Jekyll and Hyde: 1931 or 1932?

The story as it is told

It is New Year's Eve, 1931, and in New York a new film is opening. Fredric March, as the respectable Dr. Jekyll, drinks a potion on screen and turns into Mr. Hyde. The film opened in December 1931, so it sits on every "class of 1931" list, and that means it goes into the public domain on January 1, 2027.

How was the transformation done? Red and green filters, the story goes. And why is the film so hard to find? MGM bought it and destroyed every print, people say, to protect its own 1941 remake.

What we can confirm

The copyright record points to 1932 and Jan 1, 2028. The destruction story is disputed: McElwee describes storage, not destruction, though Wikipedia says prints were recalled and destroyed. The filter story has a real source: the director Rouben Mamoulian said in 1969 that coloured make-up and matching coloured filters were used. The sources opened here do not say the colours were red and green.

Paramount's Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, directed by Rouben Mamoulian, opened in New York on December 31, 1931, according to the AFI Catalog. AFI gives the general release date as January 2, 1932, and the copyright record agrees with that later timing: Paramount Publix registered the film on January 5, 1932, as LP2738. The 1959 renewal volume of the Catalog of Copyright Entries lists the same date and number, renewed on January 6, 1959 by Loew's Inc., the parent of MGM, as R228894.

The production was large. AFI cites the pressbook's claim of 35 sets for 216 scenes, with 81 actors and 500 extras. AFI also cites a New York Times report that Robert Louis Stevenson, the author's nephew, worked as an extra because he could do a cockney accent. Karl Struss photographed the film and was nominated for the cinematography Oscar.

The censors read the script closely. AFI quotes Hays Office files: on August 10, 1931, John V. Wilson warned Paramount's B. P. Schulberg that Ivy's "Take me!" and Hyde's reply were "overly brutal" and "too suggestive." On December 1, Colonel Jason S. Joy objected that the scene of Ivy undressing should not drag "simply to titillate the audience." Four days later, on December 5, Joy wrote to Will Hays about a group of "gruesome" pictures, including Dracula and Frankenstein, and asked, "Is this the beginning of a cycle which ought to be retarded or killed?" When Paramount wanted to reissue the film in 1935, AFI reports, the Production Code Administration approved it in June 1935 only after the undressing scene and a line in which Jekyll says he "wants her" were cut.

March won the 1931-32 Academy Award for Best Actor. AFI, citing the Hollywood Reporter of November 19, 1932, says Wallace Beery (The Champ) was one vote behind and that Academy rules then gave both nominees the award if they finished within two votes of each other.

Then the film disappeared. A Greenbriar Picture Shows history by film historian John McElwee, citing studio records, says MGM bought the negative of both the 1920 and 1931 Paramount versions on May 14, 1940, ahead of its own 1941 remake with Spencer Tracy, and put them in storage. The price reported at the time ranged from $30,000 (Variety) to $125,000 (Motion Picture Herald); McElwee says studio records support the higher figure. The 1931 film became hard to see until a 1966 screening by the collector William K. Everson revived interest. Treat these details as reputable secondary history until we see the studio paperwork.

That 1959 renewal by Loew's is the documentary trace of the sale, and it is also why the public-domain date matters. If the film's copyright term runs from 1932, the 95 years end on December 31, 2027, and the film enters the US public domain on January 1, 2028. If an earlier 1931 publication could be shown, the date would move up a year, but the registration itself says 1932.

The facts

• New York opening Dec 31, 1931; release Jan 2, 1932; © Paramount Publix, Jan 5, 1932, LP2738; 98 min, 11 reels; pressbook claims (35 sets, 216 scenes, 81 actors, 500 extras); Stevenson's nephew as extra (via NYT); Hays Office letters of Aug 10 and Dec 1, 1931; Joy's Dec 5, 1931 memo on the "gruesome" cycle; June 1935 reissue cuts; March's Oscar tie with Beery (via HR, Nov 19, 1932). AFI Catalog, catalog.afi.com
• DR. JEKYLL AND MR. HYDE, a photoplay in eleven reels by Paramount Publix Corp. © 5Jan32; L2738. Loew's, Inc. (PWH); 6Jan59; R228894. CCE 1959 renewals (motion pictures), line 15248

Related: Is Dracula (1931) public domain? · Is Frankenstein (1931) public domain? · What enters the public domain in 2027

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