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 spent one term at an English boarding school at Spring Grove in Isleworth in Middlesex (now an urban area of West London). In October 1864, following an improvement to his health, he was sent to Robert Thomson's private school in Frederick Street, Edinburgh, where he remained until he went to university. In November 1867, Stevenson entered the University of Edinburgh to study engineering. He showed from the start no enthusiasm for his studies and devoted much energy to avoiding lectures. This time was more important for the friendships he made with other students in the Speculative Society (an exclusive debating