Jack el destripador de Londres

A serial killer is on the loose in modern day London, committing a series of murders that echo the work of Jack the Ripper from the previous century. Scotland Yard is once again on the case and their no. 1 suspect is Peter Dockerman (Paul Naschy), a drunk former trapeze artist (!) whose wife was one of the earliest victims.

This Naschy vehicle is a real snoozer. A majority of the time is comprised of stuffy Brits talking up their theories over and over. This is the kind of movie where you will guess the killer 20 minutes in (a small cast and telling line of dialog helps out here) and then you wait the next hour as they try to mislead you. It also doesn't help that the TeleVista DVD appears to be a clothed version (although sharp-eyed viewers will note that a flashback by the killer features a quick snippet of nudity). The DVD is nice though in that it is widescreen. The crew did a few days of actual shooting in London as Naschy limps around various tourist spots. It is quite fun watch the polite Brits always duck out of the way real quick as the camera pans to them.

This had been shown on late-night Italian TV some years back and, later, I recall it being mentioned favorably online; hence, given its theme of an updated version of Jack The Ripper and the fact that it starred Euro-Cult icon Paul Naschy, I decided to check it out this time around. However, it turned out to be quite a mess: not so surprising when considering that the only other J.L. Madrid film I've watched was the similarly dispiriting THE HORRIBLE SEXY VAMPIRE (1970)!; as in that film, the women here are mainly on screen in order to disrobe and get butchered.

The plot provides three possible suspects of the serial killings: a crippled and bitter ex-trapeze artist (Naschy) whose wife is among the victims, a handsome schoolteacher of noble birth but who's actually impotent and, surprisingly, a police commissioner who just happens to be the latter's boyhood chum and is also secretly in love with his wife (Orchidea De Santis, whom I saw in the flesh and on screen – in Luciano Salce's equally obscure but infinitely superior political satire, COUP D'ETAT [1969] – at the 61st Venice Film Festival)!

The Swinging London locations are just about the only authentic element here: both the gore and the occasional action scene look extremely phony; another clear measure of the film's lack of budget is that Naschy's accident (which continues to haunt him) is hilariously depicted simply by having the actor throw himself in front of the camera and utter a couple of none-too-convincing groans!

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.

This Spanish Giallo contains suspense , thrills , chills , intrigue and plot twists . In this peculiar version of the famous story of the London serial killer set in contemporary time , here Jack the Ripper not only likes to kill prostitutes but also other beautiful women . Naschy movie with usual elements of the ¨Gialli¨ sub-genre : suspenseful intrigue , twisted killings executed by a brutal killer , violence , sadism , physical abuse , sensationalist murder pieces and nudism . Dealing with a series of murders are happening in London , these killings seem connected to a hunk gammy named Bruno Dorlani (Paul Naschy or Jacinto Molina). The frustrated and bitter ex-acrobat Bruno tries to exculpate himself by sending a letter to the police superintendent via his friend (Patricia Loran) , resulting in fateful consecuences . Meanwhile , the police commissioner , Inspector Henry Campbell (Renzo Marignano) and his agents are investigating the heinous crimes , helped by a handsome schoolteacher of noble birth called Winston Darby Christian (Andrés Resino) married to a beautiful wife (Orchidea De Santis) , all of them being drawn into a twisted criminal plot and hot on Bruno's heels as prime suspect , as they can bring down the killer to the justice .

This is the typical European co-production , a giallo style which copies usual ingredients with a number of suspect people , red herrings and grisly murders against unfortunate victims , being committed by an unknown assassin who executes macabre killings on the body his victims by slashing , cutting or hacking . This is a whodunit in which there are various suspicious people who , as usual , happen to be the protagonists , as the main question of the movie results to be to find out the following : who is the murderer ? .There're various candidates, it may be a wise , well-considered teacher (Andrés Resino) or his vindictive spouse (Orchidea De Santis) or a lame former trapeze artist (Paul Naschy or Jacinto Molina) whose wife is among the victims or even the commissioner Inspector Campbell (Renzo Marignano) himself . Lurid and gut-wrenching criminal drama made during the Francoist period in which abounded co-productions especially in horror and Spaghetti Western genres . As in Terror genre excelled Jacinto Molina who created his particular style where most of his raids would be perpetrated by the emblem of his own company in Spain , this actor, screenwriter and director Jacinto Molina - Paul Naschy , at times , collaborated with writer/filmmaker José Luis Madrid ; the result of whose collaboration are 'Jack the Ripper of London / Sette Cadaveri per Scotland Yard' (1971) and crimes of 'Petiot' (1972). Here Paul Naschy is an ex-circus artist who helps his friend a police inspector to discover who is the ominous murderer , resulting in himself to be the prime suspect . Filmmaker José Luis Madrid designs an average thriller , including some regularly staged murders plenty of startling visual content with blood similar to tomato and adding gore scenes , as well as brief nakedness, though in Spain it was submitted to limited censorship.

It contains atomspheric cinematography by cameraman Diego Úbeda , showing Swinging London locations from the Seventies , as well as some Madrid places , though a perfect remastering being extremely necessary because of the film copy is worn-out . Along with thrillling and intriguing musical score by Italian composer Piero Piccioni , an expert on Giallo soundtracks . The motion picture was regularly directed by José Luis Madrid. He was a craftsman who directed all kinds of genres. As he made Españoladas such as : ¨Lucecita¨ or ¨Strip-tease a la Inglesa¨ ; Spaghetti/Paella Westerns such as ¨The Ballad of Johnny Ringo¨ , ¨Seven Jackals¨, ¨The revenge of Clark Harrison¨ , ¨A Tomb for an outlaw¨; Eurospy movies such as : ¨Chineses and minishorts¨, ¨Ok Yetvtushenko¨ ; Crime movie such as ¨The Hyena¨ , and for the famous Spanish Werewolf , Paul Naschy , directed 2 movies : ¨Jack Ripper of London¨ and ¨Crimes of Petiot¨ and political/historical films such as : ¨Memorias del General Escobar¨ and ¨Command Txiquia¨ concerning the assassination of President Carrero Blanco . He also worked for the powerful German producer Arthur Brauner from Constantine Films with whom José Luis Madrid made a lot of uncredited films . Most of them were Krimis , a subgenre very popular in Germany . Throughout his long career he also showed a sense of opportunism with sensationalistic productions , such as : ¨The motorway Vampire¨ , about a vampire killer and ¨Last Tango in Madrid¨, there badly imitating ¨Bertolucci's Last tango in Paris¨. Rating : 5.5/10 . Average but passable Giallo .

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."