If the ambition is to provide two hours of instantly forgettable, popcorn-munching escapism, it succeeds.

Tells a fascinating and unsettling true story, and does so well, without pretending to have all the answers.

This movie feels like it was made purely to piss off people who want good shows

It is a whirlwind of delight --- attractive actors, stunning couture, spectacular sets and outrageous parties. It's a feast for the eyes. But what really makes this dramedy work is the acting.

This is a great horror movie. It is also a very good musical. This movie as great acting. Great songs. Great singing. It also has great special effects. This is a very scary movie. It very different. There are not to many musicals based on horror novels. There should be more musicals based on horror stories. It would make them more interesting. Doctor Jekyll finds out that man has two souls. And good soul and an evil soul. He invents a formula that brings out his evil side. It takes him over. This movies is very intense. This is Kirk Douglas's best movie. Kirk Douglas is a great actor. He is also a great singer. Susan George is a great actress. This movie is a must see.

The concept of musicalizing R. L. Stevenson' classic horror novella must have been as strange as making Jekyll the handsomer of the two personas in Hammer Films' disappointing 1960 version. Also, the fact that I have been waiting to watch this particular (and quite rare – despite a one-off Yuletide screening of it ages ago on local TV which I missed) adaptation for 30 years – ever since I read about it in Alan Frank's "Monsters And Vampires" book, I was prepared to be let down by it. However, Lionel Bart's unmemorable score notwithstanding, it offers not just a splendid cast well engaged with the material but enough 'new' additions to make the whole affair a delightful concoction (pun intended). Kirk Douglas' Dr. Jekyll is a Canadian immigrant in London who is seeking a cure for mental illness; Stanley Holloway is his loyal butler Poole; Susan Hampshire is Jekyll's long-suffering high society fiancée; Sir Michael Redgrave is her disapproving father; Donald Pleasence is a low-life showing Mr. Hyde the ropes in the night spots of Soho; Susan George and a young Judi Bowker are Hyde's protégées/victims. There are no heated "Good vs. Evil" discussions here (Jekyll's biggest faux-pas in the eyes of society here is arriving on a bicycle for tea!); he decides to drink his own formula after he is refused to try it out on the inmates of the local asylum and, unaccountably, keeps a vial of it ready for use in his laboratory; Hyde takes to visiting the Houses of Parliament and pelt MPs with fruit and vegetables!; the arrested Hyde wakes up in prison as the good doctor and is immediately sprung; Jekyll is haunted by multiple visions of Hyde in his laboratory when he decides to kill him off; George does not expire from the beatings of her 'protector' but loses her mind (after being taken on a midnight stroll to visit her own grave!); it is footman Pleasence himself who blows Jekyll's cover – at which point the doctor has the mother of all meltdowns in front of everybody and jumps at Hampshire's throat having transformed himself one last time into Hyde.

This TV production did not have songs cut from Oliver, The score was to be an original by Oliver's composer Lionel Bart. Uncredited composers were brought in to "doctor" Bart's awful score. Certainly that horrid graveyard number with Jekyll playing a gravestone shaped like a piano has to be the worst moment in the film. On the other hand some of it is so unintentionally funny you end up enjoying it anyway. Kirk Douglas' performance is pretty good, his singing isn't. Still compared to the David Hasselhoff video of the Broadway musical this could be called a masterpiece. Maybe Jekyll and Hyde shouldn't be musicalized, or at least should be given to more talented creators.

In my opinion this is an excellent remake of the classic story. Kirk Douglas in the role of Dr. Henry Jekyll and his evil counterpart Mr. Edward Hyde, is as good as Fredric March was in the 1931 film, and better than Spencer Tracy in the 1941 version.And Susan George is better for the part of two bit hooker than both Miriam Hopkins (1931) and Ingrid Bergman (1941).Only blemish is the singing, which does not contribute to the atmosphere but almost destroys the tension and excitement.Overall though a very good enjoyable film.