Inferior Design

This tatty and cluttered interior
Ain't the flat of a mother superior
Here she'll sleep but won't rest,
'Cause this creep-o's a pest
The rat digs her slutty exterior.

Miriam Hopkins is dominated by Fredric March in Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde ( 1931).

The Mirror Lack'd

In opening scene you'll detect
A mirror that seems to reflect
The leading man's face
In camera's place --
A simple but special effect.

Donald B. Benson

 

Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1931) begins with a long and impressive POV shot, including a moment when a mirror shows not the camera but Dr. Jekyll and his butler. The trick? An empty frame, with the actors playing their reflections.

Take the Rough With the Smooch

He woos with a terrible ardor
His floozy is scared that he's scarred her
With his strange, brutish passion
Her brains he may bash in
She'll bruise if squeezed very much harder.

David Cairns

Fredric March and Miriam Hopkins in Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (Rouben Mamoulian; 1931).

Grin and Scare It

This Edward's not much for finesse
You dread ev'ry touch and caress
One glance in his mouth
And romance headed south
In your bed in his clutch you're a mess.

Fredric March as Edward Hyde and Miriam Hopkins as Ivy Pearson in Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (Rouben Mamoulian; 1931).

Forward March

Young Jekyll has learning and status,
And flaunts his self-righteousness at us.
But we're more impressed
A tart got undressed
To grant him a fondle for gratis.

Donald B. Benson

Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (Rouben Mamoulian; 1931). Ivy Pearson (Miriam Hopkins) exaggerates the severity of her injury to get an examination from Dr. Henry Jekyll (Fredric March).

Heavily Medic-Hated

The ladies are tempting the doc
One's shady, unkempt in her frock
The other's a pippin
But he turns to a Crippen
A jaded, contemptible crock.

David Cairns

Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (Rouben Mamoulian; 1931): Miriam Hopkins is prostitute Ivy Pierson, and Rose Hobart is Jekyll's fiancée Muriel Carew, the "pippin", meaning "an excellent person or thing." Hawley Harvey Crippen, known as Dr. Crippen, was a homeopath convicted of murdering his wife in 1910.

Revolte-Face

From handsome to creep, rearranged
Once dandy, now deeply deranged
Though he shows no improvement
He knows where his groove went
Like a grandstanding Streep, how he's changed!

David Cairns

Fredric March undergoes a transformation in Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (Rouben Mamoulian; 1931).

Remember Thou Art Moral

It's sad but it has to be said.
A double life Jekyll has led.
His mistress was built,
But surely 'twas guilt
That kept him awake in his bed.

Donald B. Benson

Fredric March is tortured by the knowledge that he is both Dr. Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (Rouben Mamoulian; 1931).

Passion Brute

Though it seems like they've only just met
The poor singer's beginning to sweat 
Since he eyed Ivy's show
Edward Hyde won't take "no"
And that gleam in his eye is a threat.

Miriam Hopkins is caught in the grip of Fredric March, playing both Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (Rouben Mamoulian; 1931).

Cane Basket Case

Hyde's painting the town bloody-red
With a cane he strikes down on your head
Cracking skulls brings him joy
Jack's no dull kind of boy
But his brain is unsound, poor old Ed.

David Cairns

Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (Rouben Mamoulian;1931). Fredric March stars as Henry Jekyll and his evil side, Edward Hyde. The film is an adaptation of Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, a novella by Robert Louis Stevenson, first published in 1886.

Tease Play

As Hopkins is swaying her calf
A fop stops appraising to laugh
But nested within
Is a cesspit of sin
Jekyll's stroppy, arcane other half.

David Cairns

Music hall singer Ivy Pearson (Miriam Hopkins) catches the eye of Dr. Henry Jekyll (Fredric March, off), in Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (Rouben Mamoulian; 1931).Limerick Lexicon: Stroppy: Chiefly British. Easily offended or annoyed; ill-tempered or belligerent.

Torn Between One Lover

The good man is cure for what's ailing her,
But only as boor he's been nailing her.
His morals decree
A dichotomy.
This system for sure will be failing her.

Donald B. Benson

Fredric March and Miriam Hopkins in Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (Rouben Mamoulian; 1931).

Rental Cruelty

Mr. Hyde's a mean bastard when dating
He's snide and he's nasty and grating
Yes, he'll get you a flat
But don't let in the rat
He'll sidle up fast and try mating.

Fredric March and Miriam Hopkins in Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (Rouben Mamoulian; 1931). Title by rent-to-groan Donald B. Benson.

Pied-A-Terror

 

She's installed in an elegant pad
But this moll's forced to dwell with a cad
The décor might be festive
But it's whorish, suggestive 
And her caller is eldritch and mad.

David Cairns

Fredric March as Mr. Hyde and Miriam Hopkins as music hall singer (and we know what that meant Pre-Code) Ivy Pearson in Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (Rouben Mamoulian; 1931).

Sometimes a Great Potion

On man's nature the doc had his doubts
Human traits he most worried about
Are we decent or bad?
Men of peace, or all cad?
This libation will sort it all out.

James Finn Garner

Fredric March stirs up trouble in Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (Rouben Mamoulian; 1931). Author James Finn Garner is the fertile fiend behind the Rex Koko, Clown Detective series, and Bardball, the website of baseball poetry.

Little Seizure

One sip and he's something to see
You'll flip and then probably flee 
He bends in contortions
And ends with distortions
His lips like the great Edward G.



Fredric March transforms into his monstrous, inner self in Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (Rouben Mamoulian; 1931), evoking the massive maw of Edward G. Robinson, shown here in another Pre-Code film, Little Caesar (Mervyn LeRoy;1931).

Make Me a Double

He isn't some lug's evil twin
This mister's the thug hid within
Once dapper and charming
Now a chap most alarming
With a visage as ugly as sin.

Fredric March is both Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (Rouben Mamoulian; 1931). Title by double-barreled Donald B. Benson.

The Freudian Sip

This doctor invented a drug
A concoction he went on to chug
One second genteel,
The next he's a heel
A noxious, lamentable thug.



Fredric March is both Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (Rouben Mamoulian; 1931). Title by slippery Donald B. Benson.

Hyde Away

The beast that was chained up within
Is released from his brain, through his skin
For the potion he drank
Makes emotions turn rank
An indecent, arcane Mickey Finn.

David Cairns

Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (Rouben Mamoulian; 1931), a Pre-Code horror film starring Fredric March.

Surgeon Sacrifice

The soul of the doc is coal black
Keeps control of his flock by whip's crack
Those who rule by the sword
By their tools will be gored       
And Moreau gets a shock--don't look back.

Parting shot: Mr. Montgomery (Arthur Hohl), Edward Parker (Richard Arlen), and Ruth Thomas (Leila Hyams) escape from Island of Lost Souls (Erle C. Kenton; 1932). Title by word surgeon Donald B. Benson.

The Path of Beast Resistance

Revolution! The beasts are revolting!
Evolution has ceased, now they're moulting!
Fur will fly, heads will roll
Laughton dies, a lost soul
Execution by feast, rather jolting.

David Cairns

Charles Laughton's Doctor Moreau is attacked by his mutated, half-human beast-men. Island of Lost Souls (Erle C. Kenton; 1932).

The Pain Mutiny

Once happy and free in the wild,
They're trapped, shipped by sea, then defiled
But the doc's so sadistic
That his flock goes ballistic
The poor sap got the beastie boys riled. 

The beast-men grow restless in Island of Lost Souls (Erle C. Kenton; 1932).