun and her spirited killing a treat. In fact the body count here must be very high because, after a languorous start, with voice-over we seem to scamper from one screaming bloody death to another.