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 damn about you in the world. Stevenson was visiting a cousin in England in late 1873 when he met two people who became very important to him: Sidney Colvin and Fanny (Frances Jane) Sitwell. Sitwell was a 34-year-old woman with a son, who was separated from her husband. She attracted the devotion of many who met her, including Colvin, who married her in 1901. Stevenson was also drawn to her, and they kept up a heated correspondence over several years in which he wavered between the role of a suitor and a son (he addressed her as "Madonna"). Colvin became