cult film freak: PAUL MASSIE STARS IN HAMMER'S 'THE TWO FACES OF DR. JEKYLL'

Paul Massie in THE TWO FACES OF DR. JEKYLL Year: 1960 Rating: ***1/2

The titular scientist in Hammer's usual Victorian era fits the 1800's in his stuffy demeanor until turning into a bohemian wild man frequenting swinging nightclubs and nightlife, providing future real life party animal Oliver Reed a bit part opposite Joy Webster...

And in the legendary double lead is Paul Massie, not a bad actor but is hardly interesting enough to carry an entire picture like, say, Peter Cushing or, in this particular case, Christopher Lee as a leech rather than neck-sucker... His gambling scoundrel character Paul Allen takes advantage of old friend Jekyll by spending his money and romancing his wife...

Paul Massie in THE TWO FACES OF DR. JEKYLL

Meanwhile, neither Lee or ingenue Dawn Addams recognizes Hyde as being Jekyll with a little less facial hair to differentiate between the same actor; but one has to separate reality from what's a fantastical kind of offbeat thriller with not nearly enough good times when they're rolling, mostly because of the distracting token fatale in snake-charming stripper Norma Marla, whose affair with Jekyll is like... pun-intended... watching two serpents screw in Eden...

But, either way, manipulative cheating wife Addams is far more interesting, surreptitiously wicked, and beautiful... and she also has two faces, but remains the same person.