THE RIPPER
Australia/US, 1997, 96 minutes, Colour.
Patrick Bergin, Gabrielle Anwar, Samuel West, Michael York, Essie Davis, Olivia Hamnett, Kevin Miles, John Gregg, Frank Whitten, Peter Collingwood, Adam Couper.
Directed by Janet Meyers.
The Ripper is one of, it is said, thirty-eight films based on the Jack the Ripper story. It is a contribution well worth seeing.
The film is an Australian- American co-production, recreating vividly 19th century London in great detail, especially the dingier aspects of Whitechapel. It also creates an atmosphere for the Jack the Ripper killings as well as for their investigation.
The screenplay, by Robert Rodat (Saving Private Ryan) opts for the theory that Jack the Ripper was Prince Victor Albert, Eddie, the Duke of Clarence. The screenplay makes a very plausible case for this – for his lack of intelligence, his position, surgical skills, his disappearance and early death and the cover-up. (However, historians point out that he was not in London at the time of several of the murders.)
Patrick Bergin has a good role (after appearing in many B-budget films) as the East Ender Inspector Jim Hansen, chosen by Sir Charles Warren (Michael York in foppish manner) to investigate the case. Samuel West is excellent as Prince Albert Victor – making a convincing case of his being an aristocrat, insane as well as a murderer. Gabrielle Anwar appears as a local East End girl. The supporting cast is Australian including Essie Davis as a possible fiancée for Hansen, Olivia Hamnett as Sir Charles’s wife, Frank Whitten as a doctor and John Gregg as Dr William Gull, the doctor who treated royalty for syphilis.
The film has a few gory touches but opts for drama. It is well acted and well presented. An interesting comparison is Jack the Ripper with Michael Caine as the investigating inspector, the character played by Johnny Depp in the Hughes Brothers’ Jack the Ripper drama, From Hell.
1.The tradition of Jack the Ripper films? Audience interest and expectations? The crimes, London in the 19th century, the suspects, the theories?
2.The film’s option for Prince Victor Albert as Jack the Ripper? The plausibility in the screenplay? History and the facts?
3.The re-creation of London, 1888, visual? Whitechapel, the slums and the dark? Scotland Yard? The London clubs? The palace and grounds?
4.Issues of class, presumptions of the upper class? Them and us? Manners, exclusive? Morals and moral stances – yet the prevalence of syphilis and Dr Gull treating the aristocracy? The judgments about prostitutes? The criticisms of the East End? The reverse snobbery of the East Enders, exclusive, condemning the upper class? Hansen being told by Sir Charles that “you are one of us”?
5.Issues of madness, physical disease, the consequences, the propensity for evil? Dr Gull and his information about illness and disease?
6.Scotland Yard, Sir Charles, his place in society, at the club, his dealing with the prince, not a detective, loose lips, his rebuke of Hansen for chastising him, his wanting to promote him? Pressures? The press? His wife and her social standing? Matchmaking? His revealing the information to the prince? His willingness to use Florrie as bait? The end, the presentation of the cash from the grateful government?
7.Jim Hansen and his assistant, Tommy Bell? At work, at the scenes of the crime? Jim as an East Ender, his ambitions, his tie and his shoes, the various knots (and the prince showing him how to tie a knot)? Being invited to the club, meeting the prince, the discussion about his case? Going to Sir Charles’s house, the wrong information about the spoons, Evelyn helping him? Listening to the opera, going to sleep? His witting answers and pleasing the prince? At work, the clues, finding Florrie, the interrogations? The tension with Florrie, the questions? His protecting her, the visit, the vigils? Getting the photos? Pressurising her with the photos? The information about the apricots, the doctor talking about arsenic, syphilis? Dr Gull and his information? Sir Charles and his pressure? Sparring with the prince? The challenge to solve the case? The lists of the club, Dr Gull’s patients? The identity of the prince? Showing the photo to Florrie? Going to set up the bait, the prince and his eluding Jim, the pursuit? Going to his palace, the prince out shooting? The arrest?
8.Florrie, her background, Ireland, hard work, her father? Her friend – and her friend’s murder? Working in the factory? The witnessing of the murder, the interrogation by the police? The pressure from Jim, claiming he was an East Ender? Protecting her? The information, coming to his house, the sexual encounter, the discussions about tension? Her response?
9.The solving of the mystery, the grateful government? The payment? Keeping the secret?
10.The prince, his madness, his violence, suave manner? His riding, his fall, the burning of the horse? Out shooting, the threats with the gun? The final image of the prince being helped? The information about his death?
11.The boat, Florrie’s rejection of Jim? His being on the boat, the encounter, his hopes for a future?
12.Audience fascination with Jack the Ripper, the crime, the suspects, the theories?
