One of the strange things about Jack the Ripper movies is that, as we get further away in time from the events of 1888, filmmakers seem much more concerned with providing a 'real', historically accurate solution to the mystery. This is in marked contrast to earlier movies about the Ripper, which only used the name as a framework for Gothic horror tales, and the 1959 version is no exception. Absolutely nothing in this movie really happened, but, this actually makes the film more entertaining; I always find it irritating when a director claims to have made a historically accurate Ripper movie, and then falls down on minor details. The makers of this film clearly had no such intentions, something clearly demonstrated by star Lee Patterson's 1950's Elvis quiff, unless his character was seriously ahead of his time where fashion was concerned.
As for the story itself, screenwriter Jimmy Sangster (who wrote several of Hammer's best movies) seems to have based his script very loosely on the 'Doctor Stanley' theory put forward by Leonard Matters in his 1929 book 'The Mystery of Jack the Ripper'. In this book, Matters alleged that the murders were committed because Stanley's son caught syphilis from Mary Kelly, the last of the five Ripper victims, and the not-so-good doctor went out looking for her, asking (and then killing) the other four victims for info about Kelly. In the film, Jack the Ripper is looking for a woman named Mary Clark, and he murders women after asking them if they either are, or know the whereabouts of, Mary Clark. The main difference, other than the name of the woman he's looking for, is that the Ripper's son committed suicide (sexually transmitted diseases being a no-no as far the BBFC were concerned at the time).
The film is generally pretty good, with decent performances from its two imported American leads (the producers were clearly taking no chances when it came to getting the film a U.S release), with Patterson making a likable hero, and Eddie Byrne (probably best known for playing a similar role the same year in Hammer's 'The Mummy') being suitably dogged as the Inspector on the Ripper's trail. There are maybe too many obvious red herrings, notably the mute, hunchbacked assistant who carries knives around and is nearly lynched by a mob, and John Le Mesurier's doctor who always comes into a room after a murder dressed in the stereotypical Ripper garb, but the revelation of the killer's identity is actually quite surprising, and the end sequence, with the Ripper crushed by a lift in a brief colour sequence, is suitably melodramatic (even if it does look like what it was, that is to say red paint squirted through a hole).
As for the story itself, screenwriter Jimmy Sangster (who wrote several of Hammer's best movies) seems to have based his script very loosely on the 'Doctor Stanley' theory put forward by Leonard Matters in his 1929 book 'The Mystery of Jack the Ripper'. In this book, Matters alleged that the murders were committed because Stanley's son caught syphilis from Mary Kelly, the last of the five Ripper victims, and the not-so-good doctor went out looking for her, asking (and then killing) the other four victims for info about Kelly. In the film, Jack the Ripper is looking for a woman named Mary Clark, and he murders women after asking them if they either are, or know the whereabouts of, Mary Clark. The main difference, other than the name of the woman he's looking for, is that the Ripper's son committed suicide (sexually transmitted diseases being a no-no as far the BBFC were concerned at the time).
The film is generally pretty good, with decent performances from its two imported American leads (the producers were clearly taking no chances when it came to getting the film a U.S release), with Patterson making a likable hero, and Eddie Byrne (probably best known for playing a similar role the same year in Hammer's 'The Mummy') being suitably dogged as the Inspector on the Ripper's trail. There are maybe too many obvious red herrings, notably the mute, hunchbacked assistant who carries knives around and is nearly lynched by a mob, and John Le Mesurier's doctor who always comes into a room after a murder dressed in the stereotypical Ripper garb, but the revelation of the killer's identity is actually quite surprising, and the end sequence, with the Ripper crushed by a lift in a brief colour sequence, is suitably melodramatic (even if it does look like what it was, that is to say red paint squirted through a hole).