Summer Film Series: Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1931)

See Karl Struss’s films on the big screen! Join the Carter for their summer film series featuring films shot by cinematographer Karl Struss. In connection with the exhibition Moving Pictures: Karl Struss and the Rise of Hollywood, each month the Carter will show a film from a different decade in Struss’s career that highlights the achievements and advancements he brought to the genre. After each screening, an expert will share commentary and behind-the-scenes stories about the film, followed by audience Q&A.

In June, see Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1931) starring Fredric March, who plays a possessed doctor whose new formula unleashes his inner demons. The film is an adaptation of The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, the 1886 Robert Louis Stevenson tale of a man who takes a potion that turns him from a mild-mannered man of science into a homicidal maniac. The film was nominated for three Academy Awards, including a nomination for Struss for Best Cinematography. March, known as a comedic actor at the time, won the award for Best Actor.

After screening this spine-chilling masterpiece, Luci Marzola will provide commentary on the film. Marzola is the Program Coordinator and Lecturer in University of Southern California’s Division of Cinema and Media Studies in the School of Cinematic Arts. Her research on the history of Hollywood technology, industry, and labor has been awarded by the National Endowment for the Humanities and the American Council of Learned Societies. An essayist in the Museum’s catalogue for the exhibition Moving Pictures: Karl Struss and the Rise of Hollywood, Marzola is the author of Engineering Hollywood: Technology, Technicians, and the Science of Building the Studio System (Oxford University Press, 2021), and she is the recipient of the 2022 Media Industries SIG Best Book Award and co-editor of the forthcoming collection Hollywood Unions (Rutgers University Press, 2024).

American Sign Language (ASL) interpretation may be provided during this event upon advance request. Please send the Carter an email for more information.

^{Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. DIRECTED BY: Rouben Mamoulian. WRITTEN BY: Samuel Hoffenstein and Percy Heath; based on The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1886) by Robert Louis Stevenson. WITH: Fredric March, Miriam Hopkins, Rose Hobart. 1931. 98 min. USA. B&W. English. Not rated; suggested for ages 15 and older.}