Dr. Jekyll and Ms. Hyde

Dr. Jekyll and Ms. Hyde is a 1995 science fiction comedy film directed by David Price, based on Robert Louis Stevenson's 1886 horror novella Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde. It stars Sean Young, Tim Daly, and Lysette Anthony. The story takes place in modern times and concerns a bumbling chemist who tampers with his great-grandfather's formula, accidentally transforming himself into a beautiful businesswoman who is determined to take over his life. This marked the second collaboration between Young and Daly after both previously starring in TV movie Witness to the Execution (1994).

Dr. Richard Jacks is a perfumer working at a major fragrance company. His projects have failed and the chief executive, Mrs. Unterveldt rejects his latest perfume, claiming that it is a woman's perfume, and she wants a woman working on it. After his great-uncle dies, Richard attends the will reading. He receives nothing but old notes from scientific experiments and discovers that he is the great-grandson of Dr. Henry Jekyll. He then decides to add more estrogen to his ancestor's original formula, hoping to perfect it. He ingests the serum, but after waiting all night nothing happens. His alarm reminds him to attend a job interview at a restaurant. A waiter spills coffee on Richard and this, combined with Richard's excitement at a potentially higher salary, causes the transformation to start. His fingernails grow long, his arm hair disappears, his voice starts to change, and his penis and testicles transform into a vagina inside his pants. His hair grows out, as the waiter returns and dabs his chest, causing swelling in both sides of his chest. Shocked, he runs out of the restaurant and back to his work lab. Straining to get to a mirror, the last sight Richard sees as he rips off his shirt is a perfect pair of breasts.

Pete finds the transformed woman in the laboratory shower, and she caresses herself seductively while looking at him before stepping out. All he can muster is a "Wow," as she giggles confidently. Adopting the alias of "Helen Hyde", the woman convinces Richard's colleagues that she is his new assistant. She adds to his scent report, flirts with his superiors, Yves Dubois and Oliver Mintz (the former of which, a lifelong homosexual, can't understand why he is suddenly attracted to a woman), and rewards herself with a shopping spree courtesy of Richard's credit cards. Later, Helen meets and befriends Richard's fiancée, Sarah, and convinces her to move out of his apartment.

The next day, Richard returns to the office. His bosses are clearly already impressed with his new assistant. Richard realizes that he doesn't remember turning into Helen. He finds that Sarah has moved to his cousin Larry's apartment. He goes to visit her, and while Sarah is still mad at Richard, she compliments both his cousin and Helen, whom she already considers a friend and calls fantastic and so alive. Richard is able to convince Sarah to come to his place for a romantic meal. Everything appears to be going well until he realizes he is turning into Helen again, causing Sarah to flee in confusion. Helen returns to the office in a sexy leather dress and inquires with Mintz about a promotion. He refuses, stating that she is just a secretary. When she inquires about a vacancy, he says there isn't one.

Pete spots Helen leaving Mintz's office and attempts to seduce her by offering her an opportunity to help with his new scent. At first she dismisses him as pathetic but then changes her tone, agreeing to go out with him for a drink. While he is getting washed up, she dumps the sample out of his bottle and fills in with sulfuric acid. He returns and she hands him the bottle, encouraging him to, "Splash a little bit of this on." Helen cooly sparks a cigarette and takes a puff as she hears Pete's desperate screams in the distance.

Helen returns to Oliver's office and seduces him. They go to his place where a desperate Oliver agrees to all her demands. Everything is going perfectly to plan for Helen until the moment she goes to open her teddy and her breast deflates. She locks herself in the bathroom but Oliver mistakes the sounds of her transition for a powerful orgasm. At first he tries a key but then busts open the door just moments after Richard escapes. The next morning, a sharply dressed Oliver curtly informs Richard that he will now be working under Ms. Hyde. When Richard tries handcuffing himself in underwear in order to shoot the transformation and keep Helen from leaving his apartment, he is surprised by Sarah, who believes Richard has become a cross dressing pervert after finding him handcuffed and almost naked with Helen's lingerie in his closet. Seconds after Sarah leaves, Richard is finally able to drag the key to the handcuffs towards him but then changes back to Helen.

