Ah, Jack the Ripper... Media's favorite and most notorious serial killer, and the subject of numerous pulp novels, pseudo-psychological thesis works, mini-series and an excessively wide variety of horror/cult films! If I got $1 for every Jack the Ripper themed movie I ever watched in my life, I would...well, at least be able to treat myself to a medium-large lunch at McDonald's! To keep things reasonably transparent, let's state there exist four main categories of Jack the Ripper film adaptations. The earliest ones are based on the novel "The Lodger" by Marie Belloc Lowndes and narrate from the viewpoint of an elderly couple that rent out a room to a sinister man whom they suspect is the Whitechapel murderer. The most famous version was the silent 1927 classic directed by none other than Alfred Hitchcock, but also the 1944 version by John Brahm or the 1953 film starring Jack Palance are very good. Much later, the persona of Jack the Ripper got linked to other iconic, but entirely fictional characters like Arthur C. Doyle's Sherlock Holmes ("A Study in Terror", "Murder by Decree") and Robert L. Stevenson's Dr. Jekyll ("Edge of Sanity", "Dr. Jekyll and Sister Hyde"). The more absurd but ingenious category of films plucks The Ripper out of 1888, and even London, and time-warp him to present day where he cheerfully continues his murder spree, like in "Time after Time", "Bridge across time" and, to a lesser extent, "Jack's Back". The fourth and last category often claims to be the most factual, although that is debatable, and convincingly claims that Jack the Ripper was a highly intelligent and prominent figure, like a surgeon, an artist or even a member of the royal family! "Hands of the Ripper" and especially "From Hell" are most famous, but also the obscure yet surprisingly "Jack the Ripper" homes in this group.

Although unknown and not doing too well at the box-office around its time of release "Jack the Ripper" is a fascinating little film with several atmospheric & downright unsettling moments, a nifty whodunit structure with a few red herrings, excellent use of settings, decors and shadows and a virulent climax to boot! Unless I'm mistaken, this is also the first film version in which the Ripper wears a long black cape and hat, and these accessories became prototypic since then. In this film, the misogynist killer corners his female victims in dark alleys and ask them if they are "Mary Clarke" before carving them up, anyways. What the film does exceptionally well is giving a face to the ripper's victims and forcing us, viewers, to sympathize with them. The barmaid, for instance, is a semi-heroine and the go-go dancer was an even bigger shock. Of course, there are also defaults in Hammer genius Jimmy Sangster's screenplay, like why was it necessary to drag an American inspector? The climax is phenomenal, and not just because it's a tense and morbid cat-and-mouse race, but also thanks to that one oddly peculiar moment in color, with thick red Jack the Ripper blood coming through the elevator floor.

A rather sordid and violent atmosphere prevents this B tale of real life murder and mayhem from becoming something that would have been acceptable for a late 1950's TV anthology show. It obviously doesn't ring any reality bells, but it's entertaining enough and fast paced to become a passable horror programmer.

The typical foggy atmosphere, slim gaslit cobblestone streets, and floozy streetwalkers are expected for the 1880's London atmosphere, and the actual attacks (unbloody fortunately) are appropriately horrifying. Typical public paranoia takes over for every stranger on the streets, including American detective Lee Patterson who is actually there by request to aide in the investigation.

The ripper is out to find someone named Mary Clark, heard whispering the name before he strikes. This script presumes to solve the cast, but 140 years later, there's no evidence of the real ripper's identity. My favorite ripper story is 1979's "Murder By Decree", with "Time After Time" a close second. 1944's "The Lodger" is also preferable to this which thanks to some good photography and a dramatic music score is just average.

Jack the Ripper stories are always rather fun. Historically, Saucy Jack killed (and mutilated in varying degrees) five known whores in Victorian England. They must have been easy prey, down and outers with bad teeth, alcohol problems, and no place to sleep. Then, too, the murders were never solved, so movie makers can dream up all kinds of plots to explain the heinous goings on. It was an actor. Or it was some mysterious lodger. Or it was Queen Victoria's psychopathic relative. Or it was Victoria herself in drag.

This film endorses the common belief that the Ripper was a man of medical knowledge. (It's a lot of horse hockey. It's like the speculation that Son of Sam was a draftsman or architect because his printing was neat.) In fact, Jack is a surgeon here -- Ewan Solon, as the mythical chief surgeon of some equally mythical hospital. John Le Mesurier provides a red herring as another surgeon, an edgy one, perhaps too fond of his niece, played by Betty McDowall. Assorted other characters provide color and texture to an interesting movie that offers the viewer a satisfactory climax in which Jack the Surgeon gets squashed in the shaft beneath an elevator descending to the morgue.

"We know who it was but we can never prove it," concludes the requisite police inspector, Eddie Byrne. Wouldn't it be pretty to think so.

It's fairly well done. The cobblestoned back streets of Whitechapel are effectively represented. The performances are all good, especially Solon's, and the characters well portrayed, except for the visiting American detective, Lee Patterson with his Elvis Presley do, put into the script presumably to appeal to American audiences.

Not bad, if not exactly original or surprising in any way.