Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1920 Paramount film) Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1920 Paramount film) Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde is a 1920 horror silent film produced by Famous Players-Lasky and released through Paramount/Artcraft. The film, which stars John Barrymore, is based on the 1886 novella "The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde" by Robert Louis Stevenson. John S. Robertson directed the production, and Clara Beranger wrote this adaptation's screenplay or “scenario”. The story, set in late Victorian London, portrays the tragic consequences of a doctor's experiments in separating the dual personalities he thinks defines all humans: one good, the other evil. The film is
Robert Louis Stevenson in 1869, and for three weeks to the island of Erraid in 1870. He enjoyed the travels more for the material they gave for his writing than for any engineering interest. The voyage with his father pleased him because a similar journey of Walter Scott with Robert Stevenson had provided the inspiration for Scott's 1822 novel "The Pirate". In April 1871, Stevenson notified his father of his decision to pursue a life of letters. Though the elder Stevenson was naturally disappointed, the surprise cannot have been great, and Stevenson's mother reported that he was "wonderfully resigned" to his son's choice.