A few months back, I took a look at 1941’s Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Also from Warner Archive, this Blu-ray allows me a glimpse at its semi-immediate predecessor, 1931’s Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.

Set in London during the Victorian era, prominent physician Dr. Henry Jekyll (Frederic March) focuses his studies on the nature of good and evil in humans. He conducts controversial experiments, as he believes he can separate the two.

When Henry comes up with a potion, he uses it on himself. This creates a split personality, as the brutal “Mr. Hyde” comes out and creates problems.

Despite a lot of legendary folks involved, I didn’t think much of the 1941 Hyde. Because it maintains a better reputation, I hoped the 1931 version would become more satisfying.

And it does, largely thanks to its lead. Despite his obvious talent, Spencer Tracy seemed miscast, mainly because he just felt too nice and kindly to pull off Mr. Hyde’s brutality.

That doesn’t become an issue with the 1931 film, though March gets a boost from the movie’s makeup choices. In the 1941 version, Hyde didn’t look a lot different than did Jekyll, a factor that brought positives and negatives.

On one hand, this made the 1941 film more psychological, as it left open some room that Hyde just existed in Jekyll’s mind. However, the character changed enough to make this difficult to swallow.

We get no such wishy-washy transformation in the 1931 flick, as Hyde becomes a clear change from Jekyll. As depicted here, Hyde takes on a decidedly simian appearance and comes across as the prototypical “missing link”.

In theory, this creates problems because Hyde needs to become accepted in society, and it seems tough to believe that the locals would view this monstrosity as human. The movie directly addresses this concern – I don’t know if I completely buy these attempts, but at least the flick touches on the topic.

It helps that March provides such a dynamic performance as Hyde. Unlike the milquetoast Tracy, we fully buy the brutal, animal side of March’s Hyde, as he offers a vivid take on the id gone wild.

March also creates a dashing Jekyll. Not that the role needs to be so handsome, but he still manages to deliver an engaging Jekyll whose personality allows for a good contrast with Hyde.

This Hyde offers thematic depth largely absent from its successor, mainly in the way it examines reactions to an oppressive society. We see Jekyll as the bottled-up man who shows a pleasant face on the outside but who boils on the inside until Hyde allows him to let out various feelings and desires.

Of course, some of that arrives in the 1941 film, but the 1931 edition explores these domains better, especially because it demonstrates how society creates issues. When he first emerges, Hyde feels more like an innocent, but when confronted with the era’s demands, he finds himself pushed more toward violence.

Ultimately, this becomes a pretty compelling take on the story. Led by a strong performance from Frederic March, it brings home the narrative well.

Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde appears in an aspect ratio of 1.19:1 on this Blu-ray Disc. This was a pretty terrific presentation.

For the most part, sharpness seemed fine. Some shots tended to be a little soft – usually during opticals or transitions - but those never created substantial concerns. I felt the film usually exhibited very good delineation.

No issues with jagged edges or shimmering occurred, and I noticed no edge haloes. Grain felt natural, and print flaws seemed absent.

Blacks appeared quite nice. Those tones showed solid depth, and shadows also exhibited positive clarity.

Contrast looked positive as well, with a nice silvery feel. This was an outstanding representation of the film.

I felt the DTS-HD MA monaural soundtrack of Hyde largely matched age-related expectations. Speech tended to sound somewhat metallic, but little edginess appeared, and the lines remained perfectly intelligible.

Music sounded thin as well, but those elements felt reasonably well-depicted overall. Like the dialogue, effects veered toward the bright, slightly shrill side of the street, but they also remained fine given their age.

No issues with noise marred the proceedings. The track seemed better than average for its era.

A mix of extras appears here, and we find two separate audio commentaries. The first comes from film historians Steve Haberman and Constantine Nasr, both of whom sit together for their running, screen-specific look at the source’s adaptation and story/characters, themes and interpretation, cast and crew, deleted scenes and various versions of the tale, design and photographic choices, and related domains.

This track doesn’t dig into filmmaking nuts and bolts to a huge degree, but it still gives us good insights connected to the genre and its execution. Expect a fairly insightful examination.

For the second commentary, we hear from film historian Greg Mank. During his own running, screen-specific chat, he covers the source and its various adaptations, choices made for the 1931 version and cuts/censorship, cast and crew, the movie’s release and connected topics.

Mank goes over production domains to act as a complement to the first track. Though he can narrate the story a little too often, he nonetheless ensures we get a good overview of the movie’s creation.

From 1955, a Bugs Bunny short called Hyde and Hare lasts seven minutes, five seconds. Dr. Jekyll adopts Bugs and our Bunny attempts to deal with his benefactor’s strange transformations in this amusing cartoon.

Finally, we get a November 19, 1950 Theater Guild on the Air Radio Broadcast of Hyde. It spans 52 minutes, six seconds and brings back Frederic March as Jekyll/Hyde, with Barbara Bel Geddes as Elizabeth, Jekyll’s love interest.

The radio show hews closer to the source novella, so despite March’s presence, it differs quite a lot from the 1931 movie. Jekyll lacked a romantic partner in the original, so that becomes the main difference, though the radio program loses the working class Ivy character.

This adaptation works surprisingly well, perhaps because it goes back to the source. March turns in a solid performance and ensures we get a quality rendition of the tale.

With a solid lead performance from Frederic March at the fore, the 1931 Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde holds up well after more than 90 years. It mixes social commentary and horror in a compelling manner. The Blu-ray offers age-defying visuals as well as more than competent audio and a good assortment of bonus materials. Expect a fine rendition of this classic tale.