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. The Network SE DVD features an Audio Commentary (which I've yet to listen to) and an episode of the 1970s THRILLER TV series featuring HANDS OF THE RIPPER's co-star Angharad Rees whose good and innocent looks are effectively deployed in the blank stare of the entranced protagonist. Suspense is plentiful in "Hands of the Ripper," and director Peter Sasdy ("Taste the Blood of Dracula") works the Edwardian period of the story with style, with costumes and studio backlot transformations that successfully sell the time period, helping the actors construct their characters. years later, she is a troubled young girl who is seemingly possessed by the spirit of her late father. Anna (Angharad Rees) suddenly begins murdering any other young female who unluckily crosses her path.

Hands of Jack the Ripper - AllMusic Hands of Jack the Ripper - AllMusic

Andy Boot considers the film "flawed, and so close to the fag end of Gothic that it could almost be a parody", but that it is "nonetheless a film well worth watching". The setting is the grim and gloomy back streets of London, familiar to us from things like THE CREEPING FLESH. John Pritchard suspects Anna is the murderer but cannot understand how she could do this unspeakable act. S. distributors Synapse Films have revealed that they are planning to release a combo pack edition of Peter Sasdy's Hands of the Ripper (1971), starring Eric Porter, Angharad Rees, and Jane Merrow. With so much hooplah made about Hammer's most famous projects (HORROR OF DRACULA, CURSE OF FRANKENSTEIN, et.While I don't rate this one quite as highly as many, I thoroughly enjoyed it, and it is yet another example of just how most of Hammer's output has been largely underrated over the years. We get Dora Bryan impaled on a poker, Marji Lawerence's throat gorily slashed and Lynda Byron with hat pins stuck in her eye. Dolly is still assisting Anna to get dressed but when she places a jeweled necklace around Anna's neck, the reflections send Anna into a trance again. Keith Bell, playing Pritchard's son and Laura's lover Michael, is far more interesting than the usual pretty boys Hammer was putting in that kind of role in the '70s, bringing a lustful good humor to the role.

Hands of the Ripper (1971)| Full Length Movie | Eric Porter Hands of the Ripper (1971)| Full Length Movie | Eric Porter

Desperate to help Anna, Eric Porter gives a fantastic performance as Pritchard,with Porter dipping the movie into My Fair Lady,as he gives Pritchard a real caring nature towards Anna. Rees, Keith Bell as Pritchards' son Michael, Jane Merrow as Michaels' fiancée Laura, the delicious Derek Godfrey as the sleazy Parliament member Dysart, Dora Bryan as Mrs. Her performance arouses pity for her character, a true victim of her own unfortunate birth and of circumstances-which-are-beyond-her-control. For some the pacing could be quite slow and while; I didn't find it spectacular and filled with such excitement, but there was enough going on to keep me watching.This might have the florid death scenes of a giallo, but it doesn't have the inscrutable dream logic; it's all very direct and severe, giving the film a realistic immediacy that serves it well. 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.