Hands Of The Ripper [1971] [DVD]

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This English production was directed by Peter Sasdy & was presumably an attempt by Hammer studios to try something different from it's well know Dracula & Frankenstein series of films, personally I really liked it for what it was even though I know it's not that well known or thought of that highly which is a shame. The script by L.W. Davidson was based on a short printed story by Edward Spencer Shew & seems to take itself very seriously which I thought it just about got away with, the basic concept is rather far fetched & silly but I thought it worked quite well & was something a bit different even if it unfolds in a slightly predictable & linear way. Some of the character's are a bit underdeveloped & some of them are a bit dull but that's probably how people behaved in Victorian London. The film moves along at a nice pace & is never boring plus it has a nice ending which seemed very fitting. The only thing which didn't really work for me was that it didn't take much for Anna to go into here trance & be possessed & since it was so easy why had it never happened before? Oh & I personally wouldn't let a person who had just slit my maids throat in cold blood walk around my house & do whatever she wanted especially while my family was there! Visiting a medium with some friends, psychoanalyses Dr. John Pritchard discovers that the sounds of the "spirits" have actually been made by a girl called Anna,who was hidden away from view.Leaving with the group,Pitchard notices an MP enter the building,and pay to have sex with Anna,in what Pitchard realises is a secret brothel.Waiting round for his carriage (as you do!) Pitchard hears a blood curdling scream.Rushing in,Pitchard is horrified to find that Anna has brutally killed the medium. For a start, it presented detectives with a detailed description of the Ripper. Catherine was seen talking to a 30-year-old man dressed shabbily and sporting a peaked cap. Eine mögliche Auflösung der Ripper-Morde hat mich schon immer interessiert, auch wenn mir klar ist, dass es DIE eine Lösung wohl nie mehr geben wird. Sogar mit den neuesten DNA-Technologien kommt man dem Ganzen nach all der Zeit nicht eindeutig auf die Spur. Trotzdem macht es mir Spaß, mich auf die vielen Theorien einzulassen - auch wenn manche davon eher sehr weit hergeholt sind. It seemed to me that the relationship between the two felt a lot like the relationship between Dr. Frankenstein and his monster, at least towards the end of the film. Although Pritchard didn’t “Create” Anna he certainly didn’t really try to stop her and began to look at her as a father would his daughter. And in doing so, Pritchard also protected her much as a father would his daughter as well (At least until the end when he makes his feelings quite clear to Anna and the audience).

At the police station the police inspector [Norman Bird] interviews those people who were at the séance. He is puzzled because it would have taken a very strong person to impale Mrs Golding. He establishes that Mr & Mrs Wilson left first, followed by Pritchard and Michael, but no-one saw Dysart leave. Although Pritchard knows the truth, he saves Dysart's embarrassment by stating it could have been possible for Dysart to leave shortly afterwards without anyone seeing him and that he does not believe Dysart was the man he saw leaving after the murder.On October 7, 1888, Lloyd’s Weekly Newspaper reported: “On Tuesday night a labouring man, giving the name of John Kelly, 55, Flower and Dean Street – a common lodging house – entered the Bishopsgate Street Police Station, and stated that he believed that the woman who had been murdered in Mitre-square was his ‘wife’. Also arbeitet sich das Vater-Sohn-Gespann durch die zugänglichen Dokumente, um diesen Verdacht "ehrlich, genau und fehlerfrei" zu belegen. Das Ergebnis ihrer scheinbar *fruchtbaren* Forschung ist in diesem an sich überschaubar langen Buch zusammengetragen. As a take on the Ripper story, this doesn't really work. As usual the prostitutes on display here are mainly glamour types with little attention to veracity (a few matronly ladies do make it into the mix) and Eric Porter's Freudian Doctor is surely the most misguided psychoanalyst ever put on screen, even disposing of the bodies when Anna kills.

On September 29, 1888, the day before her murder, Eddowes was supposed to travel to Bermondsey to borrow money from her daughter. Eddowes’ partner, a man named John Kelly, had parted ways with her that afternoon. He planned to reunite with her later in the evening. In answer to questions, he stated that the last time he saw her – referring to her as Kate – was on Saturday afternoon. He left her, believing that she would return to him at the lodging house in Flower and Dean Street. At a séance the now grown-up Anna [Angharad Rees] assists her foster mother, the medium Mrs Golding [Dora Bryan], by pretending to be the voice of a spirit communicating with the dead child of a couple, Mr & Mrs Wilson [Barry Lowe & Elizabeth MacLennan]. However, she becomes upset midway through and stops speaking so the medium is forced to finish prematurely. As the guests prepare to leave, one of them, the sceptical Dr. Pritchard [Eric Porter], notices Anna's foot underneath a curtain and stands on it, revealing the hidden Anna. As they leave, Pritchard confides his disgust of charlatans like Mrs Golding to his son Michael [Keith Bell]. Wikimedia Commons The infamous “From Hell” letter, which was sent to the Whitechapel Vigilance Committee on October 16, 1888. At a railway station, Michael meets his blind fiancée Laura [Jane Merrow] and they return to the Pritchard's house.

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See? I heard that on Criminal Minds but still googled it to make sure. This is called 'research' and is something the author should have done more of. Hands Of The Ripper is one of the strongest films ever released by Hammer if you’re judging it on it’s violence. Anna slashes throats, impales bodies and stabs eyes out of heads with a vigor rarely seen by an actress in a horror film from any studio. The beautiful Rees gives Anna a near childlike quality (When she’s not murdering anyone) that makes her eventual fate all the more tragic. Her eyes glaze over most convincingly as she hears her father’s voice urging her to kill again & again & again! Porter, who appeared in one of my favorite Hammer films of all time (“The Lost Continent” 1968) gives an extremely measured performance as Dr. Pritchard in which the relationship between himself and Anna begins as a professional one (He’s just heard of a doctor named Freud (!) who’s done some groundbreaking work on the human psyche) but the lines begin to fade etween the two of them as the film continues with Pritchard actually enabling Anna in her murderous ways by not admitting to the police that she’s the killer. The big finale, with Eric Porter coaxing Ms Rees into a spectacular deathfall from the uppermost ("Whispering") gallery of St. Paul's cathedral seems operatic in its grandeur and effect, yet solemn and touching as well. Trotzdem lässt sich die Theorie relativ schlüssig lesen und man ist leicht versucht, ihr Glauben zu schenken. Ich halte die Möglichkeit eines weiblichen oder gar als Frau verkleideten Rippers für durchaus denkbar. Vielleicht war sogar ein Duo aus Mann und Frau am Werk - wer weiß?! This being a Hammer film, however, there has to be a more complex explanation for Anna's criminality. Although Pritchard as a scientific rationalist would disdain any supernatural explanation for evil, it transpires that Anna is possessed by her father's spirit and that he is using her as a vehicle to carry out further murders from beyond the grave. Pritchard is guilty of the sin of hubris- the hubris of believing that his scientific methods can cure her- and he therefore has to accept the moral responsibility when Anna, contrary to his confident predictions, does indeed kill again.