{"id":6910,"date":"2013-08-26T16:44:22","date_gmt":"2013-08-26T20:44:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/?p=6910"},"modified":"2013-08-26T17:04:04","modified_gmt":"2013-08-26T21:04:04","slug":"br-hands-of-the-ripper-1971","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/?p=6910","title":{"rendered":"BR: Hands of the Ripper (1971)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Return to: <\/strong>Home <\/a>\/\u00a0Blu-ray, DVD, Film Reviews<\/a> \/ <\/em>H<\/a><\/p>\n

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\"\"<\/a>Film: Very Good\/ BR Transfer: Excellent\/ BR Extras: Excellent<\/p>\n

Label: \u00a0Synapse Films<\/a> \/ Region: A \/\u00a0Released: July 9, 2013<\/p>\n

Genre: Supernatural \/ Horror \/ Hammer Horror<\/p>\n

Synopsis: The daughter of Jack the Ripper begins to get a tingling sensation for assaulting innocents with available implements whenever there’s a bright, glimmering light.<\/p>\n

Special Features: 2013: Documentary: \u201cThe Devil\u2019s Bloody Plaything: Possessed by Hands of the Ripper\u201d (28:21) \/ 2 Motion Stills Galleries: \u201cSlaughter of Innocence: The Evolution of Hammer Gore\u201d (6:08) + \u201cHands of the Ripper\u201d (5:43) \/ U.S. Theatrical trailer + 3 TV spots \/ Isolated Mono Music & Effects Track (Blu-ray only)\/ Reversible Sleeve Art \/ Region 1 (NTSC) DVD version of Blu-ray.<\/p>\n

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Review:<\/p>\n

There\u2019s a bit of a fog surrounding Hammer\u2019s Hands of the Ripper<\/strong>, largely because it\u2019s been tough to see the film both uncut and in a decent transfer. Co-funded and distributed by Rank in the U.K., director Peter Sasdy was able to make use of standing sets on the Pinewood backlot, giving this low budget shocker a much richer look than expected.<\/p>\n

Ripper<\/strong> in fact is among Hammer\u2019s most evocative period films, and yet while it is known for being one of the studio\u2019s bloodiest productions \u2013 deaths include impalement by fire poker, throat slashing, stabbing, and hairpins that are cluster-shoved into eyeballs \u2013 it\u2019s a small-scale tale of a young woman\u2019s identity crisis, and a humanistic doctor\u2019s determination to use Freud\u2019s new theorems to cure the psychologically bruised patient.<\/p>\n

Pretty Angharad Rees (Poldark<\/strong>) plays Anna, the daughter of Jack the Ripper, who initially seems to go into a trance whenever a) her gaze is transfixed by shiny reflections in metal or glass, and b) kissed, and while her murderous impulses aren\u2019t kept hidden for long, the real reason for her ill-bent behaviour is the sudden possession by daddy Ripper. From a plot stance, it\u2019s all nonsense \u2013 Anna should\u2019ve decimated a fair percentage of London, if not walked into a few streetlamps given the high likelihood of being distracted by shiny, flickering reflections in her daily existence \u2013 but Rees portrays the likeable waif quite convincingly as a humble gal, and as a cold-blooded killer.<\/p>\n

The fact Dr. Pritchard (The Forsyte Saga<\/strong>\u2019s Eric Porter) denies her culpability and feels any deaths are mere hurdles to curing the incurable gives the story a peculiar romance of the mind \u2013 besides initial horror, he accepts the death of his loyal maid and the need to dispose of her cadaver rather well \u2013 plus he never abandons his patient regardless of circumstances, especially when he too is grievously harmed in an especially nasty sequence.<\/p>\n

Ripper<\/strong> is a mash-up of Ripper lore, soul possession, and a bit of Hitchcock\u2019s Marnie<\/strong> (1964) – where a man of wealth and position similarly uses his portable Freud to cure a frigid woman with a criminal streak \u2013 and it largely works in spite of some disjointed sections within Ripper<\/strong>. There\u2019s also a sense the studio curtailed filming to save money of some scenes \u2013 in one transition, Sasdy seemed to have been forced to settle for a freeze frame that feels wholly out of place \u2013 and the film\u2019s running time is unusually abrupt. (Hammer\u2019s Vampire Circus<\/a> <\/strong>[M<\/a>], released a year later, is even more disjointed due to un-shot scenes, a heavy use of wide master shots, and some unfinished visual effects.)<\/p>\n

