Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde is a 1908 silent horror film starring Hobart Bosworth, and Betty Harte in her film debut. Directed by Otis Turner and produced by William N. Selig, this was the first film adaptation of Robert Louis Stevenson's 1886 novel Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde. The screenplay was actually adapted by George F. Fish and Luella Forepaugh from their own 1897 four act stage play derived from the novel, causing a number of plot differences with the original source. Despite Stevenson's protests, this film became the model which influenced all the later film adaptations that were to come.

Plot

The film begins with the raising of a stage curtain. Dr. Jekyll vows his undying love for Alice, a vicar's daughter, in her spacious garden. Suddenly, seized by his addiction to the chemical formula, Jekyll begins to convulse and distort himself into the evil Mr. Hyde. He savagely attacks Alice, and when her father tries to intervene, Mr. Hyde takes great delight in slaughtering him. While in his lawyer's office, Dr. Jekyll sees visions of himself being executed for his crime.