Jack the Ripper - The Monster of London

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Movie
German title Jack the Ripper - The Monster of London
Original title Jack the Ripper
Country of production Great Britain
original language English
Publishing year 1988
length 182 minutes
Age rating FSK 16
Rod
Director David Wickes
script Derek Marlowe ,
David Wickes
production Al Burgess ,
Leonard Hill ,
David Wickes
music John Cameron
camera Alan Hume
cut Keith Palmer
occupation

Jack the Ripper - The Monster of London is a two-part miniseries filmed for television from 1988 and thematizes the unsolved crime of " Jack the Ripper " from 1888. Michael Caine played the leading role as an investigator.

action

On August 31, 1888, the prostitute Mary Ann Nichols was found murdered. This murder differs significantly from the usual violence in the London poor district of Whitechapel , as the woman's throat was cut with almost medical precision and then the abdomen was opened, according to the autopsy report . Scotland Yard's Inspector Frederick Abberline is tasked with solving the case, which is said to be filed unusually quickly.

The investigation leads Abberline and his partner Sergeant Godley to a number of suspects, including the American actor Richard Mansfield, who is currently working on a hugely successful production of Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde is a guest in London and privately hangs out in the city's entertainment districts. The suspicion against Mansfield is initially confirmed after Robert Lees - the royal fortune teller - declares that he had a vision in which the killer was a man with two faces, which goes very well with the current role of the actor. Abberline is investigating the police doctor Llewellyn, who did not mention the mutilation of the abdomen in his first report. To move forward with creating a perpetrator profile, Abberline seeks advice from Queen Victoria's personal physician , Sir William Gull , who explains that the killer is believed to be someone with a split personality who may not even be aware of what he was doing. He calls this form of mental disorder dementia praecox .

The public unrest is fueled by the lurid reports of reporter Bates and the inflammatory speeches of politically active George Lusk. In this general mess, the killer can commit another act. The prostitute Annie Chapman was discovered on September 8th with her throat slit in a backyard, this time the victim's entrails were cut out and placed around the shoulders. The police are now receiving numerous letters of confession from pomposity, one of which stands out in particular. The letter in question contains numerous details that only the real murderer can know and is signed " Jack the Ripper ", which is eagerly cannibalized by the press.

The situation comes to a head when two prostitutes lose their lives on the night of September 30th. With Elizabeth Stride , the killer was obviously disturbed, because she only had the obligatory slit throat, but is otherwise unharmed. Catherine Eddowes is all the worse for this, the ripper had slashed her face in addition to the usual mutilations. The Abberline and Godley investigations are also being weighed down by the fact that superiors are clearing evidence at the scene to prevent civil unrest.

The interior minister is equally angry about the constant failures of the police and the unrest among the people. Especially because he is concerned about the monarchy, as the heir to the throne Prince Albert Victor also regularly visits London's entertainment district and he now fears a scandal. The Minister calls for the resignation of Police Chief Sir Charles Warren to give in to public pressure to innovate the investigation. The communist rushing embossed Lusk citizens of Whitechapel during which continue on. He wants a revolution.

Abberlines and Godley's investigations have since revealed that the killer must have a helper and is traveling in a carriage, as the crime scenes of victims number 3 and 4 are too far apart to be reached on foot in such a short time. When they are looking for a possible carriage, they notice the coachman John Netley , who boasts that he is allowed to drive important medical professionals. He also claims to have medical knowledge himself. Shortly afterwards, on November 9th, the completely dismembered body of the young prostitute Mary Jane Kelly was found. After this brutal murder, Abberline arrests Netley and puts him under such pressure that he actually makes a confession. Now it's time to set a trap for the murderer. When Netley picks him up and later lures another prostitute to a carriage on a side street in Whitechapel, Abberline and Godley can intervene at the last moment.

It turns out that Sir William Gull is the killer. He is obviously insane and screams and rages that he is being disturbed in his experiment. He also manages to tear himself away, but Godley can thwart his attempt to escape. Gull falls and sustains a serious head injury.

According to the attending physician, Gull is unlikely to regain consciousness because the injury caused severe cerebral hemorrhage. His son-in-law can shed some light on Sir William's motive: some time ago he suffered a stroke and has occasionally shown signs of a personality disorder since then. He studied mental illness and concluded that one must study madness to understand it, which is why he was more brutal from one murder to the next.

In order to avoid a public scandal in this time of general unrest, in which the British royal family is indirectly involved, the Jack the Ripper case is put on the files as "unsolved" by Police Chief Sir Charles Warren before he resigns and Sir William Gull, as the Queen of England's personal physician, will not be held responsible for his crimes.

Reviews

"The English TV film delivers a murderer, the real case has never been clarified beyond doubt."

“Using original files, the brilliantly photographed, intensely played television film reconstructs the case, which has not yet been resolved, and embeds it in an atmospheric picture of London at that time; he comes to the conclusion that the Queen's personal physician was the murderer, which is only one of the hypotheses surrounding "Jack the Ripper". "

Awards and nominations

DVD release

  • Jack the Ripper , I-On New Media - September 27, 2004

Others

  • Barry Foster was supposed to play the role of Inspector Abberline and has already filmed a few scenes. As a result of a reshuffle, Michael Caine took over the part and the relevant scenes were repeated.
  • Originally, four different endings were shot for the film to keep both the cast, the staff - and especially - the press in the dark about who Jack the Ripper really should be.
  • To this day, there has been countless speculation and numerous suspects about the true identity of Jack the Ripper . The ending of the TV miniseries ultimately used takes up the theory that the ripper was Sir William Gull , Queen Victoria's personal physician .
  • Actor Hugh Fraser wore clothes belonging to the real Sir Charles Warren during the shoot.
  • Armand Assante's double died while filming.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. Jack the Ripper - The Monster of London. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed March 2, 2017 .Template: LdiF / Maintenance / Access used