The Two Faces of Dr. Jekyll (1960)

 "Is there anywhere a man who simply takes?"

This is an unorthodox adaptation of Robert Louis Stevenson's novella- with the action for some reason moved from Edinburgh to a London with a dark underbelly- but it works. This is, incredibly, the first film adaptation of this that 've blogged, but it's a bloody good one.

Paul Massey is, of course, magnificent in his dual role, but it's extraordinary that the film should have Hyde be young and handsome- a cad and a seducer- while Jekyll should be aged and bearded with make-up. It's a mystery that Massey's career should be so relatively sparse on the evidence of this.

Yet just as interesting is the very Hammer treatment of Jekyll, who is a scientific obsessive on the way towards obsession himself- a character who owes as much to Hammer's Frankenstein as the novella. His early dialogue on the duality of man sounds positively Nietzchean, and I'm sure this is intentional.

Indeed, Jekyll is a neglectful husband, whose wife is having an affair with the spendidly unscrupulous Paul, played with superb loucheness by Christopher Lee, who absolutely nails a role which is completely against type.

This is ultimately a gripping and fresh version of the tale which dares to give us something new. It's another early Hammer triumph, whatever the critics may have said at the time.

The Mouse That Roared (1959)

"Even a complete nincompoop like Tully can't spoil this war."

It's a nice idea- an obscure little English-speaking microstate, a kind of Monaco of the Alps, declares war on the USA so they can lose and receive US aid to solve their financial problems but, through a series of mishaps. Accidentally wins. Oh, and it's all against a themic background of nuclear annihilation. It's a great idea on paper, but in practice this is neither funny enough nor clever enough to be more than mildly diverting. Still, Peter Sellers is always good, if never quite as good as his reputation, and William Hartnell always does a great sergeant major.

Still, if you don't insist on your satire being too incisive, the film is entertaining enough. It looks good, it's all very Cold War and there's some nice slapstick with the bomb. But there really isn't all that much to say about it.