Written by: Pieter Boven on October 3rd, 2005
Original Title: Dottor Jekyll e gentile signora
Theatrical Release Date: Italy, 1979
Director: Steno
Writers: Franco Castellano, Giuseppe Moccia
Cast: Paolo Villaggio, Edwige Fenech, Gianrico Tedeschi, Gordon Mitchell
DVD released: June 11, 2001
Running time: 93m57s
Aspect Ratio: 1.66:1 Non-Anamorphic Widescreen
Rating: FSK-16
Sound: German Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono
DVD Label: MVW
Region Coding: Region 0 PAL (Germany)
Retail Price: 5 EUR
Discs: 1xDVD-5
EAN: 4022484601159
The Film :
PANTAC, a large multinational, has been making a lot of money by processing a chemical waste product called FP1 in their fertilizer. However, FP1 is starting to cause all kinds of side-effects and is being banned by governments all over the world. The ruthless Dr. Jekyll is called upon to find a solution. Aided by his ambitious and sexy secretary he comes up with a ridiculous plan which involves kidnapping the Queen of England. One day Dr. Jekyll discovers his grandfather, in evil Mr. Hyde form, still living in his basement. Hyde tricks Jekyll into drinking the antidote of his famous potion. Instead of becoming more evil as hoped, Dr. Jekyll turns into a clumsy fool attempting good deeds but failing miserably every time. However, he accidentally foils the plan to kidnap the Queen and PANTAC, not knowing who he really is, puts a price on his head.
Video:
The movie is presented in 1.66:1 non-anamorphic widescreen which I assume is the original aspect ratio. The transfer looks very soft, is partially interlaced and constantly plagued by white speckles and other minor damage. The colours have also seen better days. Still, it’s watchable on a normal TV.
Audio:
The only available option is a German dub in dolby digital 2.0 mono. It sounds a bit muffled but dialogue is easy to understand. There are no subtitles.
Extras:
There’s an absolutely hideous looking menu with a chapter selection consisting of 8 scenes although the movie is divided in 14 chapters. As extras we have an extremely useful photo gallery with screenshots taken from the DVD and a feature to play 3 scenes taken from the movie and encoded separately on the DVD. Can someone please explain the point of this? This ‘extra’ can be found on many MVW DVDs and I just don’t get it. The cover art, that tricked me into buying the film, does look nice although it misspells the title.
Overall:
This must be one of the worst movies I have ever seen. It’s terribly unfunny, way too long and its only redeeming feature is Edwige Fenech wearing all kinds of incredibly sexy outfits. Unfortunately there is little to no nudity to make this atrocity more bearable.
This old German DVD is pretty bad but can be found cheap. Recently an Italian DVD was released by Federal Video. It’s probably much better quality but doesn’t have any English options either and with a reported runtime that is even 13 min. longer than the reviewed DVD, I recommend staying far away from it.