Hands of the Ripper

(UK)

Hammer. Dir Peter Sasdy; Producer Aida Young; Screenplay L.W. Davidson; Camera Kenneth Talbot; Editor Christopher Barnes; Music Christopher Gunning Art Dir Roy Stannard

Eric Porter
Angharad Rees
Jane Merrow
Keith Bell
Derek Godfrey
Dora Bryan

Hammer breaks away from its vampires and monster formula and gives a highly intriguing twist [from a story by Edward Spencer Shaw] to the Jack the Ripper murders which shook London back in the 1890s and have fascinated writers and filmmakers. Well-directed by Peter Sasdy, the tension is skillfully developed. Murders are particularly gruesome and there are shocks that will have the most hardened filmgoer sitting up.

The suggestion is that Jack the Ripper, who murdered prostitutes, killed his wife to stop her denouncing him in front of their three-year-old daughter, and vanished, returning years later supernaturally to force her to murder most viciously.

It is a glossy, well-mounted production, admirably performed by a first-rate cast. Angharad Rees makes the pretty killer entirely credible.

(Color) Available on VHS. Extract of a review from 1971. Running time: 85 MIN.

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