Jack the Ripper starts at the 'Pike's Hole' a whore house in the London district of Whitechapel as one of the girls Sally Brown (Francine Custer) rejects the advances of a client due to his unusual request & trudges off home on her own. While walking down the narrow back streets Sally is attacked & murdered by the now notorious serial killer known as 'Jack the Ripper' (Klaus Kinski) who then takes the body to his female assistant Frieda (Nikola Weisse) who disposes of the messy remains the next morning in the Thames. Chief Inspector Anthony Selby (Andreas Mannkopff) of Scotland Yard is on the case but totally baffled & clueless. His only witnesses are a blind man named John Pritchard (Hans Gaugler) who seems able to identify the Ripper by use of smell, an old woman named Miss Higgins (Ursula van Wiese), a fisherman named Charlie (Herbery Fux) who has found a severed hand & a couple of whores whose friend Jeanny (Esther Studer) has become the latest victim of the Ripper's killing spree. Inspector Selby starts to feel the pressure & has next to nothing to go on, feeling neglected his girlfriend Cynthia (Josephine Chaplin) decides to help him out. Cynthia dresses up as a whore & puts herself about hoping that she will attract the attentions of Jack the Ripper...
This Swiss German co-production was written & directed by Jesus Franco & while a lot classier than his usual output his take on Jack the Ripper isn't particularly good. The script & how Franco approaches the story is a problem for starter, the identity of Jack the Ripper is revealed within the first few minutes so there is no mystery element whatsoever which then basically turns the film into a slasher like Halloween (1978) or Friday the 13th (1980). Franco never really develops any aspect of his script to any degree of satisfaction, the incompetent Selby comes & goes & doesn't do much, the blackmailing of the Ripper is given a few minutes & nothing more, nothing about his assistant is explained like the small matter of why she helps him, Cynthia for most of the film doesn't feature until the end where she offers herself up as bait which raises questions in itself. Why? What if she did meet the Ripper? No one knew what she was doing so why wouldn't he just slice her up like his other victims? No one she knew was threatened by the Ripper so why go it alone & risk her life? The only connection she has to the case is that her boyfriend was working on it, not good enough motivation for me I'm afraid. There are obvious glaring inaccuracies as well, this is definitely not based on any solid evidence & feels like a slasher film with Jack the Ripper as the killer, nothing more. The Swiss locations double up as Victorian London surprisingly well except for the Thames for which Franco uses a stream & as someone who lives in the UK these scenes are actually quite funny to me. The film has an end which feels rushed & as a whole the film is far too slow & frankly dull while the Ripper's motivations are barely touched upon & are lazy & unoriginal to say the least. Director Franco has gained a reputation for sleaze so it may come as a surprise that Jack the Ripper is disappointingly tame, there are three or four scenes with nudity & only one big gore scene when the Ripper stabs a woman, starts to have sex with her & slices her breast off, other than that there is a severed hand, an eyeball & a couple of stabbings. On the positive side it's very well made for a Franco film & he shows that he does have at least some basic talent behind the camera if he puts the effort in. The cinematography by Peter Baumgartner & Peter Spoerri is very good for the most part with some excellent & atmospheric location shots plus a strong sense & use of colour throughout. The sets are convincing enough & pleasantly detailed while the costumes look a little suspicious like Franco stole or hired them from a local fancy dress shop but serve the film well. The dialogue & dubbing are ridiculous & totally remove any credibility the film may have had, people just don't naturally talk like this & you have to listen to some of this stuff to believe it. Basically the story isn't great, it just didn't grip or engage me as we all know who the Ripper is from the start. It's very slow, has a low body count with just three & very little exploitation with barely any nudity or gore & just didn't do much for me overall although having said that it's fairly watchable if your desperate. Stylish & well made but nothing special, probably just about worth a watch I suppose.
This Swiss German co-production was written & directed by Jesus Franco & while a lot classier than his usual output his take on Jack the Ripper isn't particularly good. The script & how Franco approaches the story is a problem for starter, the identity of Jack the Ripper is revealed within the first few minutes so there is no mystery element whatsoever which then basically turns the film into a slasher like Halloween (1978) or Friday the 13th (1980). Franco never really develops any aspect of his script to any degree of satisfaction, the incompetent Selby comes & goes & doesn't do much, the blackmailing of the Ripper is given a few minutes & nothing more, nothing about his assistant is explained like the small matter of why she helps him, Cynthia for most of the film doesn't feature until the end where she offers herself up as bait which raises questions in itself. Why? What if she did meet the Ripper? No one knew what she was doing so why wouldn't he just slice her up like his other victims? No one she knew was threatened by the Ripper so why go it alone & risk her life? The only connection she has to the case is that her boyfriend was working on it, not good enough motivation for me I'm afraid. There are obvious glaring inaccuracies as well, this is definitely not based on any solid evidence & feels like a slasher film with Jack the Ripper as the killer, nothing more. The Swiss locations double up as Victorian London surprisingly well except for the Thames for which Franco uses a stream & as someone who lives in the UK these scenes are actually quite funny to me. The film has an end which feels rushed & as a whole the film is far too slow & frankly dull while the Ripper's motivations are barely touched upon & are lazy & unoriginal to say the least. Director Franco has gained a reputation for sleaze so it may come as a surprise that Jack the Ripper is disappointingly tame, there are three or four scenes with nudity & only one big gore scene when the Ripper stabs a woman, starts to have sex with her & slices her breast off, other than that there is a severed hand, an eyeball & a couple of stabbings. On the positive side it's very well made for a Franco film & he shows that he does have at least some basic talent behind the camera if he puts the effort in. The cinematography by Peter Baumgartner & Peter Spoerri is very good for the most part with some excellent & atmospheric location shots plus a strong sense & use of colour throughout. The sets are convincing enough & pleasantly detailed while the costumes look a little suspicious like Franco stole or hired them from a local fancy dress shop but serve the film well. The dialogue & dubbing are ridiculous & totally remove any credibility the film may have had, people just don't naturally talk like this & you have to listen to some of this stuff to believe it. Basically the story isn't great, it just didn't grip or engage me as we all know who the Ripper is from the start. It's very slow, has a low body count with just three & very little exploitation with barely any nudity or gore & just didn't do much for me overall although having said that it's fairly watchable if your desperate. Stylish & well made but nothing special, probably just about worth a watch I suppose.