Docteur Jekyll et les femmes

Lore & Background

The film was originally intended by Borowczyk to be titled Le cas étrange de Dr.Jekyll et Miss Osbourne, but his distributors UGC insisted it be released under the title Docteur Jekyll et les femmes. It was released in France on June 17, 1981. The film never opened commercially in the United States, and in Britain, it played at one cinema for one week. It was released theatrically in the UK under the title The Blood of Dr. Jekyll and then later on video as Bloodlust. At the Sitges Film Festival, it was shown under the title The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Miss Osbourne (or the French title Docteur Jekyll et les femmes). Arrow Films released the film in both the U.S. and UK on April 21, 2015, on Blu-ray and DVD, restoring Borowczyk's preferred title The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Miss Osbourne.

Reader's Guide

Docteur Jekyll et les femmes is significant as a distinctive adaptation of Stevenson's classic story, directed by Walerian Borowczyk, who won the Best Feature Film Director award at the 1981 Sitges Film Festival for his work. The film's plot diverges markedly from the source material, introducing characters such as Fanny Osbourne and featuring explicit violence and sexual content. Its release history is notable: it never had a commercial release in the United States and only a limited one-week run in Britain. The film was later restored and released on Blu-ray and DVD by Arrow Films in 2015, marking its first legitimate commercial release in the U.S. and its first in the UK since the VHS era. The restoration also reinstated Borowczyk's original title, The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Miss Osbourne. The film remains a cult item for its bold, transgressive take on the Jekyll and Hyde mythos.

Did You Know?

• The film won Walerian Borowczyk the award for Best Director at the 1981 Sitges Film Festival.
• Borowczyk wanted to call the film Le cas étrange de Dr.Jekyll et Miss Osbourne, but distributors UGC insisted on the title Docteur Jekyll et les femmes.
• The film never opened commercially in the United States and played at only one cinema for one week in Britain.
• Arrow Films released the film on Blu-ray and DVD on April 21, 2015, restoring Borowczyk's preferred title The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Miss Osbourne.