Hands of the Ripper

Not your typical Hammer vehicle starring Eric Porter as a doctor, influenced by the work of Sigmund Freud, who wants to study a young 17 year-old girl he knows to be a murderer. Porter thinks by analyzing her past he can find out why people murder and maybe prevent the act of murder in the human race in the process. The film is interesting in its objectives yet is a bit uneven in its execution. Directed by Peter Sasdy, who has obvious talent and directed Taste the Blood of Dracula nd Countess Dracula, the film works very hard at focussing on the relationship of childhood memories with adult behaviour, but at the same time wants to incorporate typical Hammer stuff such as big bosoms busting through stretched corsets and lots of blood and bizarre deaths. Angharad Rees plays the murderous daughter of the Whitechapel killer who as a child saw her mother brutally killed and then was orphaned. She does a good job as do all the actors. My biggest problem is with Porter, not his performance, but his character's motivation. I find it a little difficult to believe that a man supposedly intelligent would be so amoral, for he definitely seems to think that he is doing nothing wrong. The film is not all talk. There are several murders, all fairly brutal in their execution(no pun intended). The most ridiculous of these has to be a woman killed by her pince-nez glasses...but I'll let you decide if murder by pince-nez is realistic or not. There are some wonderful scenes too and the climatic one in St. Pauls is extremely powerful.

Orphaned teenager Anna (innocent-looking Angharad Rees) is placed under the care of the awful Mrs. Golding (Dora Bryan), a fake medium who uses her in moneymaking schemes and pimps her out to customers, which leads to her murder. Anna is adopted by Dr. John Pritchard (Eric Porter), an early follower of Freudian philosophy, who tries to help Anna when it's revealed she's the daughter of Jack the Ripper with homicidal tendencies of her own after seeing dear old dad murder mum as a child. Dr. Pritchard is so obsessed with Anna and his research that he isn't above covering up the murders that follow.

The performances are first-rate, the turn-of-the-century London flavor is accurately captured, the murders are pretty bloody for the time and there's a great, subdued ending at the "Gallery of Whispers." Fine period horror from Hammer Studios, originally shown on a double bill with TWINS OF EVIL.

Score: 7 out of 10

Hands of The Ripper is a well made but slow-paced 1971 offering from Hammer. Some nice acting from Eric Porter and Angharad Rees offers some compensation for a rather lugubrious tale of Jack The Ripper's daughter, who, when subjected to sparkly flashes of light followed by a kiss (which happens about five times in the movie, straining credulity to breaking point) is psychically possessed by the spirit of her old Dad, dispatching all and sundry in variously nasty ways.

As a take on the Ripper story, this doesn't really work. As usual the prostitutes on display here are mainly glamour types with little attention to veracity (a few matronly ladies do make it into the mix) and Eric Porter's Freudian Doctor is surely the most misguided psychoanalyst ever put on screen, even disposing of the bodies when Anna kills.

Horror movies were soon to descend to body count status and this is a kind of prototype. We get Dora Bryan impaled on a poker, Marji Lawerence's throat gorily slashed and Lynda Byron with hat pins stuck in her eye. Squelch! The main trouble with Hammer at this point is that they were making too many horror films - haven't counted exactly but about 12 in 1970/71 alone. They flooded the market and diminished audience interest. Still, on it's own Hands of The Ripper is not a bad little film. Earnest and rather glum, with an effective ending set in St Paul's Whispering Gallery.

While just a young child, Anna (Angharad Rees) witnesses the brutal murder of her mother by father ‘Jack the Ripper'. Fifteen years later she begins to enter trances and appears to be possessed by the Ripper himself. A friendly psychiatrist, Dr. Pritchard (Eric Porter), unaware of her past and believing her problems to be purely in the mind takes Anna in while he attempts to cure her. However, he soon regrets his decision.

‘Hands of the Ripper' is a rather underrated and enjoyable Hammer film. The film is slow, methodical and story based which may not appeal to those who like lots of `action' in their flicks, but anyone who likes classic horror wonderfully entwined with a near-gripping thriller should find something enjoyable in ‘Hands of the Ripper'. Director Peter Sasdy does well in building the tension and ensuring that the audience remains enthralled throughout the slower paced thriller aspects. Peter Sasdy does his best in making the most of the screenplay and adds some wonderful touches to the visuals of the film which really stand out and help to make the movie what it is. The sporadic flashback sequences may not be entirely original in horror but few are quite as effective. Some beautiful and often despairingly solemn musical arrangements accompany the film and induce the necessary mood in the viewer in order to fully appreciate this interesting piece of cinema.

The film is made all that better by some great performances from Eric Porter, Angharad Rees and Derek Godfrey in the short role of Dysart. Unfortunately, while one expects a certain degree of camp from a hammer movie, there did seem to be a slight overabundance of camp or hammy performances from some of the cast. However, one can take solace in knowing that the majority of these moments were towards the beginning of the film. Sadly, the poor performances were not the only thing that damaged this movie. There was an occasional lack in useful dialogue which lead to some of the scenes seeming distracted or unbelievable. This was accompanied by a couple of scenes which seemed bizarre and incoherent in their reasoning of the characters actions.

Nevertheless, the film manages to entertain and should hold the interest of fans of other Hammer films. Compared to modern day horror movies, ‘Hands of the Ripper' is a slow moving film that probably has little appeal for the `nu-horror' fans but fans of classic horror should find the film to worthy of at least one watch. The death scenes may be a little of an anti-climax and there are some storyline problems, but ‘Hands of the Ripper' is an entertaining movie that seems to be rather underrated. A bizarre yet enjoyable mixture of horror, thriller, period drama and the work of Sigmund Freud. My rating for ‘Hands of the Ripper' – 7/10.

'Hands Of The Ripper' is one of the most interesting Hammer movies. An odd mixture of Edwardian costume drama, pop psychology and proto-slasher gore, which may not be 100% successful, but it does make for some fascinating viewing. Eric Porter (who some may remember from the 60s TV series 'The Forsyte Saga') is perfectly cast as the detached and driven Dr John Pritchard who unexpectedly encounters Jack The Ripper's daughter Anna (the lovely Angharad Rees). She has no idea of her background and is working for a fraudulent medium that Pritchard and his son visit. After Anna is implicated in a brutal and bloody murder he "adopts" her, and hopes to unlock her secrets using the new fangled theories of one Sigmund Freud. Can he help this confused and potentially lethal young woman before she kills again? I leave it up to you to find out. While I don't rate this one quite as highly as many, I thoroughly enjoyed it, and it is yet another example of just how most of Hammer's output has been largely underrated over the years.