8 Classic Monster Movies You Never Knew Were Reboots
4. Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1931)
Frederic March won a Best Actor Oscar for his performance in the 1931 version of the R.L. Stevenson novella, an extreme rarity for horror films; it wouldn't happen again until Anthony Hopkins won for Silence of the Lambs. The March version is a classic, a fit companion for the early Universal horrors despite being made at Paramount by a director of musicals. It was also the eighth (!) adaptation of the book to be filmed.
The first, from 1908, is lost, but appears to have been basically a filmed stage play. The next two films have survived to the present day, but they are short subjects of little note.
1920 would be a true banner year for the story, as no less than three separate versions were released: an undisputed classic starring John Barrymore, a mostly forgotten "it was all a dream" cop-out from Louis B. Mayer, and a tantalizing German version called Der Januskopf. This film, directed by Nosferatu's F.W. Murnau and starring Conrad Veidt of Caligari fame, is tragically lost.
Astonishingly enough, the 1925 version was a parody of the Jekyll-Hyde sub-genre, starring Stan Laurel as both Dr. Pickle and Mr. Pryde. Yes, not only did seven men play the dual roles of Jekyll and Hyde before March won his Oscar, but Stan Laurel beat Mel Brooks to the horror parody punch by five decades.