While there are certainly a few low budget cheap thrills to be found in this horror/mystery flick, there’s also a certain grainy “charm” to be found in 1959’s Jack The Ripper that makes it worth at least, a curious watch. It’s a mostly pedestrian affair, but not at all what I’d call a “biopic” or anything remotely close to that. In a way, it’s like cross between an episode of Quantum Leap with a transplanted New York City detective (and his modern 1959 haircut) attempting to solve the Ripper case, which gets in the way of most of the actual facts of the case. Granted, this is more of a quickie popcorn flick than anything else, but thanks to the Severin Films version, there are two cuts of the film to enjoy. One is the censored American cut and the other is the saucier foreign version that adds a bit of topless nudity and a cat fight (rowr!) scene. I picked up both versions last year (oddly, the US print cost more that the import)
Oh, and the film is as predictable as a hefty sneeze after snorting a handful of black pepper. There are “suspense” sequences that aren’t suspenseful, too many obvious suspects, a stalky chase through a foggy area that’s just padding between murders and so forth and so on. Not to knock the transfer quality, (he said, knocking the transfer quality), but, this is film that suffers from being far too dark in some areas and a tad too grainy in others. But if you can deal with the opening sequence, you can handle the rest. There’s a neat color sequence at the end of the American cut that kind of makes up for the near total lack of fake blood spilled in the film, but the nudity in the other cut isn’t exactly what I’d call “kid friendly”.
So, yep- this isn’t the best film of it’s type an you’re certainly not going to learn a thing here you already didn’t see in better Ripper flicks, but some will be all in on what bit of ground it does cover, unless they’re too darn picky about facts and such. As long as you go in blind, you should at least be entertained. Just don’t wear your Deestalker hat at all- you’re not going to over-roast a brain cell figuring out the killer here.
-GW
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