Yes, Hyde is within Jekyll all along, I just felt that March's Jekyll was a more kindly man, swept up in something he had absolutely no control over. He is so honorable and good as Jekyll, one really can't think of Hyde as being near the surface of this Jekyll. He's very upright, and you're right it's a much more emotional performance by March as Jekyll. His Hyde is sinister and contains all of the evil one can imagine. March's Jekyll and Hyde in 1932 couldn't be more different from one another. A total split.I'll have to see Tracy's version more recently. I did feel March gave a more emotional performance when he was begging to break off his engagement...and emotional in struggling against becoming Hyde. Now I might not have been paying attention as closely (I had it on while I was working at my computer...I wasn't sitting and watching it), so tell me...isn't Hyde the darker carnal side of Dr. Jekyll? Doesn't he come from within the good doctor.
In Tracy's, there is a suggestion that because Jekyll doesn't perfectly conform to the Victorian sense of propriety, he's closer to the Hyde in him. Already at the beginning he is tempted by Ivy, because he is open-minded. This is straight MGM stuff, as far as I am concerned.... a hidden message suggesting that you better stay on the moral side of town, and not go being tolerant or artsy or walk outside of society. If you do you'll turn monstrous! It's subtle, but I think it's there. Kinda like the end of the Wizard of Oz which makes no sense. Don't stray from home....or a witch will get you.....even though Oz is like this really cool place.
Yeah....I was trying to mention the simian (good word) thing without really mentioning it... but I gave up. I think maybe they were going for a sort of backward regression to a caveman type thing... but it was just ewwwww.But I won't go there.
Let me peel the onion just a tad more. So is this also part of Tracy's personality? Does he have something in him...does an Actor have something in THEM in the first place, to call upon to pull out those personalities.?
I'd say yes they do. Sometimes we fake it, but it must be harder to do that in the movies. I think Edward G. Robinson said something in that TCM tribute with Chaz P. - something about how we all have the ability to find every possible emotion within us. I think that's basically true. We can understand every part of human nature, no matter how foul and nasty, or how grand and wonderful on some level.
Yeah, maybe I'm wrong, but man, they did the Sherlock Holmes thing, why not Hyde? At least they'd start with a great story and ruin it, instead of starting with a mediocre story and.... never mind.That's a great idea. No. No wait...that's a frightening idea. They might give the role to Leonardo DiCaprio or James Franco or Robert Downey Jr. or the "Twilight" guy. Noohhhhh, not Rod Serling. Well they've already done "Dr. Jekyll and Sister Hyde." Maybe they can go with "Dr. Jekyll and Brutha Hyde." Okay okay okay...I said I wasn't going to go there...