At the office, a very professionally dressed Helen is informed that her new secretary (Richard) has set up a presentation with Mintz and Dubois in order to embarrass her. Rather than cancel the meeting, Helen steals one of Richard's perfumes which she renames Indulge. At the meeting, it is clear that both Mintz and Dubois are deeply infatuated with Helen, and she uses her feminine wiles to her advantage. When Dubois begins to recognize the scent as "something Jacks once worked on," she guides her foot under the table to begin fondling his crotch. He then declares, "But... better... much better." As Mintz goes to sample the perfume, Helen boldly asks if they can contact Marketing and Design. Mintz begins to push back that that would be a bit premature when Helen makes contact with him under the table. Both men now agree to advance the fragrance to the Marketing and Design and argue over who should go to brief the department, with Dubois eventually losing and leaving the room while trying to hide his erection.

Helen then makes two videotapes, revealing to Richard that she intends to take over his body completely. Richard tries to get her fired by stripping naked in his office and writing obscene comments on his nude body, but miscalculates the transformation time which causes him not to transform, and Richard winds up getting fired. Helen also intercepts a call from Pete, who intends to prove that she stole his work; pretending to be a stranded driver and electrocutes him.

Sarah is finally convinced when Richard shows her security footage of his first transformation. He manages to concoct a new formula to get rid of Helen for good, but Sarah must administer it once he transforms. To avoid letting her escape, Richard handcuffs his hands and straps his feet to a bed. Sarah only manages to administer part of the formula before Helen escapes to attend Indulge's launch party.

Sarah follows Helen into the party and realizes that the formula is gradually changing her back into Richard. Once Helen goes up to celebrate the success of her new perfume, Sarah injects her with the remaining formula. After a last transformation in front of the audience, Richard is restored to normal and gives a speech to his colleagues, admitting that he was really Helen but claiming that he needed to become a woman to understand them. His boss then hires him back, with a promotion and some vacation time so he can recover. Richard then walks out of the party with Sarah.

The film received a 14% "rotten" rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

The film was nominated for three Razzie Awards including Worst Actress for Sean Young, Worst Remake or Sequel and Worst Screen Couple for Daly and Young. It was also nominated for Most Painfully Unfunny Comedy at the 1995 Stinkers Bad Movie Awards.

"At an age when she should be hitting her stride", wrote film critic Mick LaSalle, "she is already parodying herself – parodying her public image, of all things, not her screen image...It's just possible that schlock is Young's natural element and roles like this her true calling".^[1] Hugo Davenport in The Daily Telegraph said, "Apart from being a travesty of Stevenson, it is so crass, witless and misogynistic that it makes Confessions of a Window Cleaner look like Dostoevsky".^[2]

A review from The Austin Chronicle summarized the film by saying, "Overall, this PG-13 bore is neither crass enough nor intelligent enough to hold anyone's attention."^[3]

After its theatrical run, HBO Video released the film onto VHS and Laserdisc. It was released on DVD in 2004.

• List of American films of 1995
• Dr. Jekyll and Sister Hyde, another, earlier, version of the story also featuring a female Hyde.

• Dr. Jekyll and Ms. Hyde at IMDb 
• Dr. Jekyll and Ms. Hyde at AllMovie
• Dr. Jekyll and Ms. Hyde at the TCM Movie Database
• Dr. Jekyll and Ms. Hyde at the AFI Catalog of Feature Films
• Dr. Jekyll and Ms. Hyde at Box Office Mojo
• Dr. Jekyll and Ms. Hyde at the British Film Institute
• Dr. Jekyll and Ms. Hyde at Rotten Tomatoes