Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1941)

I trust the book is better than this movie.

Robert Louis Stevenson published The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde in 1886.

Several film and television versions of his horror novel have followed including a 2016 effort with Gianni Capaldi and Shawn Paul Piccinino.

The premise of director Victor Fleming's 1941 feature is interesting.

Dr. Henry Jekyll is working on a potion that will eliminate the evil in people and magnify the good.

The British medical community isn't impressed with his work. "Your ideas are not normal," argues Sir Charles Emery (Donald Crisp), father of his better half. Jekyll contends his peers side with the status quo because it what keeps them making money.

"Sometimes we have to gamble," he explains.

Jekyll decides to try the elixir on himself. Instead of being a better person, Jekyll turns into a nasty piece of work. "Can this be evil?" he asks after chugging back his first serving of his concoction. It's about the best scene featuring Jekyll's bad side.

He forgets about his soon-to-be wife, Beatrix Emery (Lana Turner), and sets his sights on good-time tavern worker Ivy Peterson (Ingrid Bergman). Ivy tried to seduce the much nicer Dr. Jekyll after he came to her rescue during a late-night assault. He, mostly, rebuffed her advances then. With this jolt of evil running through his veins, he wants her. His physical transformation when he becomes Mr. Hyde means Ivy doesn't know the two men are, in fact, the same.

Hyde is terribly abusive, keeping her confined to their love nest and verbally and physically abusing her. As Jekyll keeps downing his potent brew, his behaviour worsens and, eventually, he loses control as to when he'll be transformed.

This film works for me for about the first hour. But once Hyde appears, time slows and this film drags. We don't see Jekyll struggling with his decision to opt for evil.

Sitting through this film was a tough go. It took too much work to get scared.

RATING: 4/10

FUN FACTS: The film was nominated for three Academy Awards for cinematography, editing and musical score.

Peter Godfrey, who appears as Dr. Jekyll's butler, only appeared in 13 films between 1933 and 1948. He spent more time directing feature films and television episodes. One of his big screen credits is that hagen girl
with Shirley Temple and Ronald Reagan.

Victor Fleming also directed Gone with the Wind and The Wizard of Oz.

Christmas in Connecticut (1945)

Christmas in Connecticut isn't much of a present for movie fans.

That's too bad because look at this cast - Barbara Stanwyck (Double Indemnity), Sydney Greenstreet (Casablanca) and Reginald Gardiner (The Man Who Came to Dinner).

Real laughs are too hard to come by in this 1945 comedy from director Peter Godfrey (The Two Mrs. Carrolls, That Hagen Girl). Instead, too many scenes are just cute or mildly amusing. That's just not enough to make this movie a Christmas chestnut.

The set-up is inspired. American seaman Jefferson Jones (Dennis Morgan) is adrift in a dinghy for more than two weeks after the Germans torpedo his ship during the Second World War. With little to eat, he fantasizes about fantastic meals. There's no hearty chow when he's in hospital. His gut can't take the solids. A buddy suggests he feigns romance with nurse Mary Lee (Joyce Compton) to score a tasty steak. His faux falling in love with Mary Lee leads her to contacting publisher Alexander Yardley (Sydney Greenstreet).

Would the magazine titan let Jones, whose never had a real home, spend Christmas with one of his prized talents, Elizabeth Lane (Stanwyck? She writes about her idyllic life with her husband and baby in the country in Connecticut. Lane is billed as "America's best cook." Yardley's game, little knowing Lane actually lives in an apartment with not much of a view in the city, is single and can't cook. She relies on neighbourhood restaurant owner Felix Bassenak (S.Z. Sakall) for her culinary inspirations. Lane can't afford for Yardley to know her real work situation. His motto is "Print the truth and obey my orders."

She appeals to stuffy architect John Sloan (Reginald Gardiner), the bore who wants to marry her ("Saying no to your proposals has become a habit," she tells him), to pose as her better half and use his cottage in, yep, Connecticut.

Jones appears and falls for Lane. She's crazy for him too, but she's supposedly married to Sloan. He keeps trying to get a neighbour, Judge Crothers (Dick Elliott), to wed him and Lane. But their nuptials keep getting pushed back.

The scenario gets more complicated as Yardley suspects Lane is fooling around on her hubby and that a woman has kidnapped her prized writer's child.

Give this film credit for twists and turns to keep the story going. But come on folks, where are the laughs?

RATING: 6/10