The macabre one-sheet from
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
When John Barrymore needed a dancer in his upcoming 1920 film, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, he went to the Winter Garden and "discovered" Nita Naldi in the chorus line. He affectionately dubbed her his "Dumb Duse." Nita later claimed she learned most of what she knew about facing a camera from John.
Nita plays the Italian dancer Miss Gina. The opening scene finds her seductively wrapped in a Spanish shawl flaunting a huge poison ring on her "heart" finger. Still a neophyte vamp, the only hint of the smouldering siren-to-be is the seductive slide of her hands around Dr. Jekyll's neck in the dance club. This is the physical temptation which leads the good and generous doctor to transform himself into his alter-ego Hyde.
Enjoy Nita's first major film on DVD in a tinted print from the Blackhawk Film Collection and study a vamp in the making.
| Back to Poster Gallery |
These pages were originally created on July 10, 1999.
All text and images on this site ©1999-2000 Gloria Bowman, unless otherwise noted, and may not be used or copied without permission.