Jack the Ripper

Joseph E. Levine held a luncheon for major distributors to kick off the campaign for his U.S. release of this film. For this event, he borrowed $1 million in cash which was brought into the room with a cadre of Brinks guards. The cash was to demonstrate to the exhibitors how much he was going to spend in the U.S. to promote the film.

Jack the Ripper derived his nickname from the fact that he eviscerated, then literally disemboweled, most of his victims. This film has him merely stabbing one of them repeatedly, then running off into the night.

The British version is the Director's version of the movie. There was also a "continental version," which included nudity and more violent murder shots. According to the director's commentary on the Bluray, this was done for purely financial reasons, to get distribution in places that would otherwise be uninterested in it. The continental version ran 88 minutes, includes: a changing room scene with several girls having their breasts exposed; Maggie (Dorinda Stevens) and Hazel (Jane Taylor) join two gentlemen in a private room, then one of these pours champagne over Maggie's chest, and as he kisses the champagne off her chest, her dress is pulled down to expose a breast; Hazel is accosted by the Ripper in an alleyway, her breast is shown, and later there is a shot of her topless corpse; close-up shots of knives and victims faces, and items such as repeated knife thrusts vs. single thrusts, are added to the murder scenes.

Featured in Aweful Movies with Deadly Earnest: Jack the Ripper (1973)