cinema lane

Although the ending of Hitchcocks Lodger appears to give the impression that Novello is not the Ripper.I feel that the repeating of the Golden Curls sequence which heralded the first murder, at the end of the movie is in fact an indicator that he may be and that he just has not been found out yet.

dremble wedge

The Ruling Class with Peter O'Toole.

yankfilmbuff

I've always been interested in "The Ripper" both from a historical perspective and as a subject for films. I'm surprised that , unless I missed it, nobody mentioned the film "Jack The Ripper" (1988) starring Michael Caine, Jane Seymour and Armand Assante. It was released as a two-part TV movie in the U.S. and I don't know how it was released over there. I always thought it was well done. Still, I think that my favorite is "Time After Time".

batman

It was a British production and premiered on the night of one of the murders. The production is OK except for the ridiculous denouement. It simply played out the popular theory of the time. Virtually the same plot features in Bob Clark's excellent Murder by Decree which has Sherlock Holmes instead of Inspector Abberline.

I wish I had claws.

Windthrop

It was made with American money and there was some controversy at the time because the original script was said to have been 'spoiled' to please the American audiences - dialogue simplified and some sensationalising of the more gruesome aspects. Four endings were shot and only the production team were aware of which character was the 'Ripper' and the 'correct' ending was inserted during the broadcast. I thought it was better than the Caine Jekyll and Hyde from the same team but there were some rather pointless fight scenes which looked like they had been included to give Lewis Collins something to do.

Winner of'There Is Nothing Like A Dame' Quiz revealed

scholes

Isn't "From Hell" worth a mention?
I thought it was rather good.

batman

I always seem to be disagreeing with you scholes!

I didn't like it at all. I like Depp and love 'Ripper' films but this one didn't do it for me. It was like they wanted to remake the Caine version and slung in a few old Hammer ideas to make up for their own lack of original ones.

I wish I had claws.

Windthrop

Also worth mentioning is the b/w British film made by Baker and Berman in 1959. Chilled me when I first saw it. Pity B & B didn't go on to make more films of that ilk, their Flesh and the Fiends is also worth seeing.

Winner of'There Is Nothing Like A Dame' Quiz revealed

scholes

Not always bats, not always.
I really don't mind you know, I thought it was good, and I do like Murder by Decree as well.
Depp was also good in the film of the American Gothic yarn "The legend of Sleepy Hollow" by Washington Irving.

dremble wedge

I thought it was... okay but coming from from such great source material (the graphic novel by Alan Moore and Eddie Campbell) it was bound to be a little disappointing.

A faithful adaptation of the work would have been about 5 hrs long and in b/w so that was never going to happen.

For anyone interested in the Ripper I can't recommend 'From Hell' (the book) highly enough and the best factual account I've read is 'The Complete History of Jack the Ripper' by Philip Sugden which just deals with the facts rather than coming up with crackpot theories.

Amethyst_Isle

I thought Johnny Depp's brit cockney accent was pretty good,although Heather Graham was not,but I was not looking at her accent anyway.

batman

I have read that book, it is indeed excellent. I also tried to plough through Patricia Cornwell's hatchet job on Walter Sickert but is was so badly written I gave up!

I wish I had claws.

batman

Sleepy Hollow is a great film. I expect when I watched From Hell I was expecting something of that quality. Our library has a copy of it on DVD, perhaps I should give it another look.

I wish I had claws.

yankfilmbuff

Thanks for the info. I never realized the controversy or knew about the multiple endings. I have to admit that many American TV viewers do like their shows with lots of action, gore and sex and it doesn't matter if the facts are true or not. The networks have no problem in trying to please their tastes.

David Brent

There have been some good and some below average docos on the exploits of Jack The Ripper.
The doco Jack The Ripper - Final Solution claims to have uncovered fresh police archival evidence that strongly concludes that Jack was really an American doctor living in London at the time.
The London killings ended when the doctor, knowing he was being pursued by the police, returned to America.
Although not divulged in the UK press at the time apparently the true identity of Jack The Ripper was published openly in the US press.

Dave.