Jack the Ripper (1976)

A serial killer whose mother was a prostitute starts killing streetwalkers as a way of paying back his mother for her abuse.

Director:

Jesús Franco (as Jess Franco)

Writer:

Jesús Franco (screenplay) (as Jess Franco)

Stars:

Klaus Kinski, Josephine Chaplin, Andreas Mannkopff

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Klaus Kinski	...	Dr. Dennis Orloff
Josephine Chaplin	...	Cynthia
Andreas Mannkopff	...	Inspector Selby
Herbert Fux	...	Charlie, the Fisherman
Lina Romay	...	Marika Stevenson
Hans Gaugler	...	Mr. Bridger, the Blind Man
Nikola Weisse	...	Frieda
Ursula von Wiese	...	Miss Higgins (as Ursula v. Wiese)
Francine Custer	...	Sally Brown, first victim
Olga Gebhard	...	Mrs. Baxter
Angelika Arndts	...	Mrs. Stevenson, Marika's Mother
Peter Nüsch	...	Sergeant Ruppert (as Peter Nuesch)
Esther Studer	...	Jeanny, second victim
Regine Elsener	...	Blondy
Lorli Bucher	...	Lulu

Storyline

A Swiss-German horror film with Klaus Kinski as the notorious Jack the Ripper. A respected doctor by day, Kinski dismembers London prostitutes by night, until the local Inspector's girlfriend (Josephine Chaplin) goes undercover to catch him.

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Plot Keywords:

murder of a nude woman | character name as title | jack the ripper character | serial murder | three word title | 

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Taglines:

Close your eyes and whisper his name...

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Genres:

Drama | Horror | Thriller

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Certificate:

R

Details

Country:

Switzerland West Germany Spain

Language:

German English Spanish

Release Date:

23 September 1976 (West Germany)

Also Known As:

Jack l'éventreur

Filming Locations:

Switzerland

Company Credits

Production Co:

Elite Film, Ascot Film, Cinemec

Technical Specs

Runtime:

92 min 82 min (cut)

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Color (Eastmancolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.75 : 1

Did You Know?

Goofs

The royal coat of arms shown outside Scotland Yard bears the letters ER - presumably for the current Queen: Elizabeth Regina. In 1888 when Jack the Ripper was loose Victoria was on the throne and the letters would have been VR: Victoria Regina.

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Quotes

Mr. Bridger, the Blind Man: The murderer smelled of several familiar odours; expensive soap. sweat, and very fine woolen clothes and mild Turkish tobacco and also an odour, Inspector, that you could recognise with much ease, I think: alcohol.
Inspector Selby: Yes, of course. You smell of it.
Mr. Bridger, the Blind Man: Oh, but that's an easy one. What I detected was a medicinal alcohol and then a real surprise; I also caught a whiff of a rare, medicinal plant of India. It transported me back to the colonies. In England, it's found only in the Botanical Gardens. It ...

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Connections

Version of Seven Murders for Scotland Yard (1972)

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Soundtracks

My Bonnie Lies Over the Ocean
(uncredited)
Scottish folk tune
Performed by Francine Custer

User Reviews

Fiction diverges widely from fact in this horror thriller....

OK, it is London, even Whitechapel. It is also Victorian England, and someone is killing whores in the night, they even call this killer Jack the Ripper...BUT and this is a massive but.... any semblance between the true killings and this story part company here, at light speed.

Anyone looking for schlockey, semi graphic violence, nudity and gore need look no further. Anyone seeking a plot based on the close truth will be sorely disappointed. This slow moving (my version was dubbed to English) badly scripted (but that may be badly scripted dubbing) shows Klaus Kinsky, father of the delicious Nastasha Kinsky, slicing, dicing and raping whores in cohoots with a mysterious woman, and dumping their dismembered bodies in old Father Thames. In this amazing work a blind beggar not only has a keen set of senses, he knows much about the upper society and can identify many plants and perfumes by smell alone. And a local fisherman knows how long body parts have been rotting in the water, even if he can't read.

Polly Nicholes, Mary Kelly and the other girls don't make an appearance, the bodies are not strewn about Whitechapel and Spittalfields but dumped in the river, and..well, as a bit of a Ripper bufff, I was left out in the foggy cold.