The Daughter of Dr. Jekyll
Daughter of Dr. Jekyll is a low-budget black-and-white 1957 American horror film produced by Jack Pollexfen, directed by Edgar G. Ulmer and released by Allied Artists. The film is a variation on the 1886 gothic novella Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson. It stars Gloria Talbott, John Agar and Arthur Shields. In the film, Janet Smith (Gloria Talbott) learns that she is not only the daughter of the infamous Dr. Henry Jekyll, but is convinced by her guardian, Dr. Lomas (Arthur Shields), that she has inherited her father's transformative condition. Janet begins to believe that she turns into a monster after two local women are found horribly killed and nearly takes her own life because of it. However, all is not what it seems. Daughter of Dr. Jekyll was released in theaters in the US on a double bill with The Cyclops. Plot In the mid-1910s, Janet Smith and fiancé George Hastings arrive at the English manor house that Janet will inherit the next day, when she turns 21. They meet Mrs. Merchant, the housekeeper; Jacob, the groundskeeper; and Maggie, Janet's personal maid. Oddly, Maggie is frightened and in a hurry to get home before the moon rises. Janet and George also meet Dr. Lomas, Janet's soon-to-be ex-guardian. Janet surprises Lomas by revealing that she and George have decided to marry as soon as possible. Lomas says that their decision is "rash and ill-advised," but then announces that in addition to the house, Janet is inheriting a "sizable fortune" and a huge estate. He also says, ominously, that he has another inheritance to explain in the morning. The next morning, Janet and George discover a hidden laboratory in the house. When they ask Lomas about it, he refuses to say anything until George leaves the room. George does, but when Janet returns from the lab, she tells him that the wedding is off because Lomas has told her that she is the daughter of the werewolf Dr. Jekyll. After Lomas takes them to the family crypt to see Jekyll's tomb, Janet says that she fears passing on "this madness" to her and George's future children. When George asks if that is possible, Lomas says that there is no proof one way or the other. Lomas hypnotizes Janet that night under the pretence of checking her for shock. Before Janet goes to bed, Maggie tells her that tomorrow night's full moon marks the night that "the monster Jekyll rises from his tomb." Janet has a nightmare in which she sees a monster-woman kill another woman. Once awake, she finds blood on her hands and nightdress, and when she looks in the mirror, she sees the monster-woman looking back. Merchant serves breakfast the next morning, complaining that Maggie and Jacob are late for work. Jacob then appears, carrying Maggie's body. She was killed on her way home last night, according to Jacob, by a werewolf. That night, the night of the full moon, Lomas doses Janet