Ugly Duckling, The (1959) (Blu-ray Review)
Director
Lance ComfortRelease Date(s)
1959 (May 18, 2026)Studio(s)
Hammer Films Productions (Indicator/Powerhouse Films)- Film/Program Grade: B+
- Video Grade: A
- Audio Grade: A
- Extras Grade: A
Review
[Editor's Note: This is a Region B-locked British Blu-ray import.]
Four years before Jerry Lewis’s signature film, The Nutty Professor (1963), Britain’s Hammer Films, already famous for its gothic horror movies, produced The Ugly Duckling (1959), a very similar comic take on Robert Louis Stevenson’s The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Though partly financed by Hollywood’s Columbia Pictures, it may have had a very limited release, or no release at all in the United States, so similarities with Lewis’s film are probably coincidental, striking though they are in some respects. In recent years, The Ugly Duckling was almost impossible to see as the original film elements were believed lost, or maybe just mislaid. Powerhouse Films/Indicator’s Blu-ray, however, offers a sparkling 4K restoration of the original camera negative so, for what it’s worth, The Ugly Duckling is lost no more.
At a big dance hall, clumsy, none-too-bright and socially inept Henry Jekyll (Bernard Bresslaw) is a last-minute replacement for a ballroom dancing demonstration with his older sister, Henrietta (Maudie Edwards), which, with Henry’s enormous two left feet, ends in disaster, further hurting her matrimonial chances with Reginald Bannister (Reginald Beckwith). The Jekylls live at the family’s pharmacy, run by Henry’s brother, Victor (Jon Pertwee). (The signboard calls the family “Jekyll,” but elsewhere they refer to themselves as “Jeckle,” presumably ashamed by the family scandal decades before.)
Of course, Henry stumbles upon his great-great-grandfather’s formula, he mixes up a batch of the stuff, and is transformed into a confident, suave ladies’ man: “Teddy Hyde.” (James Bernard’s music from Hammer’s Dracula is heard on the soundtrack during the transformation scenes.) At the ballroom, where unbelievably no one immediately recognizes Hyde as Jekyll, “Teddy” dazzles the crowd with his expert dancing, while his tough demeanor attracts the attention of gangster Dandy (Elwyn Brook-Jones), who needs help on a diamond caper.
While no lost classic, The Ugly Duckling is an ingratiating little comedy, above average for the period. Key to its success is 6-foot, 7-inch Bernard Bresslaw, who nearly played Frankenstein’s monster in The Curse of Frankenstein. Bresslaw became familiar to British audiences as part of the original cast of TV’s The Army Game, which introduced the actor’s famous catchphrase, “I only arsked!” That catchphrase became the name of a film version of the TV show in 1958, likewise produced by Hammer. (And Bresslaw, as Henry, says this catchphrase during The Ugly Duckling as well.) Bresslaw later became part of the core of revolving players in the long-running Carry On film series.
The Ugly Duckling is remarkably character-driven in its first-half, allowing Bresslaw to fashion Henry as a well-meaning, loveable lug with an almost childlike personality—he talks to and sleeps with a golliwog. He causes his family a lot of grief, but audience sympathy is clearly on Henry’s side, thanks to Bresslaw’s fine performance. He also impresses as Teddy Hyde, with not much more than the addition of a pencil mustache-change to his appearance. Typecast as lumbering, naïve dimwits, Bresslaw’s transformation like surprised British audiences, while diminutive Jean Muir, playing Snouty, a young woman, something like a Cockney Liza Minnelli, clearly in love with Henry, adds to the film’s appeal, movie audiences hoping they’ll get together by the final fade-out.
Unfortunately, the film’s last third takes a sharp turn into broad slapstick, and Henry/Teddy as a characterization all but disappears for the rest of the picture, becoming subservient to the trite business with the gangsters and their jewel robbery. It’s all competently, adequately done, with some impressive matte work by Les Bowie, but one wishes the entire picture had stuck to the more character-driven story of the first two-thirds.
Like Warwick’s films from the same period, also co-financed by Columbia, music plays a big part in The Ugly Duckling’s appeal, with so much of it set in that airplane hangar-sized dance hall, featuring Joe Loss and His Orchestra, a big band that, incredibly, was active from 1919 to 1990. Probably using Loss as a draw, the production recruited hundreds of extras, making the film seem pretty lavish compared to the mostly Bray Studios-confined Hammer Horrors. These scenes offer a fascinating glimpse at a long-lost but once popular leisure activity.
The supporting cast also helps. Besides Pertwee, Richard Wattis plays a police inspector, Hammer regular Michael Ripper, Harold Goodwin, David Lodge, and Kevin Smith play Dandy’s henchmen, and Jess Conrad, later to star with Michael Gough in the notorious Konga (1961), is seen on the dance floor.
Part of Powerhouse Films’ Hammer Volume Seven: Ships & Giggles, the Region “B” encoded The Ugly Duckling is derived from a 4K restoration of the original 35mm camera negative. The 1.66:1 widescreen, black-and-white film certainly now looks pristine, with excellent detail, blacks, and contrast. The LPCM 1.0 mono is also excellent for what it is, supported by optional English subtitles. A UK premiere on Blu-ray.
The many fine extra features begin with Dancing the Cha-Cha-Cha, a 19-minute featurette boasting interviews with actors Jess Conrad, Geremy Phillips, and choreographer Lionel Blair. Also included are From Virtue to Vice, a 15-minute look at the career of director Lance Comfort by historian Robert Shail; A Tricky Beast, a 12-minute appreciation by Kevin Lyons; Infamously Fun, a 7-minute introduction to the film by author Stephen Laws; The BEHP Interview with Len Harris, an archival audio interview with the film’s camera operator; Up in the Air (1969), a 54-minute color and standard-frame film produced by the Children’s Film Foundation that features Jon Pertwee; and an image gallery.
The Digital Bits was sent only a check disc, and thus did not receive the 40-page booklet included.
The Ugly Duckling disappoints a little as it lumbers toward its overly familiar climax, but star Bernard Bresslaw’s performance raises the film’s quality considerably. A fun film and recommended.
- Stuart Galbraith IV