Briony McRoberts Movies

This demented fusion of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde with the legend of Jack the Ripper marks one of the final roles for Anthony Perkins, and certainly one of the weirdest performances of his career. Perkins plays Dr. Jekyll as more of a dedicated 19th-century man of medicine than an obsessed eccentric -- whose research into a safe form of anaesthetic leads to the accidental discovery of cocaine! Jekyll's inadvertent freebasing of the vapors from a cocaine/ether mixture triggers his transformation into Hyde - a murderer of prostitutes who dubs himself "Jack," thus allowing the convenient transition into the "Jack the Ripper" phase of the plot. This Hungarian production has fairly high production values, but Perkins' over-the-top antics and some glaring anachronisms (Jack's streetwalker victims sport accessories that look like Madonna's hand-me-downs) make it impossible to take seriously as a horror film. ~ Cavett Binion, Rovi

Most Inspector Clouseau fans regard The Pink Panther Strikes Again as the best of the clumsy Parisian detective's "comeback" films of the 1970s. Driven insane by the stupidities of Clouseau (Peter Sellers), ex-inspector Dreyfuss (Herbert Lom) transforms into a master criminal. Kidnapping the inventor of a death ray, Dreyfuss threatens to use the demon device indiscriminately unless Clouseau is offered as a "sacrifice." A hunted man, Clouseau is forced to adopt one transparent (but hilarious) disguise after another. He is rescued from being incinerated by Dreyfuss when Soviet spy Olga (Leslie Ann Down) falls in love with him and strives to protect him. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi