Taglines: Evil is irresistable.
Mary Reilly was put into service by her mother at age 12 in order to avoid contact with her tormenting father. She works in the home of Dr. Henry Jekyll, who has a laboratory out back separate from the house. A rapport develops between her and the doctor. Mr. Poole, the head of the household staff, distrusts their familiarity but the doctor calls on her for help particularly when the doctor hires an assistant who is to work in the laboratory.
Mary gets locked in the laboratory one night when she spies on the new assistant, Mr. Edward Hyde, what is going on in the laboratory and hides but Mr. Hyde is not as disapproving as she imagines he might be and lets her out. By Mary’s second visit to delivery another letter from the doctor to Mrs. Faraday, a madam, Mary learns that a bloody mess at the whorehouse was caused by Mr. Hyde.
Mary finally meets the enigmatic Edward Hyde and finds herself drawn towards his passionate nature. However, she is also upset when he reveals that he knows intimate details about her conversations with the Doctor. In turn, Mary challenges the Doctor about this and the doctor claims that he made notes about their conversations out of habit: thus, Hyde looked at the Doctor’s notes without his knowledge.
The next day, when Mary delivers Jekyll’s breakfast, he asks her to accompany Hyde on an errand. They visit the slaughterhouse yard to collect organs for the doctor’s research. Upon their return, Hyde torments Mary, asking if she is aware of how much Jekyll longs to touch her.
While fetching tea for Hyde, she answers the door to find Mrs. Farraday, who insists on seeing Jekyll. Jekyll is not pleased to see Farraday, who demands more money for her continued silence. Mary leaves them alone, but while watering the garden, she notices the lights in the lab go out. Investigating, she discovers a small pool of blood on the theater table. She does not see Hyde, who is hidden and has killed Mrs Farraday.
Mary is told by letter the passing of her mother and returns home to plan her funeral. While returning to the home of the doctor, Mr. Hyde grabs Mary in the alley while he is pursued by, but hidden from, the mounted police. The police eventually question Mary about the death of Sir Danvers Carew when she returns to the home of the doctor. Mary denies having seen Hyde that day and Hyde eventually warns Mary that she should not have lied to the police. He reveals that he has dismissed Hyde and bribed him to disappear.
Mary Reilly is a 1996 American film directed by Stephen Frears and starring Julia Roberts and John Malkovich. The movie was written by Christopher Hampton and adapted from the novel Mary Reilly by Valerie Martin (itself inspired by Robert Louis Stevenson’s Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde). This was the re-teaming of director Frears, screenwriter Hampton, and actors Malkovich and Glenn Close, all of whom were involved in the Oscar-winning Dangerous Liaisons (1988).
Mary Reilly (1996)
Directed by: Stephen Frears
Starring: Julia Roberts, John Malkovich, George Cole, Glenn Close, Michael Gambon, Kathy Staff, Michael Sheen, Bronagh Gallagher, Linda Bassett, Ciarán Hinds
Screenplay by: Christopher Hampton
Production Design by: Stuart Craig
Cinematography by: Philippe Rousselot
Film Editing by: Lesley Walker
Costume Design by: Consolata Boyle
Set Decoration by: Stephenie McMillan
Art Direction by: John King, Michael Lamont, Jim Morahan
Music by: George Fenton
MPAA Rating: R for notable gore and some strong violence.
Distributed by: TriStar Pictures
Release Date: February 23, 1996
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