Dr. Heckyl and Mr. Hype

Dr. Heckyl and Mr. Hype (1980)

You'll love the brute and you'll hate the brute!!

An ugly, misshapen podiatrist ingests a formula made by a colleague and turns into a handsome, devil-may-care (but violent) ladies' man.

Date of release
1980-10-01
TMDB
5.2 / 10 (15)
Runtime
1h 39m
Genres
Fantasy, Comedy, Horror
Director
Charles B. Griffith

Casting

Interesting facts

  • Based on: Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde

Dr. Heckyl and Mr. Hype is a 1980 American comedy-drama horror romance film directed by Charles B. Griffith, starring Oliver Reed and Sunny Johnson.

Production

Griffith says the film's title was one of five joke titles he originally came up with to show Francis Ford Coppola. He then showed them to Menahem Golan, who was talking to Griffith about writing The Happy Hooker Goes to Washington. After that fell through, Golan asked if Griffith had any other ideas.

Griffith says he had only three weeks to write and prepare the film, four weeks to shoot and two weeks to edit. He was paid $25,000 to write and $25,000 to direct. Griffith originally wanted Dick Van Dyke to play the lead, but since Van Dyke was touring in a play at the time and was unavailable, Golan hired Oliver Reed.

Sunny Johnson was cast the day before shooting started. The script ran to 200 pages in length, and Griffith admits he never had time to cut it down properly. He also said he "fought with the producers over blood and gore versus comedy, and lost as usual." Griffith offered a role to old actor friend Jonathan Haze, who turned it down. However, Dick Miller and Mel Welles appear.

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