Docteur Jekyll et les Femmes, or the Bloodbath of Dr. Jekyll as I saw it under, opens to a paragraph of text that reads "there was something strange in my sensations, indescribably new and incredibly sweet. I knew myself, at the first breath of this new life, to be tenfold more wicked and the thought delighted me like wine" - Robert-Louis Stevenson (the Strange Case of Doctor Jekyll and Mr. Hyde). Docteur Jekyll et les Femmes then shows a photo of Big Ben & the Houses of Parliment to establish the fact that we are in London. Then we see a young girl running down a dark deserted backstreet somewhere in London clutching her doll. A shadowy figure pursues her. He finally catches her & brutally beats her with his wooden walking cane, however he is disturbed & runs off. A reception 'in celebration of the engagement of Doctor Henry Jekyll and Fanny Osbourne' is being held in Dr. Jekyll's (Udo Kier) large house where he lives with his Mother & conducts his experiments in his laboratory. The guests arrive one by one, Dr. Lanyon (Howard Veron), a General (Patrick Magee) & his fine looking daughter, Reverend Donald Regan (Clement Harari), a pharmacist named Mr. Moore, Dr. Jekyll's publisher Mr. Enfield &, of course, bride to be Fanny Osbourne (Marina Pierro). First up is a little entertainment in the form of a ballet dancer named Victoria, then it's on with dinner where various discussions take place between the gentlemen & Dr. Jekyll about his work & theories about transcendentalism & his ability to achieve a higher consciousness through science. Victoria becomes sleepy & is shown to her room for the night, dinner ends and the various guests go their separate ways. Later on that night Victoria is brutally attacked, raped & murdered in her room by Mr. Hyde (Gerard Zalcberg). Dr. Lanyon examines the body & comes to the conclusion that whoever performed the attack had an 'organ' that was at least 35cm(!) long and had a sharp pointed head as it had entered her, went right through her and pierced her stomach. After accidentally shooting a servant "misfortune follows misfortune. Madame, I have murdered your Chauffeur. My humblest apologies" the General goes a little bananas & takes charge. He grabs his daughter & stuffs her in a closet as Mr. Hyde enters their room, Mr. Hyde ties the General to a chair as his daughter steps out of the closet, bends over the nearest table & lifts her skirt and underwear up to reveal her rather shapely bottom. Mr. Hyde then proceeds to, well help himself to her rear entrance if you know what I mean as the General looks on. After he's had his fill, & filled the General's daughter(!), Mr. Hyde disappears again. The General has a disapproving tone of voice towards his daughter as she seemed to rather enjoy what Mr. Hyde was doing so he takes some rope and gives her a good whipping on her, still very shapely, bottom. However, Mr. Hyde's acts of debauchery are far from over as he goes after Mr. Moore whom Hyde rapes & kills. Doctor Jekyll's fiancé Fanny starts to become suspicious & worried so decides to try & find Jekyll in his laboratory, in doing so Fanny finds out Dr. Jekyll's secret that Mr. Hyde is in fact Jekyll's alter-ego brought on by bathing in various chemicals! Mr. Hyde is starting to take over Jekyll who can no longer resist him, as the night draws on the surviving guests are terrorised by Mr. Hyde who seems to know no limits of depravity & sadism! Written & directed by Walerian Borowczyk this is one strange adaptation of Robert-Louis Stevenson's Novel the Strange Case of Doctor Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. The best way to describe it would be a horror film with lashings of porn & sadism masquerading as art. The first thing that stands out about Docteur Jekyll et les Femmes is that it is a beautiful film to behold throughout. The photography by Noel Very is superb & captures the wonderful production design by Borowczyk extremely well. Rays of light, shadow, flickering candles & excellent use of space & confinement help make this an absolute pleasure to watch throughout. The period settings & costumes are also top-notch, this is as good, if not better, than any Hammer Horror period piece they produced which is high praise indeed. Docteur Jekyll et les femmes is a little slow at times, but I'm sure that was deliberate & as a whole I still found it both interesting & fascinating throughout it's 90 odd minute running time. I never felt bored or lost patience in it. The film tries to tackle various issues and really goes into the psyche of Jekyll & Hyde to paint a complex picture of them both, I also loved the ending when Fanny bathes in the chemicals, turns into her alter-ego & they both head of in the back of a carriage having rough, explicit, blood smeared sex on the back seat! The cast is very good, especially Kier who is always fun to watch, although disappointingly he is dubbed throughout. This is a very strong film that borders on porn on occasion, lots of nudity by some lovely young ladies, rape, sex, sadism and some violence & gore thrown in for good measure too. I believe the version I watched was slightly cut, according to the IMDb's 'alternate versions' section mine was missing some brief shots but most of what was described as being cut in various versions was there. The film is competently made throughout, much more so than I had expected. A different kind of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde film, but one that is interesting & entertaining throughout. If you have the stomach, aren't easily offended & can actually find a copy then I recommend this as a piece of challenging film-making, although it certainly isn't for all tastes that's for sure!