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 M. Barrie, and G. K. Chesterton, who said that Stevenson "seemed to pick the right word up on the point of his pen, like a man playing spillikins". Stevenson was born at 8 Howard Place, Edinburgh, Scotland on 13 November 1850 to Thomas Stevenson (1818–87), a leading lighthouse engineer, and his wife Margaret Isabella (born Balfour, 1829–97). He was christened Robert Lewis Balfour Stevenson. At about age 18, he changed the spelling of "Lewis" to "Louis", and he dropped "Balfour" in 1873. Lighthouse design was the family's profession; Thomas's father (Robert's grandfather) was famous civil engineer Robert Stevenson, and Thomas's