Jack the Ripper - the harlot murderer of London

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Movie
German title Jack the Ripper - the harlot murderer of London
Original title Jack the Ripper
Country of production Federal Republic of Germany , Switzerland
original language German
Publishing year 1976
length 82/92 (uncut) minutes
Age rating FSK 16 (cut) / 18 (uncut)
Rod
Director Jess Franco
script Jess Franco
production Erwin C. Dietrich
Max Dora
music Walter Baumgartner
camera Peter Baumgartner
Peter Spoerri
cut Marie-Luise Buschke
occupation

Jack the Ripper is a horror film by Spanish filmmaker Jess Franco from 1976, which is loosely based on the crime of the same name from Victorian England.

action

The doctor Dr. Dennis Orloff leads a secret double life. While he devotedly cares for his mostly needy patients in his practice during the day, at night he sneaks through the streets of London as a harlot known by the press as " Jack the Ripper ".

One evening another prostitute is attacked and murdered on her way home from Orloff. The only witness is an old, blind man, so he spares him and drags the body away. In an old greenhouse he dismembered the body and threw it into the Thames.
The next morning, casual worker Charlie, one of Orloff's patients, fishes a woman's hand out of the river and takes it to the police in the hope of a reward. Shortly after him, the blind man also arrives to make his statement. Although he could not see the murderer, his other senses are very fine and so he can present the responsible inspector Selby with an almost complete profile of the perpetrator. According to this, the perpetrator is a socially superior person with fine clothing, as he has recognized the smell of the expensive material that the murderer's coat is made of. He could also be a medic, as the stranger has a smell of alcohol, such as that used to disinfect surgical instruments. Meanwhile, Cynthia, Inspector Selby's fiancée, has a plan of her own to support her future husband. Disguised as a prostitute, she also roams the streets to attract the ripper's attention.

In the meantime, Orloff suffers from bad nightmares that always precede his urge to kill. He dreams of his mother, who was a prostitute herself and who sexually assaulted him at a young age. This trauma has sparked an irrepressible hatred for women in general and prostitutes in particular. On his foray into London's entertainment district, he is watched by Charlie, who remembers the description of the blind man and now sees an opportunity to extort Orloff for money. However, his plan does not work, Orloff kills him and hides the body in the attic, where it is discovered by Miss Higgins, the doctor's landlady.

While the police investigate the scene and finally the connection between Dr. Orloff and Jack the Ripper discovered, the latter has already found his next victim in Cynthia.
He takes her to the old greenhouse, where he starts addressing her as " mother " and tries to rape her. At this moment, the police storm the scene and arrest Orloff, who surrenders without resistance, but denies being Jack the Ripper.

production

With the help of director Jess Franco, producer Erwin C. Dietrich succeeded for the first time in recruiting Klaus Kinski, who was extremely popular at the time, as an actor. The film didn't do badly when it hit the international big screen. As a video, it was available in numerous legal and illegal editions. The Ufa edition was indexed on December 18, 1982.

Reviews

  • The film service ruled: “Franco relies entirely on the London fog, in which the dramaturgy and tension disappear almost without a trace. In addition, there is cheap sex and badly charging actors. "
  • Statement by Klaus Kinski on Jack the Ripper: I choose the Swiss film Jack The Ripper in Zurich. I'll turn that shit off in eight days. The rest of the time I play tennis, even in the pouring rain, until my hands and feet are bleeding and I can't walk or stand because of blisters. - [I need love 1991, pp. 321–322]

Individual evidence

  1. Benedikt Eppenberger, Daniel Stapfer: Girls, Machos and Moneten. The incredible story of the Swiss cinema entrepreneur Erwin C. Dietrich , Verlag Scharfe Stiefel, 2006, pp. 106-107
  2. rrh in Filmdienst , quoted from Ronald M. Hahn , Volker Jansen : Lexikon des Horrorfilms . Lübbe-Verlag, Bergisch Gladbach 1989, ISBN 3-404-13175-4 , p. 248.

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