Dr. Jekyll & Mistress Hyde

U.S.A. / 2003 Directed by Tony Marsiglia Starring Julian Wells Misty Mundae Andrea Davis Color / 85 Minutes / Not Rated Format: DVD (R1 - NTSC / 2-disc set) E.I./Seduction Cinema

Music from the film Misty's Striptease MP3 format - 3.0 MB

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		Review by Brian Lindsey

6     9   10 = Highest Rating

Not to be confused with Hammer's Dr. Jekyll and Sister Hyde (1971), this direct-to-video feature from New Jersey-based Seduction Cinema has but one agenda: hot lesbian softcore sex. The movie certainly delivers on that score, thankfully without detouring into painfully unfunny spoof territory. Primarily known for such sex and nudity-filled sendups as Lord of the G-Strings and Play-Mate of the Apes, with Dr. Jekyll & Mistress Hyde Seduction tries something in the vein of David Lynch rather than Airplane!, with much more satisfying results. Artful pretensions aside, make no mistake — this movie is all about sexy women getting naked and making out with each other, expressly designed to give hetero male viewers a good stiffy for their investment. (Does your average lesbian enjoy such deliberately prurient films as well? I wouldn't know.) The presence of Seduction Cinema's top starlet, 23 year-old Misty Mundae — who can look much younger under the right conditions — should pretty much guarantee a wood-sporting reaction.     Leggy blonde Julian Wells (Lust for Dracula) stars as Dr. Jackie Stevenson, a psychotherapist and best-selling author specializing in repression in women. Her pet theory posits that, rather than good and evil, the female psyche is divided between the two halves of "pure" and lustful." The Doc is herself an attractive gal disguised in dowdy garb and glasses (looking a bit like NBC News correspondent Ashleigh Banfield); her own personal desires remain tightly submerged. Her marriage, to a real asshole of a husband, is a sexless sham. Perhaps as a means to liberate herself, Jackie is working on a formula that will allow women to fully experience the lustful side of their personalities. (Apparently she's an ace chemist as well.) For a test subject she hopes to find a volunteer among her patients.     Troubled young Martine (Mundae in a ridiculous black wig) would seem the ideal candidate. Frigid and confused about her sexuality, Martine has fallen desperately in love with her therapist. During an emotional office session Jackie injects her with the formula. She starts to panic when the girl is suddenly wracked by pain; flailing about, Martine knocks over a lamp and plunges the room into darkness. Jackie snaps on a flashlight only to find Martine lying on the floor, masturbating with wild abandon. Martine then attacks her, pushing Jackie down onto her desk and performing oral sex on her. Swept away, Jackie gives in to the exquisite waves of pleasure coursing through her body. But pleasure turns to horror when Martine, now an out-of-control nymphomaniac, has to be confined to a psychiatric ward, trussed in a straitjacket. Compounding her guilt, Jackie now realizes that Martine's romantic desires towards her are mutually felt.     She decides that the next test subject will be herself — she won't risk using the drug on anyone else until she learns more. Halving the dosage she gave Martine, Jackie injects herself one night. After a painful spasm in which she's compelled to rip off her clothes, the lustful Jackie emerges, immediately pleasuring herself before a mirror. Next, she hits the streets in search of companionship. Coming upon a young streetwalker dressed in a kinky schoolgirl's uniform, our Woman Under The Influence introduces herself as "Heidi", the alias of her supersexed alter ego. The hooker, Dawn (also played by Mundae), is a doppelgänger of the unfortunate Martine. The women go to a unfurnished loft where Dawn performs a sexy striptease to a strange record she cues up on her Close-'n'-Play. Then "Heidi" rocks her world. A bizarre relationship develops between the two, its boundaries pushed further when they engage in a little light bondage and a lesbian menage a trois with a blond TV hostess (Andrea Davis). During this session Heidi injects her lovers with the special lust potion. Soon Jackie realizes that the drug is no longer required to bring out the sex maniac dwelling within. And Dr. Stevenson has a new patient, a shy and comely young woman named Dawn...     All this is played remarkably straight, even when the dialog resorts to stuff like, "I normally wouldn't do this with a patient, but obviously you're in need." (What do ya think that leads to, eh?) The movie only blows it when Misty's in that awful wig, and during the the clumsy TV show interviews that bookend the story. (The inexperienced Davis, as anchorbabe Ingrid, has a great bod but is a terrible actress.) As Jackie/Heidi and Martine/Dawn, the two leads are surprisingly good, especially Mundae, who even imbues her character(s) with a poignant innocence when not stripping off her clothes and diving between her co-star's thighs. She's a very sexy girl — as the old Rick James song would say — with an intriguing "girl-next-door-with-a-really-kinky-secret" kind of look that has apparently generated a legion of fans. (She's appeared in no less than 13 films for Seduction Cinema in the past year alone.) Quite frankly I couldn't keep my eyes off her... No silicone, no tattoos — just young and tender female flesh, au natural. And yes, the sex scenes are genuinely erotic. (God, do I sound like a horny old bastard or what?)     Shot open matte on digital video, the film looks remarkably good, with generally first-rate cinematography. For a microbudget production there's a lot of attention paid to visual mood and ambiance. The women all look their best, lovingly photographed. I simply wasn't expecting this kind of quality in a DTV lesbian sex flick. Some scenes, particularly Mundae's dance and the lovemaking that follows, reach for a European sensibility. Perhaps this is the best Jess Franco film he never made. (Nah... couldn't be. No zoom shots.)

Unusually, Seduction Cinema's DVD edition of Dr. Jekyll & Mistress Hyde is packaged as a deluxe two-disc set, limited to a production run of 20,000 numbered copies. The film and its attendant bonus features are located on Disc One. As for A/V specs, the fullframe transfer is practically flawless looking for DV; the Dolby 2.0 stereo mix isn't anything spectacular, but for this kind of movie gets the job done most admirably.     Extras: again, quite a pleasant surprise. I love trailers (even for DTV movies), so I rate the inclusion of seventeen such promos a big plus. They're for films from Seduction Cinema's "Retro" and "Seduction" brands, with most of them featuring Misty Mundae in prominent roles. An excellent means of getting a feel for the company's product, one can see just how ludicrous and cheap-looking the more well-known 'spoof' titles are. I, for one, hope that in the future Seduction produces more flicks in the semiserious mold of Mistress Hyde.     In addition to the trailers, Disc One also features a 6 minute interview with Mundae and Julian Wells. This standard promotional-type piece is rendered moot by the far more revealing video documentary, running nearly 80 minutes, which chronicles the making of the film. Beginning with the limo ride to the airport and their arrival in Los Angeles, Mundae, Wells, and co-star Ruby LaRocca (who plays Jackie's maid in the movie) are followed around with a camcorder. We see them lounging in their motel room, touring the Walk of Fame on Hollywood Boulevard, rehearsing their lines with the director, and hanging out on set between takes. Even unstructured as it is, this documentary provides an interesting behind-the-scenes look at how these low budget features are made. Fans of Ms. Mundae will doubtless enjoy seeing her as a 'real' person: smoking (a lot), bitching (it was very cold on location, particularly when naked), falling asleep, and even rapping during down time.     The second disc is an audio CD of the movie's music score. An attempt at Angelo Badalamenti-style ambiance, it's actually quite listenable and a terrific bonus feature. Misty's kitschy streaptease tune, "Something's Come Over You" (see the MP3 link near the top of the left-hand sidebar) is certainly the most atypical of the tracks. 11/02/03

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