I, Monster (1971)

Despite the intriguing title, I, Monster (1971) is simply another re-telling of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde.  Another attempt by Amicus to stray into Hammer's territory by producing a full-length Gothic feature, rather than their usual anthology films, the project yielded indifferent results, despite being a pet project for company co-owner Milton Subotsky.  Indeed, Subotsky was, arguably, the film's biggest problem.  His insistence on attempting to film it using an untried 3-D process which supposedly would have allowed audiences to experience stereoscopic effects without having to wear glasses, (according to those involved in production, only Subotsky could see the 3-D effect during rushes, everyone else experiencing headaches, instead), resulted in much footage having to be cut.  Consequently, the finished film runs only seventy five minutes, far too short for a feature at a time when most ran at least ninety minutes.  

Subotsky's adaptation of the source material didn't help much either - aside from changing the protagonist's names from Jekyll and Hyde to Marlowe and Blake and adding in some mild Freudian sub-text, it is pretty much a straightforward re-telling of the Stevenson story.  Unlike Hammer's attempt - 1960's The Two Faces of Dr Jekyll -his treatment doesn't attempt any kind of radical re-interpretation of the story and characters, something badly needed if I, Monster was to have any chance of distinguishing itself from the plethora of other adaptations.  Moreover, some of Subotsky's dialogue is pretty dire, defeating even the likes of Peter Cushing.  Nevertheless, the film's failure was, rather unfairly, laid squarely at the feet of first time director Stephen Weeks.  Despite the problems he had to deal with, Weeks does succeed in delivering a reasonably stylish looking film, bolstered by some decent performances from Christopher Lee as Marlowe/Blake and Cushing as Uttterson, (their presence alone indicate that Amicus saw this as some kind of prestige production..  Celebrated non-acting horror star and DJ Mike Raven also features.

Ultimately a hugely frustrating film - you can't help but feel it a missed opportunity for Lee to give another definitive horror performance, if nothing else - I, Monster does at least have a decent trailer.  I must admit that I haven't seen it in a few years, (it used to be a late night regular on British TV), but was put in mind of it by Talking Pictures TV giving it an outing in their 'Cellar Club' feature.  Despite its inadequacies, I, Monster is still worth a look, providing a fairly decent, in unsurprising, adaptation of the Stevenson story.