The elegant, venerable Dr. Jekyll creates a substance in his laboratory that brings out the evil in man and with which he transforms himself into the diminutive, malevolent Mr. Hyde. But he soon loses control of his alter ego. John S. Robertson's film adaptation of Robert Louis Stevenson's famous novel with the never enough praised John Barrymore in the double leading role was already the tenth film adaptation of the material, whereby elements of Oscar Wilde's novel "The Picture of Dorian Grey" are additionally incorporated here. Brilliantly staged and virtuously acted are the moments when the protagonist loses control and Mr. Hyde gains the upper hand.

Even before Frankenstein and Dracula, there was the Phantom. Rupert Julian's The Phantom of the Opera is inspired by Gothic fairy tales like Beauty and the Beast and Bluebeard, but also by the disfigured veterans of the First World War. It anticipates both superheroes and psychotics, with future grand masters of horror film like Alfred Hitchcock celebrating its monstrous reveal, the moment of unmasking and horror, over and over again. The leading role of the deformed phantom who terrifies the Paris Opera House is played by Lon Chaney, the man of a thousand faces. The gruesome make-up he himself spent many hours applying was kept a top studio secret until the premiere of the film.