TCM Greatest Classic Films Collection: Horror (House of Wax 1953 / The Haunting 1963 / Freaks / Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde 1941)

This is a two-sided DVD that contains two versions of the Robert Louis Stevenson classic. As many other reviewers here have said, the 1932 Frederick March version is far superior to the 1941 Spencer Tracy version. The older version, directed by a 34-year-old Rouben Mamoulian, is a masterpiece and part of movie history. The later version, directed by Gone With the Wind and Wizard of Oz director Victor Fleming, seems like an uninspired copy of the earlier one. Frederick March understood the role and seemed to revel in it. But, oddly, while he overacts a bit as Jeykyll, he seems totally believable as the monstrous Hyde. Tracy seemed uncomfortable with both personalities, playing Jekyll as too much of a saint and Hyde as too much of a leering sadist. March conveys the personality of Hyde as joyfully enervated by the full release of Jeykll's baser instincts. His Hyde has fun with his own badness. Tracy's just drowns in it.

The special effects in the older version are also superior, and there is lyrical Freudian symbolism in the sets, statues, paintings, etc, that really adds to the drama and continually reminds us of Mamoulian's power as a visual director. The newer version attempts some symbolism (for example, the two whipped horses transform into the two leading ladies) but its symbolism is so heavy handed that it makes the earlier film seem profoundly subtle by comparison.
Even the makeup in the older version is superior. In the Tracy version, Mr. Hyde's appearance seems inconsistent from cut to cut within the same scene. And the use of a masked double for Tracy, even in non-stunt scenes in the London fog, is painfully obvious. You don't even need to pause the DVD to see it.
The earlier version is so technically dazzling, it's hard to believe it was filmed only a couple of years after the silent Lon Chaney classic, Phantom of the Opera. I've never seen an early 30's film that looked so crisp and sounded so good. And no review of this version should leave out the excellent and sexy performance of Miriam Hopkins. She's convincing as a love-starved hooker and even more convincing as the terrified victim of a depraved client. In many ways, her performance seems less theatrical, and therefore more contemporary, than March's.
The Greg Mank commentary on the 1932 version is entertaining and informative, in a gossipy as well as scholarly style. Through his commentary, you find out things about the film and crew that really do add to your insight and enjoyment of the film. There is no commentary on the 1941 version, but Mank does disciss it a little (in too forgiving a way, I think) near the close of the 1932 version. Overall, I think this is a great collector's DVD, and will be one of the most treasured in my collection.

HOUSE OF WAX (1953) In the wicked performance that crowned him the movies’ master of the macabre, Vincent Price plays a wax sculptor plunged into madness when an arsonist destroys his life’s work. Unable to use his flame-scarred hands, he devises a murderous way of restocking his museum. Phyllis Kirk, Carolyn Jones and Charles Bronson co-star. THE HAUNTING (1963) Robert Wise directed this first screen version of Shirley Jackson’s The Haunting of Hill House. Julie Harris, Claire Bloom, Richard Johnson and Russ Tamblyn come to the house to study its supernatural phenomena. Or has the house drawn at least one of them to it? “Guaranteed to chill you” (John Stanley, Creature Features). FREAKS Tod Browning (1931’s Dracula) directs this landmark movie – long banned, now highly lauded – in which the true freaks are not the story’s real-life sideshow performers, but “normals” who mock and abuse them. This unique ensemble play big-top troupers who inflict a terrible revenge on a trapeze artist who treats them as subhumans. DR. JEKYLL AND MR. HYDE (1941) One man is a paragon of virtue. The other is a murderous creature of the London night. They are the same person. Spencer Tracy headlines this version of Robert Louis Stevenson’s tale whose visual flourishes include a dreamscape in which carriage horses whipped by Hyde transform into the women in his life (Ingrid Bergman and Lana Turner).

Disc 1, side A: House of Wax (1953)
Premiere newsreel
Theatrical trailers
Color, 1.33, English 2.0 surround, French 1.0, Spanish 1.0, English, French, and Spanish subtitles
Disc 1, side B: The Haunting (1963)
Commentary by Julie Harris, Claire Bloom, Richard Johnson, Russ Tamblyn, director Robert Wise, and screenwriter Nelson Gidding
Still galleries
Great Ghost Stories essay
Theatrical trailer
B&W, 2.35, English 1.0, French 1.0, English, French, and Spanish subtitles
Disc 2, side A: Freaks
Commentary by Todd Browning biographer David J. Skal
Documentary Freaks: Sideshow Cinema
Special Message prologue added for theatrical reissue
Three alternate endings
B&W, 1.33, English 1.0, English, French, and Spanish subtitles
Disc 2, side B: Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1941)
Theatrical trailer
B&W, 1.33, English 1.0, French 1.0, English, French, and Spanish subtitles