christopher-underwood After a splendid opening credit sequence, this hustles along and in the space of the first fifteen minutes we have a had a seance, a gory killing, a suggestion of corruption in high places, child prostitution and the introduction of a blind fiancé. Things do slow down, however, and the film is not afraid to leave loose ends (and bodies) about the place. Eric Porter is effective as the guardian with too much faith in Freud and too much attention on the young girl in his charge. Angharad Rees plays the young child who at times looks disturbingly young although was in reality twenty- seven at the time. By halfway it is clear that this is not going to be an all absorbing and believable story but it does pick up for a splendid finale at St Paul's, though I was still left wondering why we had had the blind fiancé.

MartinHafer When this film begins, a little girl is watching her father (presumably Jack the Ripper) killing her mother. Years pass and this young lady is now working for a sleazy medium--fooling folks into believing she can communicate with the dead. Little does her boss know but the young lady, Anna, is a psychopath--a murderous one at that! After killing the boss in a very bloody fashion requiring super-human strength, a local idiot decides to take Anna into his home and use Freud's techniques to cure the woman. And, since the police don't know for sure who's done the killing, bringing her into his home isn't a problem...until she starts killing again and again. And vivid and VERY grisly these killings are! This sure ain't a movie for kids to watch!This film IS entertaining and if you like seeing a lot of blood, are you in for a treat! However, at the same time the film never makes much sense. Who would bring a violent murderer into his home? Who would CONTINUE to keep her there after she then kills one of his maids?! And, who would CONTINUE to try to cure her after she stabs someone in the eye?! What also make no sense is after impaling someone with a saber, the guy is STILL able to remove the sword and run about London?!?! And this was no small sword!! Enjoyable but stupid.

James Hitchcock The sceptic-who-is-proved-wrong is a familiar figure in horror films. As soon as we hear the words "I don't believe in ghosts/witches/vampires/whatever" we know that retribution is lurking just around the corner. In some films this retribution will take no more serious form than the humiliation of being forced to eat one's words, but in others the forces of the supernatural will take bloody revenge on those who wrong them by doubting their existence. "Hands of the Ripper" brings a new twist to this theme. Dr. John Pritchard is an eminent psychiatrist in Edwardian London who brings one of his patients, a young woman named Anna, into his home. This might seem a risky thing to do, as Pritchard is well aware (although the police are not) that Anna is not only mentally unstable but also a murderess. Pritchard, however, is an enthusiastic Freudian who believes that the new science of psychoanalysis will enable him not only to find out the cause of her murderous impulses but also to cure them. Pritchard's theory is that Anna is suffering from a psychiatric illness caused by the subconscious memory of some childhood trauma. Given what the audience knows about Anna, this is in fact a pretty shrewd guess. She is the daughter of none other than Jack the Ripper. The Ripper's precise identity is never made clear, but it would appear that he is a gentleman of some wealth and social position. (Unlike some other Ripper films, this one does not try and blame the killings on the Duke of Clarence or anyone else connected with the Royal Family). As a child Anna witnessed her father killing her mother, who had guessed that her husband was the Ripper. This being a Hammer film, however, there has to be a more complex explanation for Anna's criminality. Although Pritchard as a scientific rationalist would disdain any supernatural explanation for evil, it transpires that Anna is possessed by her father's spirit and that he is using her as a vehicle to carry out further murders from beyond the grave. Pritchard is guilty of the sin of hubris- the hubris of believing that his scientific methods can cure her- and he therefore has to accept the moral responsibility when Anna, contrary to his confident predictions, does indeed kill again. Eric Porter was an actor I often associated with portrayals of rather stiff, middle-aged middle-class gentlemen like Soames Forsyte in the famous BBC adaptation of "The Forsyte Saga" or Karenin in "Anna Karenina", and Dr. Pritchard is such another such character, a respectable pillar of the Edwardian bourgeoisie who finds it difficult to show emotion or to comprehend that there may be matters in heaven and earth not dreamed of in his tidy, rational philosophy. Anna is played by Angharad Rees, an actress who was later to find fame in another BBC serial, "Poldark", which was responsible for a brief surge in the popularity of the baptismal names "Angharad" and "Demelza" (the name of her character) throughout Britain in the mid-seventies. To be honest, Angharad was never the most expressive of actresses, even in "Poldark", but that does not really matter in this film, as there appears to have been a deliberate intention to play Anna as wooden and emotionless in order to emphasise the fact that she is under the control of an exterior force. "Hands of the Ripper" is at times over-the-top and melodramatic, although if it weren't it would hardly be a Hammer film. Some of the attempts at humour seem a bit forced (such as the fake séance conducted by Anna's guardian, the fraudulent medium Mrs Golding) and some of the death scenes might seem unintentionally humorous by modern standards. Overall, however, this is one of the more inventive and original entries in the Hammer canon- certainly more original than a lot of their standard vampire fare- and can make for enjoyable late-night watching. 6/10

minamurray Classy, elegant and atmospheric Gothic thriller, based on excellent script by L.W.Davidson and Edward Spencer Shew. Jack the Ripper's daughter murders people in Edwardian London. Sets and colours are rich and gorgeous in true, cozy Hammer Gothic style, and psychotic Anna is fascinating and even sympathetic character: so sweet, so innocent ... and oh, so lethal. There is also nice - and definitely unintended - irony: slimy, hypocritical politician tries to violently rape insane Anna and later yells how only gallows can cure her from criminal insanity. At least Anna is mentally ill. What is HIS excuse? Murders are nasty, but they are genuinely horrifying instead of disgusting and sleazy.