MovieChat Forums > The Two Faces of Dr. Jekyll (1961) Discussion > That was supposed to be a rape?

That was supposed to be a rape?

posted 15 years ago by jeffyoung1
7 replies | jump to latest

"The Two Faces of Dr Jekyll" should fall into the category of a revisionist version of the original, 'Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde', by Louis Stevenson. In this revisionist version, Mr. Hyde is a lot more handsome, fun-loving party animal than the repressed Dr. Jekyll.

Towards the ending of the movie, Mr. Hyde (Dr. Jekyll) confronts his two-timing wife, Kitty in an upstairs room of the high-class brothel entertainment palace and presumably rapes her. But when Kitty wakes up on the bed, she is still dressed in her underclothes. Only her black dress has been removed. You, the viewer, are supposed to get the idea that Hyde raped her. This seems odd, given that Kitty still has all her underclothes on and nothing private has been uncovered. But then you have to put all this into context. The movie's filming date is 1960. There was no way the censors of the time were going to permit anything more risque or revealing. If this movie was filmed in 2009, the director would be at liberty to just about show everything. Still, Kitty looks pretty hot stumbling about the room in that Victorian, push-up corset.

It might have been irony or a deliberate act of the film's director. When Kitty awoke on the bed after Hyde's assault, at first I thought Hyde had dressed her up to look like one of the brothel entertainer girls. It's possible the director was trying to draw a subtle metaphor, depicting Kitty as the whore she acted like.

[–] chicken_eater 15 years ago

Before he strips her, she's dressed in black lace and veil, like she's going to a funeral. (Even though she's at a night club.) Prefiguring everyone's imminent deaths, maybe?

[–] Spider_Baby 14 years ago

I agree with the last idea of jeffyoung1: when I saw that scene I thought that he raped her and made her lose her senses, and then he dressed her like the prostitutes that worked there, for an added humiliation, to let her know the type of person she was, and so leading her to suicide.
When Kitty entered the club she was dressed in a very formal way, to appear like she was sad for what her husband would tell her (separation). I do not think she was pre-telling the massacre of the ending.

[–] mam13143 12 years ago

Thought it was cleverly done without being overt -- remember this was made in 1960 -- 50 years ago!

[–] thegalaxybeing 12 years ago

Actually, I was VERY surprised that the girl dancing with the snake was able to make it past the censors!

[–] warren_houghton 12 years ago

Yeah, that dance and particularly Hyde's reaction shots to her pelvic thrusts and sticking her snake (German: "Schlange" if I'm not mistaken) in her mouth are priceless. I too find it surprisingly risque for the era.

[–] Satantangoandcash 9 years ago

I wasn't sure if he dressed her as a prostitute or if she was wearing her underclothing after he ripped off her dress, but he implied that she was a whore when he told her she had found her way home and the bed she deserved. She wakes up with red scratch marks all over her chest and shoulders and this is probably an indication that she was raped.

[–] bobquack 10 years ago

It may have been 1960, but in the uncut version the sex scene between Hyde and the snake woman Maria was partly nude. The UK version at the time of release was highly edited, but since 2010 the dvd versions contain the uncut version which also allows curse words like bitch, damn etc.

"Cum Grano Salis"