Starring Eric Porter, Angharad Rees, Jane Morrow, Keith Bell and Derek Godfrey
Written by L.W. Davidson and Edward Spencer Shaw and directed by Peter Sasdy
This film starts with Jack the Ripper and why not? Seems like a perfect fit for Hammer! Horror, gore, Victorian era England. It's a match made in heaven... er, hell. It's a wonder they didn't get to saucy Jack sooner.
It's also a wonder why they don't stick with him, because this is not the tale of the Ripper but of his daughter who, as an infant, witnesses Jack killing her mother. She grows up an orphan servant of a con-woman posing as a spirit medium, who also serves as her madam, and is rescued by an early Freudian psychiatrist after she is suspected of the con woman's murder.
It's clear early on somehow the spirit of Jack the Ripper lives inside of his daughter, and comes out when she is threatened or otherwise triggered (usually by a flashy piece of jewelry). Then her hands literally transform into that of her dead father's, and she goes on a stabbing spree.
Interestingly, the psychiatrist believes she's probably the murder and isn't out to prove her innocence -- instead he's out to keep a watchful eye on her so that he can probe into the mind of a murderer and find out why murderers do the things they do. It's a dangerous game, though, and he fails to control his patient as bodies pile up.
Eric Porter is very good as the psychiatrist -- at once crazy and sympathetic. You believe in his obsession. This movie was directed by the same guy who did COUNTESS DRACULA, and it suffers the same problem -- the opening sucks you in easily, the action continues at a good pace, and then maybe 75% of the way in, just when things should be ramping up, they slow way down and you start checking your watch.
The ultimate ending is worth stick around for, though -- it's more operatic, over the top and beautifully shot in a unique location than most of the abrupt Hammer endings. Yes, it's a little drawn out, but it looks like something from one of the Italian masters, rather than the usual humble men behind the Hammer camera.
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