Dr. Black and Mr. Hyde (1976)

Synopsis

The movie Dr. Black and Mr. Hyde (1976) is a blaxploitation horror film that was loosely inspired by the 1886 novella Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson. The film is set in Los Angeles and follows the story of Dr. Henry Pride, an accomplished and wealthy African American medical doctor working on a cure for cirrhosis of the liver along with his colleague, Dr. Billie Worth [2].

Dr. Pride, in his desperation to create a remedy for liver disease, conducts unethical experiments on others and himself. This leads to him turning into a white-skinned Frankensteinian monster with superhuman strength and invincibility [2]. The movie Dr. Black and Mr. Hyde (1976) portrays Dr. Pride’s transformation into this monster as a result of his experiments.

After transforming, Pride begins a spree throughout Watts, killing prostitutes and pimps. When he is unable to test his remedy on Linda, a local prostitute he has fallen in love with, he continues his rampage. This results in him being chased down by the police. Cornered at the Watts Towers, he attempts to escape by climbing up the towers, which leads to the police gunning him down and causing him to fall to his death [2].

Cast

Bernie Casey as Dr. Henry Pride / Hyde
Rosalind Cash as Dr. Billie Worth
Marie O’Henry as Linda Monte
Ji-Tu Cumbuka as Lieutenant Jackson
Milt Kogan as Lieutenant Harry O’Connor
Stu Gilliam as “Silky”, The Pimp
Marc Alaimo as Preston, The Drug Pusher

Trivia

Dr. Black, Mr. Hyde is one of many films which constitute the blaxploitation genre. Specifically, it was part of the blaxploitation horror genre that came about in the late 1960s and early 1970s with the box office success of American International Pictures’ Blacula, which was also directed by William Crain².

Reviews

According to a review on Rommer Reviews, the film is rated two stars: “while this is, no doubt, a Blaxploitation film, with the residents of Watts represented mostly by hooker and their pimps, not to mention brothers on the corner, there is certain lack of commitment to this…”

Another review on McBastard’s Mausoleum describes: “The film is poorly paced and is weighed down by some rather sluggish melodrama that really does grind the film to a near-halt but it picks up with some decent fight and chase sequences featuring our albino beast. .

A review on Cool Ass Cinema states that the film is a “silly, but fun latter period blaxploitation horror flick full of Ho’s, Joe’s and Afro’s.”