Ivy Pearson is a fictional character in the 1931

1931 in film

-Top grossing films:-Academy Awards:*Best Picture: Cimarron - MGM*Best Actor: Lionel Barrymore - A Free Soul*Best Actor: Wallace Beery - The Champ*Best Actor: Fredric March - Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde...

 horror film Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1931 film)

Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde is a 1932 American Pre-Code horror film directed by Rouben Mamoulian and starring Fredric March. The film is an adaptation of The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde , the Robert Louis Stevenson tale of a man who takes a potion which turns him from a mild-mannered man of...

portrayed originally by Miriam Hopkins

Miriam Hopkins

Ellen Miriam Hopkins was an American actress known for her versatility in a wide variety of roles.Hopkins was born in Savannah, Georgia, and raised in Bainbridge, a town in the state's southwest near the Alabama border...

. She was also played by Ingrid Bergman

Ingrid Bergman

Ingrid Bergman was a Swedish actress who starred in a variety of European and American films. She won three Academy Awards, two Emmy Awards, and the Tony Award for Best Actress. She is ranked as the fourth greatest female star of American cinema of all time by the American Film Institute...

 in the 1941

1941 in film

The year 1941 in film involved some significant events.-Events:Citizen Kane, consistently rated as one of the greatest films of all time, was released in 1941.-Top grossing films :-Academy Awards:...

 remake

Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1941 film)

Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde is a 1941 horror film starring Spencer Tracy, Ingrid Bergman and Lana Turner. Rather than being a new film version of the novel, it is a direct remake of the 1931 film of the same name, which differs greatly from the novel. The movie was based on Robert Louis Stevenson's...

.

Character Summary

Ivy Pearson is a prostitute who encounters the protagonist of the film; Dr. Jekyll one night after she had been assaulted by a client of hers. Jekyll helps her to get home where she then starts to seduce him by undressing and making suggestive implications. After they have spent the night together, Jekyll goes home where he starts working on a potion that ultimately transforms him into the monster like Mr. Hyde. As Mr. Hyde, he goes down to a bar where he encounters Ivy who obviously does not recognize him and fears the fiendish ogre man. It is out of this fear that she agrees to become his 'personal property' and is visited by Hyde several times later. When Hyde becomes Dr. Jekyll, he has no recollection of the things he does to Ivy and so one night when Ivy visits Jekyll for medical advice and confesses the awful things she is subjected to, it triggers a memory in Hyde's mind which is still slightly active even when Jekyll has not transformed into him. Now without taking the potion, Jekyll still transforms into Hyde and seeks Ivy for revenge for what he believes is a betrayal on her part. Hyde confronts Ivy and ultimately murders her.

Background

Miriam Hopkins

Miriam Hopkins

Ellen Miriam Hopkins was an American actress known for her versatility in a wide variety of roles.Hopkins was born in Savannah, Georgia, and raised in Bainbridge, a town in the state's southwest near the Alabama border...

 most famously portrayed Ivy Pearson in the 1931 film version of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Her performance was widely acclaimed and she is said to have stolen all of her scenes, even those that were with the film's star Fredric March

Fredric March

Fredric March was an American stage and film actor. He won the Academy Award for Best Actor in 1932 for Dr. Jekyll and Mr...

 who played both Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, and who won an Academy Award

Academy Award for Best Actor

Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role is one of the Academy Awards of Merit presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize an actor who has delivered an outstanding performance while working within the film industry...

 for his performance.

Hopkins's performance is considered the signature portrayal of Ivy; displaying sexual expression, degraded moral attitude and chilling fear. As a career move, her performance and the film on whole sent Hopkins to stardom and she became one of Hollywood's greatest actresses of the 1930s.

When Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde was remade in 1941, Ingrid Bergman

Ingrid Bergman

Ingrid Bergman was a Swedish actress who starred in a variety of European and American films. She won three Academy Awards, two Emmy Awards, and the Tony Award for Best Actress. She is ranked as the fourth greatest female star of American cinema of all time by the American Film Institute...

 played Ivy Pearson. In comparison to Miriam Hopkins's portrayal, Bergman was always going to be overshadowed. Nevertheless, she was still given praise for her part and her career in Hollywood blossomed shortly after.

The character of Ivy is the foundation for the role of Lucy Harris that was later created for the stage musical of the same name

Jekyll & Hyde (musical)

Jekyll & Hyde is a musical based on the novella Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson. The original stage conception was by Steve Cuden and Frank Wildhorn. The music is by Wildhorn and the lyrics and book are by Leslie Bricusse.The musical ran on Broadway for 1,543...

. The role of Lucy was originated on stage by actress Linda Eder

Linda Eder

Linda Eder is an American singer and actress. She made her Broadway debut in the musical Jekyll & Hyde, for which she received 1997 Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle Nominations, as well as the Theatre World Award for Best Actress in a Musical...

.