History and Ownership
When Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer remade the film 10 years later with Spencer Tracy in the lead, the studio bought the rights to the 1931 Mamoulian version. They then recalled every print of the that they could locate and for decades most of the film was believed lost. Ironically, the Tracy version was much less well received and March jokingly sent Tracy a telegram thanking him for the greatest boost to his reputation of his entire career.
As a result of MGM's purchase of this film, it is not owned by Universal Studios, which owns most pre-1950 Paramount sound features (and who has produced a popular line of horror films). Instead, MGM held on to the film for 45 years. The film passed on to Turner Entertainment after Ted Turner's short-lived acquisition of MGM, and then to Warner Bros. when Time Warner bought out Turner. Since then, Warner Home Video has released this film on DVD along with the 1941 version. Technically, Turner still owns the copyright, but Warner Brothers handles sales and distribution for all Turner-owned titles.
Read more about this topic: Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde (1931 film)
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