3. Dr Jekyll And Mr Hyde (1931)
Dr Henry Jekyll is a nice and pleasant doctor who after some pharmaceutical tinkering, discovers a drug that turns him into Mr Edward Hyde - an evil man who is unrestrained as to where he can go and the things he can do. Hyde's threatening behaviour gets Jekyll into bother with his love life - he is trying to woo a girl called Ivy but Hyde came upon him and he was a real jerk to her. Unfortunately Jekyll goes into Hyde mode without taking the substance. Ivy is in his company when this happens and he kills her. He keeps swinging back and forth into Jekyll, then Hyde etc. and this leads to more misery and death until somebody decides to put Hyde out of his misery. You may balk at the idea of watching such an old movie, thinking it will never deliver the thrills that contemporary cinema does. However this 1932 version of Jekyll and Hyde is quite juicy for its time. Plus it is sublimely filmed with some really impressive cinematography. Its only faults are that it is a little stagey and melodramatic, but that was the style of the day. Fredric March gives a colossally impressive dual performance as Jekyll/Hyde in a role that is very hard to tackle for any actor - they have to portray the sweetness and light of Jekyll as well as the demented horror of Hyde. March rightly won an Oscar. There is no way you would want this man as your GP as he could turn from avuncular physician to crazed monster in the blink of an eye and start beating you with his cane.