JACK THE RIPPER (1958) Standard Edition Blu-ray
Director: Robert S. Baker & Monty Berman
Severin Films

Severin Films puts JACK THE RIPPER back on the streets to slash again with their standard edition Blu-ray.

Jack the Ripper has been murdering prostitutes in London's East End and public confidence in the police has never been lower. Scotland Yard kowtows to publicity-minded Parliament, the local toughs are ready to string up any stranger who even asks about the Ripper, and the local police have given up having home lives. Harried Inspector O'Neill (Eddie Byrne, ISLAND OF TERROR) welcomes help from New York colleague Sam Lowry (Lee Patterson, CHATO'S LAND) who has been sent to observe. When Sir David Rogers (Ewen Solon, Hammer's HOUND OF THE BASKERVILLES) of the local hospital performs post-mortems on the victims and determines that the slashes were surgical in their precision, suspicions turn towards their own, including Dr. Tranter (John Le Mesurier, DAD'S ARMY) who is often late to surgeries rushing in from house calls, cheerful seeming Dr. Urquhart (Garard Green, THE CRAWLING EYE), and scarred, mute attendant Benz (Endre Muller) who embarrasses Tranter by proving him wrong when he is ready to give up on a lifesaving operation. O'Neill and Lowry are at pains to connect the victims apart from their profession, but Tranter's ward Ann (Betty McDowall, THE OMEN) may have stumbled upon the link while performing social work and puts herself in the killer's sights.

One of a string of lower budget Hammer competitors – with a script by moonlighting Jimmy Sangster (A TASTE OF FEAR) – from Robert S. Baker and Monty Berman that included the early "Burke and Hare" dramatization THE FLESH AND THE FIENDS, BLOOD OF THE VAMPIRE, THE CRAWLING EYE, and THE HELLFIRE CLUB after turning towards the genre along with the former studio after a more diversified output in the late forties and early fifties, JACK THE RIPPER was one of the first British film dramatizations in which the historical events as reported through the tabloid press were not further filtered through Marie Belloc Lowndes' novel "The Lodger" and its various stage and film adaptations (including 1953's MAN IN THE ATTIC and Hammer's own ROOM TO LET). There have been many conspiracy theories as to the identity of Jack the Ripper – including the notion that he was entirely a tabloid invention based on a couple unrelated murders – but Baker and Berman forgo the connections to the Royal Family of some other later adaptations in favor of a seemingly more personal motive as the killer asks each victim, "Is your name Mary Clark?" before murdering them, and it's really no better or worse than some of the other filmed theories (Mary Clark was reportedly the name of the final victim). Some social commentary is offered up with Ann being the one to suggest that the police would be more interested in the murders if the victims were not prostitutes, while even O'Neill comments that the killer's hunt for this Mary Clark does not justify the killings of innocents. Anyone paying attention will have guessed the identity of the killer long before we learn the identity of Mary Clark and what she means to the killer. There is some murderously bad supporting acting while the leads are simply bland. Baker and Berman as co-cinematographers lend the film a suitably fogbound atmosphere that recalls THE HUMAN MONSTER and looks forward to THE AWFUL DR. ORLOF and THE DEAD EYES OF LONDON, but the following year's THE FLESH AND THE FIENDS in which the producers/cinematographers turned directing reins over to John Gilling (PLAGUE OF THE ZOMBIES) was a far more effective British gothic (and probably lead to Hammer hiring Gilling for SHADOW OF THE CAT).

Released theatrically stateside by Paramount Pictures with some changes imposed by future Embassy Pictures founder Joseph E. Levine, JACK THE RIPPER has largely been out of circulation apart from gray market releases from the likes of Something Weird Video and Sinister Cinema. Like other Baker and Berman productions, JACK THE RIPPER was prepared in domestic and continental versions, with the latter screened in France and recently released on DVD there in only fair quality. In the case of JACK THE RIPPER, the British version was subject to some BBFC trims while the American version replaced the original so-so score by Stanley Black (CITY IN THE SEA) with a brassier one by Jimmy McHugh ("I'm in the Mood for Love") and Pete Rugolo (THE FUGITIVE), changed the title sequence (moving most of the technical credits to the end), added some ballyhoo narration over the opening Paramount logo, and restored a brief Technicolor insert of blood bubbling through floorboards to the climax ordered cut by the BBFC.

Severin Films presents JACK THE RIPPER in both UK (81:05) and US (85:04) versions. The finer-looking UK cut was derived from an HD telecine prepared in 2005 which side-matted the image to 1.33:1 (the credits were then matted to 1.66:1) while the rougher-looking US version comes from a 35mm print from the Library of Congress and is framed at 1.66:1. The UK version is in better condition overall and the cropping of the sides is only occasionally ruinous when the full width of the frame. Both versions include LPCM 2.0 mono tracks in variable to generally okay condition, although one wonders how it might have sounded before digital cleanup as the optional English SDH subtitles (available on the UK version only) fall back on "(mumbles)" too often for perfectly intelligible lines of dialogue. The Black Friday limited edition version of this package included a bonus DVD featuring a reconstruction of the continental version (81:46) utilizing the fullscreen British master and the uncovered, alternate, and extended footage from the French DVD, the footage can also be seen on the standard DVD in a self-contained segment (10:56) in the extras.

The British version is accompanied by an audio commentary by co-director/co-producer/co-cinematographer Robert S. Baker, screenwriter Jimmy Sangster, and assistant director Peter Manley, moderated by Marcus Hearn (Sangster died in 2011 so presumably the track was recorded for a Dark Sky Films/MPI DVD that never materialized). Hearn provides information on the Whitechapel murders as well as the production while Baker discusses some of his inspirations – taking the tilted camera signifying danger from THE THIRD MAN – and notes that the censors prevented previous adaptations from using the name Jack the Ripper, Sangster was more interested in a good story than historical accuracy in noting that adding an American character was almost essential in such productions (and he does regard the Ripper as much a myth as Dracula or Frankenstein). They also discuss some of the various speculative Ripper theories as well as one involving a prostitute named Mary Kelly that makes more explicit what is implied in the film.

"Denis Meikle on JACK THE RIPPER" (10:33) provides more background on the case, previous film adaptations including the various THE LODGER films and G.W. Pabst's PANDORA'S BOX, Leonard Matters' influential book that posited the killer as vengeful doctor, Sangster's light research, the unlikeliness that one man committed all six of the killings, and Baker and Berman looking to famous British crimes when they turned their production company towards horror. "Gentleman Jack: The Whitechapel Murders Revisited" (13:31) is another background featurette but focuses more on the societal effect of the Ripper murders on British society of the period along with an account of each of the documented victims with gory details, sketches, and forensic photographs. The American theatrical trailer (2:28) is included along with a poster & stills gallery (4:11). (Eric Cotenas)

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