Jack The Ripper [1976] [DVD]

Jess Franco is a Spanish director best known for his scores of soft-porn movies, but who also indulges in some amateurish horror productions. His "Jack the Ripper" does contain some brief moments of nudity; it contains some even briefer moments of horror.

Shot in German - some of the subtitles are quite amusing - it is supposedly set in Victorian London. Someone is killing ladies of easy virtue - although there seems to be no sense of panic on the streets. One of the characters alludes to the murders taking place in Kensington & Chelsea - for those of you who don't know London, that's some distance away from where the real Ripper killings occurred ... some distance, physically and socially. In Franco's film, the streets of London also seem to resemble monastic cloisters or the vaults under a cathedral.

The streets are also pretty much deserted, inhabited by the same half dozen people who go round and round, apparently not noticing one another in the ever-present fog. Klaus Kinski plays a Jekyll & Hyde character - by day a saintly doctor, dedicated to helping the poor, by night a homicidal maniac, driven mad by an abusive mother, who sets about slaughter and sexual perversion. Somehow or other he enlists a woman, who appears to be employed in some botanical gardens, to dispose of the body parts, which she does by rowing up and down a river / canal (if it's supposed to be the Thames, then it's a rather secluded, tree-lined waterway).

The police, of course, have not a clue. Fortunately, one murder is witnessed - by an ageing, blind, alcoholic beggar. You guessed it, he turns out to be the perfect witness: because of his blindness his nose and ears have become super-sensitive and he possesses the forensic resources of CSI Miami and New York put together ... as well as some sort of advanced understanding of criminal profiling and psychology.

In the construction of this costume drama, no expense has been spent. This is film-making on the cheap. The plot? Well, there is one - maniac kills women, police are stumped. The acting is considerably better than Franco usually offers - quite why Klaus Kinski got involved in this turkey, I don't know. Overal, it's a trivial shambles, amusing in places, as you have the opportunity to play spot the 20th century intrusions (the telephone, the spotlights, the ballet class, etc.). But do not confuse this with a murder mystery, horror film, or anything resembling a fresh take on the Jack the Ripper story.