This is one of four Peter Sasdy films shown on local TV in the early 1980s when we still owned a black-and-white set and I was too young to be allowed to see them! Over the years, I managed to catch up with three of them: the film under review itself while in London in September 2002, TASTE THE BLOOD OF Dracula (1970) fairly recently on DivX and NOTHING BUT THE NIGHT (1972) just last week on DVD-R; the only one still eluding me is, reportedly, also the weakest of the bunch, I DON'T WANT TO BE BORN aka MONSTER (1975)
This is arguably Sasdy's best work for Hammer and I guess overall, too; similarly, Eric Porter's excellent performance is very underrated and among the best given in the studio's entire output. The film contains two very well-directed sequences: the slow build-up to the revelation of the first murder and the very last scene featuring the fatal leap off the balcony at the Whispering Corridors. The sleazy MP character (Derek Godfrey) and the opportunistic protector/medium (Dora Bryan) are two other well-rounded characterizations; on the other hand, those of Porter's son and blind fiancée (a wasted Jane Merrow) are bland and one-dimensional. In spite of its importance in establishing the girl's true identity, the doctor's second visit to a medium could perhaps have been altered to a different profession so that it does not seem reminiscent of the opening séance. Curiously enough, Hammer visited similar Jack The Ripper territory that same year in Roy Ward Baker's DR. JEKYLL AND SISTER HYDE; besides, while the murder of the proverbial kind-hearted whore is again well-staged, the generally clichéd portrayal of them borders on caricature.
The Network SE DVD features an Audio Commentary (which I've yet to listen to) and an episode of the 1970s THRILLER TV series featuring HANDS OF THE RIPPER's co-star Angharad Rees whose good and innocent looks are effectively deployed in the blank stare of the entranced protagonist.
This is arguably Sasdy's best work for Hammer and I guess overall, too; similarly, Eric Porter's excellent performance is very underrated and among the best given in the studio's entire output. The film contains two very well-directed sequences: the slow build-up to the revelation of the first murder and the very last scene featuring the fatal leap off the balcony at the Whispering Corridors. The sleazy MP character (Derek Godfrey) and the opportunistic protector/medium (Dora Bryan) are two other well-rounded characterizations; on the other hand, those of Porter's son and blind fiancée (a wasted Jane Merrow) are bland and one-dimensional. In spite of its importance in establishing the girl's true identity, the doctor's second visit to a medium could perhaps have been altered to a different profession so that it does not seem reminiscent of the opening séance. Curiously enough, Hammer visited similar Jack The Ripper territory that same year in Roy Ward Baker's DR. JEKYLL AND SISTER HYDE; besides, while the murder of the proverbial kind-hearted whore is again well-staged, the generally clichéd portrayal of them borders on caricature.
The Network SE DVD features an Audio Commentary (which I've yet to listen to) and an episode of the 1970s THRILLER TV series featuring HANDS OF THE RIPPER's co-star Angharad Rees whose good and innocent looks are effectively deployed in the blank stare of the entranced protagonist.