Jack el destripador de Londres

1971's "7 Murders for Scotland Yard" (Jack el Destripador de Londres) appears to have been the first Paul Naschy vehicle in which the star moves away from the shadow of El Hombre Lobo, though it was shot on the same London locations as 5th entry "Dr. Jekyll and the Werewolf." This Spanish-Italian coproduction finds the beefy actor as downtrodden suspect in a series of baffling knifings that deliberately echo the brutality of 1887's Jack the Ripper, the culprit using incriminating notes and various body parts to taunt the admittedly hapless police. Naschy's Bruno is a former circus acrobat whose career ended after a fall, and our first on screen victim is his own wife, whose meager earnings as a prostitute allowed him to frequent Soho pubs for yet another beverage of choice. There are shades of Hitchcock with authorities fingering the wrong man, and the influence of Peter Lorre's 1931 "M" crops up when even the underworld frowns on such a dastardly killer making things more difficult for them. Alas, the whole thing simply plods along in perfunctory fashion, the killings staged identically with graphic closeups of the phallic blade conducting its penetrations with no nudity and very little blood shown, comparable more to German krimi than Italian Giallo, none of the female targets developed to any likable degree (only a small child escapes the mayhem). Like his 1973 film "The Blue Eyes of the Broken Doll," Naschy's surly protagonist may not be guilty but he's hardly innocent, leaving behind his share of corpses as he successfully evades the cops (the lack of suspects makes the killer's identity painfully easy). Director Jose Luis Madrid would collaborate with Naschy on two more obscure features, 1973's "The Crimes of Petiot" and 1977's "Comando Txikia: Muerte de un Presidente."

Following a rash of brutal murders, a Scotland Yard inspector attempting to solve the case finds that the evidence pointing to the legendary Jack the Ripper implicates a former trapeze artist as the main suspect and forces him to find the real killer to clear his name.

This one was quite the enjoyable Giallo effort. One of the film's better aspects is the fact that this one manages to tie into the historical connections and works itself into the modern setting. Despite knowing early on that the clues point to the mythical killer through the style of knifings and the connection with the blades found at the crime scenes, the inherent inability to see past that and focus on the one character for the vast majority of the running time with a series of improbable tactics to try to place him at the foot of the killings as there's no real reason why he should be placed squarely in the blame for the incidents which all ties together into the workings of the genre. That also extends rather nicely into the film's stalking scenes which are quite fun and enjoyably in the giallo vein, from the opening shock murder of the prostitute thinking she's with a client only to pull a knife unexpectedly, a later stalking of a woman in her flat who is completely unaware of the killer approaching her room and then taking her out makes for a chilling sequence and the great attacks in the school gym and a woman alone in her apartment all come off much creepier than they should which really enhances the stalking action in here. The manner in which he gets implicated, being found the morning after a night with a dead prostitute and her blood on him which forces a daring escape into the night that keeps him having to dodge the police after him, and along with a solid brawl with a gang of youths attempting to bring him to justice also giving this one some solid action alongside the stalking. That leads into the film's other great aspect in the finale which is the highly enjoyable brawl in the killers' lair as there's plenty of hand-to-hand brawling that makes for a truly enjoyable time and gives this a strong finish. Still, even with these great elements there's some minor troubling factors. The biggest issue with this one is the rather stilted and one-note investigation that carries on throughout here which renders a vast majority of what's going on really bland to get through. The insistence on the circus performer as the killer is inherently ludicrous as the physical feats performed renders his career-threatening injury the perfect scapegoat to place him beyond the scope of investigation as a simple search realizes that quite easily. It's so weak in fact that there's even the mention of this in the final showdown when they make mention of the fact that the case is rather mysterious in how it lead to the killer and they just gloss over it. The other flaw is the rather troubling lack of sleaze and violence here, as the attacks leading into the revelation about them being prostitutes leaves this with little to no nudity and utterly cheap-looking gore effects that ruin any illusion of realism by showing a knife actively carving up animal meat due to the consistency and color that's far beyond what human skin looks like. These do drag it down, but otherwise it was quite fun.

Rated Unrated/R: Violence, Language, Brief Nudity and mild sex scenes.

Someone is jabbing the life out of hookers in London and Scotland Yard are up to finding out who is responsible. It seems that Jack the Ripper has come back from the dead, but the police actually suspect hard drinking, limping, fat tiny Spaniard Paul Naschy for the murders.

Paul plays Pedro, a retired trapeze artist with a bum leg whose hooker wife is murdered early on by our douchebag killer, who also frames Pedro, who can't seem to go anywhere without dead hookers turning up.

A certain inspector is out to catch the killer, and has some suave mate whose wife he might be in love with. It's all like EastEnders only with murders and translated through a Spanish eye. It doesn't have the style of an Italian giallo (hence the accusations of it being drab and flat) but it does have a good pace and plenty of sauce.

