The first black-and-white film I saw in my memory was "Dr. Incarnation" (1941). More than ten years passed in a blink of an eye. I re-watched this film and the old version in 1931, and my impression was completely changed. Now I think that the 1941 version is a bad film, the story is procrastinated, the lines are sloppy, and the actors' performances are heavy. There is not much contrast between the front and back of the "incarnation", and the "incarnation" is not bad enough. It is totally incomparable with the 1931 edition ten years earlier. The 31st version director Ruben Marmolian is a great man, and his technique is obviously ahead of that era.
At the beginning of the film, he used a subjective long lens of Jekyll to follow along the way—photographing, opening the door, going out, riding in the carriage, and entering the auditorium all the way to the bottom of the sports scene. He also used a split-screen representation method. First, Dr. Jekyll became Mr. Hyde's back and then drifted away. At this time, the camera began to rotate, and the picture on the right followed immediately, switching to the call to be found by Mr. Hyde. Girl, the left and right pictures are going on at the same time, we will be nervous about the next encounter with the call girl, and the last lap will end clockwise. The most commendable part of the film is the "incarnation" section, a scene of Jekyll becoming Hyde that has never been edited, and I can't figure out the film technique at all. Coincidentally, the next day I found the secret of this "metamorphosis" in the new version of "Dracula" (1931) Universal's new feature disc documentary "Universal Horror Film":
In a TV show in 1969, the reporter asked the director Marmorian again how exactly the film was filmed, but the director still did not give an answer. The documentary tells us that this technique was not disclosed by the film photographer Karl Strauss until the director’s death. In fact, Strauss used it as early as in the silent film "Benxu" (1925). Jesus' treatment of lepers The miracle, the deep eye sockets on the face of leprosy patients have disappeared. In fact, the color filter method is used, that is, the blue becomes red, and then the red on the actor's eye sockets turns out of sight. In "Dr. Incarnation", the reverse is used. The red liquid is applied to the protagonist's eye sockets and then turns blue. The photographer used red and blue film to shoot separately to achieve the "disappearing" effect, and finally washed it into black and white. After completing this basic transformation, the lens moves from the face to the hand again, and completes it with montage. After remake-up on the horse area face, then continue to shoot from the hand and gradually move to the face to complete the final effect. As for the actors, the performances in the horse area are very good. The Dr. Jekyll he played is a gentleman, with the feeling of Sherlock Holmes. After the transformation, Hyde's appearance can definitely be described as horror. Hyde's appearance, expression and actions are completely reborn. He can't see that he is a horse zone at all. He always feels that he is another acting actor. From this point alone, the 41st edition is completely limited, and neither makeup nor performance is qualified. In addition, the 31st edition was shot before the promulgation of the "Hays Code", which is more bold and straightforward. The 41st edition is too conservative and deliberately hypocritical. The two versions compete with each other.
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