Christopher Gunning\u2019s score is grounded by a beautiful main theme (which, when first heard over the bloody Main Titles, is admittedly jarring), and Kenneth Talbot\u2019s cinematography is very moody. (Talbot also pulls off some tricky visual effects in the finale, where patient and doctor are reunited, and figuratively consummated in St. Paul\u2019s Cathedral.)<\/p>\n

Synapse Films have done a marvelous job rescuing and restoring this minor classic, and the included making-of doc nicely places Ripper<\/strong> in its historical context within the Hammer filmography. Interviews include Jane Merrow (The System<\/strong>, The Six Million Dollar Man<\/strong>), who plays Pritchard\u2019s blind daughter-in-law, and rare audio from an interview with the late Rees. There\u2019s also stills from Hammer\u2019s first poke at Jack the Ripper, the rarely seen Room to Let<\/strong> (1950), which has apparently vanished from distribution.<\/p>\n

Other extras are the film\u2019s TV and theatrical trailers, an isolated mono music & effects track featuring Gunning\u2019s score (not present on the bonus DVD which otherwise features the same extras), reversible sleeve with alternate boob artwork that bears absolutely no resemblance to anything in the film, and a montage of stills and gore moments from the film and Hammer Films, respectively, set to music.<\/p>\n

When the film was released in U.S. cinemas, Universal lopped off some of the risqu\u00e9 gore, but as was their peculiar practice at the time, the film was further cut down to the extent new material was shot and recorded to pad out the film for its 1977 TV airing. The studio had done similar editorial nonsense with Joseph Losey\u2019s The Secret Ceremony<\/strong> (1968), but with Ripper<\/strong>, the changes sound quite ruinous: actor Severn Darden recorded a bookend narration track which made it appear that what you’ve just seen were thoughts from a novelist on criminal psychology. Apparently video copies of the intro were destroyed in the grievous fire on the Universal lot in 2008, so Synapse have edited together the intro \/ outro audio which gives a sense of the radical changes done to the film, especially the opening scenes.<\/p>\n

Peter Sasdy\u2019s work for Hammer includes Taste the Blood of Dracula<\/a><\/strong> (1970), Countess Dracula<\/a> <\/strong>(1971), Hands of the Ripper<\/strong> (1971), and episodes of Hammer House of Horror<\/a><\/strong> [M<\/a>] (1980) and Hammer House of Mystery and Suspense<\/strong> \/ Fox Mystery Theater<\/strong> (1984).<\/p>\n

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\u00a9 2013 Mark R. Hasan<\/p>\n

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External References<\/em>:<\/p>\n

IMDB <\/a>— Soundtrack Album<\/a> — Composer Filmography<\/a><\/p>\n

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Vendor Search Links:<\/em><\/p>\n

Amazon.ca<\/a>\"\" \"\" —<\/span> Amazon.com<\/a>\"\" \"\" —<\/span> Amazon.co.uk<\/a>\"\" \"\"—New movie releases on iTunes<\/a>\"\"
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Return to<\/strong>:\u00a0Home <\/a>\/\u00a0Blu-ray, DVD, Film Reviews<\/a> <\/em>\/\u00a0H<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Return to: Home \/\u00a0Blu-ray, DVD, Film Reviews \/ H . Film: Very Good\/ BR Transfer: Excellent\/ BR Extras: Excellent Label: \u00a0Synapse Films \/ Region: A \/\u00a0Released: July 9, 2013 Genre: Supernatural \/ Horror \/ Hammer Horror Synopsis: The daughter of Jack the Ripper begins to get a tingling sensation for assaulting innocents with available implements […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false},"categories":[18],"tags":[2168,265,2167],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8nuyW-1Ns","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6910"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6910"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6910\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6916,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6910\/revisions\/6916"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6910"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6910"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6910"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}