Fred Stone, born in 1873, transitioned from circus performer to a celebrated actor in film and theater. In The Two Faces of Dr. Jekyll (1960), he delivers a compelling performance that reflects his roots in vaudeville and Broadway. Stone's ability to embody complex characters adds depth to the film's exploration of duality, making his role significant in the context of cult cinema. His journey from stage to screen illustrates the evolution of performance art during the mid-20th century.
The Two Faces of Dr. Jekyll
Dr. Henry Jekyll's wife, Kitty, is secretly involved with his friend Paul Allen (who hounds money from Jekyll). Ignoring the warnings of his colleague and friend Dr. Ernst Littauer, the middle-aged, mild-mannered Jekyll concocts a chemical potion which he hopes will help him learn the depths of the human mind. By testing the potion on himself, he transforms into Mr. Edward Hyde, a young and handsome, but also murderous and lecherous man. Soon, Hyde becomes bored with conventional debauchery and when he sets his eyes on Kitty, he decides he must have her. When Kitty rejects him, Hyde rapes her and leaves her unconscious. When Kitty wakes up in the bed, she immediately notices that Hyde has scratched her neck in various places. Distressed, Kitty walks over to the table, where she finds a note written to her. When Kitty goes into the other room looking for Paul, she looks in to find out that her lover has been bitten by a venomous snake. To Kitty's misfortune, Paul is dead. Kitty walks over to the patio, puts her leg over the balcony, covers her ears in response to the loud music playing from the party and allows herself to fall off the balcony and through the glass roof covering the party guests. Hyde frames his other self for these crimes. The next day, Jekyll is horrified to learn of what Hyde has done. After speaking to his other half via a mirror, Jekyll turns uncontrollably into Hyde. Hyde then kills a man in Jekyll's laboratory by shooting him in the back and sets his body up on a desk. Hyde then sets fire to the laboratory as the police arrive. Via a window, Hyde pretends that Jekyll is trying to kill him as the building burns. After escaping the building, Hyde claims Jekyll tried to kill Hyde and ended up shooting himself due to madness as the innocent man and Jekyll's laboratory burns. A few hours later, Hyde is summoned to the police station where he and some officers discuss the crime. After declaring Dr. Jekyll responsible for the crimes, Hyde tries to leave the building, but at the last minute Jekyll fights him from the inside and takes over again. As Dr. Jekyll sits on a bench, looking as sickly as ever, he is surrounded by astonished people and arrested for his alleged crimes. Dr. Henry Jekyll is experimenting with what he believes is the dual nature of all men: that there is in everyone both a good and an evil side of their personality that is in constant conflict. He's been publicly ridiculed for his theories but he presses on. His wife Kitty worries about him and tells him she very much dislikes his friend Paul Allen who she feels is taking advantage of him. That doesn't stop her from going out dancing with him however and soon falls in love with him. Alone in his lab, Jekyll injects himself with a solution he's developed - and a new personality emerges, that of Mr. Hyde. The use of the drug causes his entire metabolism to accelerate. He decides to exact his revenge on Allen and Kitty.
