Hands of the Ripper (1971)

Director:

Peter Sasdy

Writers:

L.W. Davidson
Edward Spencer Shew (story)

Release Date:

13 July 1972 (USA)

Genre:

Horror | Thriller

Tagline:

A new terror-filled X film

Plot:

The infant daughter of Jack the Ripper is witness to the brutal murder of her mother by her father....

Plot Keywords:

Jack The Ripper | Daughter | Murder | City | Blood

Cast

Eric Porter	...	Dr. John Pritchard
Angharad Rees	...	Anna
Jane Merrow	...	Laura
Keith Bell	...	Michael Pritchard
Derek Godfrey	...	Dysart
Dora Bryan	...	Mrs. Golding
Marjorie Rhodes	...	Mrs. Bryant
Lynda Baron	...	Long Liz
Marjie Lawrence	...	Dolly
Margaret Rawlings	...	Madame Bullard
Elizabeth MacLennan	...	Mrs. Wilson
Barry Lowe	...	Mr. Wilson
A.J. Brown	...	Rev. Anderson
April Wilding	...	Catherine
Anne Clune	...	1st Cell Whore
Vicki Woolf	...	2nd Cell Whore
Katya Wyeth	...	1st Pub Whore
Beulah Hughes	...	2nd Pub Whore
Tallulah Miller	...	3rd Pub Whore
Peter Munt	...	Pleasants
Philip Ryan	...	Police Constable
Molly Weir	...	Maid
Charles Lamb	...	Guard
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Norman Bird	...	Police Inspector
Ann Way	...	Seamstress (uncredited)

Directed by
Peter Sasdy

Writing credits (in alphabetical order)
L.W. Davidson
Edward Spencer Shew		story

Produced by
Aida Young	....	producer

Original Music by
Christopher Gunning

Cinematography by
Kenneth Talbot

Film Editing by
Chris Barnes

Art Direction by
Roy Stannard

Makeup Department
Patricia McDermott	....	hair styles supervisor (as Pat McDermott)
Bunty Phillips	....	makeup supervisor
Roy Ashton	....	special makeup effects artist (uncredited)

Production Management
Christopher Sutton	....	production manager

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Ariel Levy	....	assistant director

Sound Department
Ken Barker	....	dubbing mixer
Frank Goulding	....	sound editor
Kevin Sutton	....	sound recordist
Graham V. Hartstone	....	sound re-recording mixer (uncredited)
Otto Snel	....	sound re-recording mixer (uncredited)

Special Effects by
Cliff Culley	....	special effects

Camera and Electrical Department
Bob Kindred	....	camera operator (uncredited)

Costume and Wardrobe Department
Rosemary Burrows	....	wardrobe supervisor
Eileen Sullivan	....	wardrobe mistress

Music Department
Philip Martell	....	music supervisor

Other crew
Gladys Goldsmith	....	continuity

Production Companies

• Hammer Film Productions

Distributors

• J. Arthur Rank Film Distributors (1971) (UK) (theatrical)
• Universal Pictures (1972) (USA) (theatrical)
• Cinema International Corporation (CIC) (197?) (France) (theatrical)
• Cinema International Corporation (CIC) (1972) (Italy) (theatrical)
• American Broadcasting Company (ABC) (1977) (USA) (TV) (broadcast premiere)
• Carlton Visual Entertainment (2002) (UK) (DVD)
• Divisa Home Video (2011) (Spain) (DVD)
• Filmax Home Video (2005) (Spain) (DVD)
• LW Editora (2006) (Brazil) (DVD)
• MRA Entertainment Group (2004) (Australia) (DVD)
• Rank Video Library (1986) (UK) (VHS)
• Synapse Films (2010) (USA) (DVD)
• Synapse Films (2012) (USA) (DVD) (Blu-ray)
• VidAmerica (1989) (USA) (VHS)
• Zircon Vídeo (19??) (Brazil) (VHS)

Also Known As:

Runtime:

85 min

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Eastmancolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (RCA Sound Recording)

Certification:

Iceland:16 | Germany:18 (DVD rating) | Brazil:14 (DVD rating) | Australia:M | Finland:(Banned) (1971) | Norway:18 (video rating) | Sweden:15 | UK:15 (video rating) | USA:R | UK:X (original rating) | Norway:(Banned) (1971-2003) (cinema release)

Filming Locations:

Pinewood Studios, Iver Heath, Buckinghamshire, England, UK

Company:

Hammer Film Productions

Trivia:

For the climactic scenes in St Paul's Cathedral - permission was requested and turned down to film on location. A replica was built instead.

The Hands That Rock the Cradle

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.