The film begins with an introductory title card: “In each of us, two natures are at war—the good and the evil. All our lives the fight goes on between them, and one of them must conquer. But in our own hands lies the power to choose—what we want most to be, we are.”
       Lead characters and their portrayer are introduced on title cards in the following manner: “John Barrymore as Henry Jekyll, idealist and philanthropist—by profession, a doctor of medicine”; “Dr. Richard Lanyon, as conservative professionally as Dr. Jekyll was progressive. – Charles Lane”; “Always as far from misery and suffering as he could get, was Sir George Carew. – Brandon Hurst”; “Sir George Carew’s daughter Millicent, beloved of Dr. Jekyll…. Martha Mansfield”; “Mr. Edward Enfield. – Cecil Clovelly”; “Gina—who faced her world alone. – Nita Naldi.” Dr. Jekyll’s butler is also introduced as “Poole, a family servant, who had inherited his young master,” but the name of actor George S. Stevens is not on the card. The title card introducing “Millicent” was added later, in a different typeface.
       Several characters’ first names were changed. In the Robert Louis Stevenson 1886 novella, The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Lanyon was “Dr. Hastie Lanyon”; Enfield was “Richard Enfield;” and Carew was Dr. Danvers Carew, M.P. (Member of Parliament). The character of Millicent Carew did not exist in the novel, but was probably inspired by a character added as the “love interest” in Thomas Russell Sullivan’s 1887 play, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, starring Richard Mansfield. Although the play is not credited, it was the first adaptation to put the novella’s literary narrative into dramatic form.
       The 6 Dec 1919 Exhibitors Herald reported that John Barrymore was suffering from “a severe case of grippe,” or influenza, and had been advised by his physician to stay home, but he insisted on doing his scenes. Later in the month, cameraman Roy Overbaugh was stricken with pneumonia and had to be replaced by Hal Young, according to the 27 Dec 1919 Wid’s. Daily The Apr-May 1920 issue of Motion Picture Classic noted that filming had “just completed.”
       As Paramount-Artcraft released its long-awaited Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, the independent Pioneer Film Corporation rushed another Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1920, see entry) onto the market, starring Sheldon Lewis, who had played the title characters on the stage. The 29 May 1920 Moving Picture World summed up the inconvenience to Paramount-Artcraft in an item from Cleveland, OH: “There is a merry war on in Cleveland over the two different productions of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Since the Euclid Theatre started to run the Barrymore version the one with Sheldon Lewis has been booked all over town. This will be a barrier to the distributors of the Barrymore picture, in that they will suffer a loss, as the Euclid will play it for two or three weeks and when it is then shown in other parts of Cleveland it will be following the Lewis picture.”
       The first American adaptation of Stevenson’s novella was a 1908 Selig Pictures one- or two-reel drama (see entry), about which little is known. Four years later, James Cruze starred in a two-reel version (1912, see entry), credited as an adaptation of Thomas Russell Sullivan’s play. In 1920, a German film version, Der Januskopf,, starring Conrad Veidt and directed by F. W. Murnau, competed with that year’s two American films. Paramount remade Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde in 1932 (see entry), starring Fredric March. Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer produced another version in 1941, starring Spencer Tracy (see entry).
       Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde was released on a John Barrymore DVD collection in 2009.