It also has plenty of cheeseball moments, from when a hooker has a speech about how all men are bastards or the various moments when members of the British public try and avoid the camera that has no doubt appeared undeclared right in front of them! This film also has a fairly high body count so I'm a bit unclear on how it can be boring. Cheap looking, yes, but entertaining throughout.

Also, I went to London a few days ago, all jazzed to see Piccadilly Circus the way it appears in this film, and they've replaced it with a giant TV screen! What a let down.

Most people perhaps don't know this, but back in the 1970s, the Spanish horror monument Paul Naschy occasionally did more than just put on his furry werewolf coat and depict Waldemar Daninsky in the legendary and long-running "Hombre Lobo" series! Some of this non- wolf man movies rank among the absolute greatest things he ever did, in fact, like for example "The Hunchback of the Morgue", "Inquisition" and "The Hanging Woman". In that same decade, Naschy also starred in three very worthwhile Spanish variations of the Italian giallo: "Blue Eyes of the Broken Doll", "A Dragonfly for Each Corpse" and this "7 Murders for Scotland Yard"; in which a vicious serial killer copycats the modus operandi of Jack the Ripper in contemporary London. The most entertaining thing about Paul Naschy movies – and this goes for practically ALL Paul Naschy movies – is that he clearly worships himself and seemingly always insists to portray an invincible hero! Even though Nashy was relatively short-sized and rather chubby, the most ravishing women always fall head over heels in love with him and he always beat his opponents in bare-knuckle fights even though they are much fitter. In this particular movie, we are even supposed to believe that Naschy's character – Pedro – was a former trapeze artist in a circus. I can guarantee that it's quite a hilarious sight to see him in his bright purple tights…

"7 Murders for Scotland Yard" is a fun and undemanding giallo that delivers the goods in terms of sleaze, bloodshed and grotesque plot twists. The whodunit-aspect is rather weak, since there are only three primary suspects in the murder investigation and, since it's fairly obvious straight from the beginning that someone is blatantly trying to frame Naschy's character, there are actually just two… More than 80 years after Jack the Ripper terrorized London, someone is once again targeting prostitutes and removing their organs with utmost surgical accuracy. Pedro, the former circus artist who now drinks too much and stumbles around on a handicapped leg, becomes Inspector Campbell's main suspect when also his girlfriend's lifeless corpse gets discovered. While the corpses keep piling up, and Pedro tries to look for the killer on his own, Inspector Campbell is busy blabbering with his best friend Winston. The murders are quite grim and explicit, and after a while Jack the Ripper doesn't restrict himself to prostitutes and even slashes an extremely young and cherubic school girl. What else is there to say about "7 Murders for Scotland Yard"? Well, perhaps that whoever invented this alternative title clearly cannot count properly, as there are far more murders being committed than seven. The biggest shortcomings of Spanish gialli in comparison to their Italian counterparts are undoubtedly the lack of style, the shortage of imaginative camera-work and the absence of a memorable soundtrack. José Luis Madrid's direction is anonymous and flat, but there's enough action and the connection with Jack the Ripper is original.

JACK THE MANGLER ( 1971 ) starring Paul Naschy aka SEVEN CORPSES ( MURDERS ) FOR Scotland YARD This is a very hard to see film, but is worth the hunt for fans of Naschy and also giallo knock offs. It's a decent thriller with a mysterious Jack the Ripper wanna be who kills each victim with a distinctive blade, each from a different country. One by one, prostitutes are turning up dead and missing various body parts, a set of eyes here, a heart there. One of the early victims is Naschy's whore for hire wife, and he becomes a suspect in the early investigations, despite the fact that a younger, athletic man is the type sought, and Naschy has a gimpy leg from a high wire accident that ended his circus career. The local criminal element has it in for him as well, the murders bring the cops down on them and it's hurting business. The mystery of who the killer is and why he's so eager to carve up the local tarts is decent giallo fodder and satisfied me. Orchidea de Santis provides some hotness and Andres Resino ( the boyfriend in WEREWOLF SHADOW ) does OK as a friend of the cop running the investigation. The copy I watched is from VSoM and looks like a 3rd gen dub. It's in Italian with English subs that get the job done. Sadly, it's also the covered version of the film and not the nude version that was prepared for export. The film was dubbed into English had played the US in 1976, and this presumably was the uncovered variant, but it's whereabouts are unknown. A real shame as it's up there with a lot of the Italian giallos and without the nudity, it comes off as a bit tame considering it's subject matter. Here's hoping it turns up someday, it's on the list with a few others that really need their nude versions found so these films can be properly appreciated. The plot description that mentions Jack's a cannibal this time around is bogus BTW.