This version of the Jack the Ripper saga opens rather poorly by serving up a lot of dull and incredible hoke about a visiting police detective to the London scene by our star player, Lee Patterson, here playing an American detective (although he is in fact a Canadian in real life). Personally, I wouldn't care a fig if our visiting "American" had stayed at home and left the investigation in the more capable hands of Sherlock Holmes. But once the plot really gets into stride, both the story and its presentation improve enormously. Producers/directors/photographers Monty Berman and Robert S. Baker are obviously much more at home with action than standing still. And happily, they have outlaid a fortune (at least by quota quickie standards) on sets and extras.

Jack the Ripper (1959) ** (out of 4) Atmospheric and moody version of the infamous serial killer. This isn't quite as good as the version with Klaus Kinski but it remained entertaining throughout. The director does a great job building up the atmosphere of 1888 London but for some strange reason he never pushes the "mystery" surrounding the case. He throws a lot of suspects at us but for some reason he never tries to build up a mystery film as to who the killer is. There's a big twist at the end, which makes one think the film is going to do something with it but it never does. I'm not exactly sure what the filmmakers were going for but the movie still works.

This movie would probably be more fun to watch in its original British presentation, before American distributor Joseph Levine got hold of it and added a gimmicky prologue and different music. The basic story holds up, and there are some effective performances by a typically solid English cast. Eddie Byrne is good as the no nonsense police inspector, and George Rose has a brief scene as the father of one of the victims.The scenes of the Ripper stalking his victims are suspenseful, and the murders more violent than any cinematic Ripper killings had been portrayed before. The settings are adequate at showing 1888 London's Whitechapel and the Victorian atmosphere is reasonably well shown. The one incredible flaw in the version most Americans have seen is the startling and totally inappropriate use of a modern jazz score to accompany the stalking and killing scenes. Every time we see the mysterious figure of a man in a cape and top hat, carrying the little black bag, emerging from a foggy alley to pursue a victim, our ears are suddenly assaulted with a blaring, brassy Fifties jazz theme that would have been appropriate to an episode of Peter Gunn or Mike Hammer, but is utterly out of place in the Victorian England of the story. It is such a jarring, incongruous effect, that it takes away from the otherwise effectively sinister visuals. Whoever thought this was a good idea and why is beyond me. Compare this misplaced music with the brilliantly ominous score by Hugo Friedhofer for The Lodger (1944) and you'll see what I mean.The movie is adequate , but there are far more compelling and better done Ripper films, for those interested in the grim history of Jack and his prostitute victims.

Every once in a while one finds a film that is mostly mediocre but has one redeeming feature.The bright spot of Jack the Ripper is it's beautiful lightning. Some B&W films are just gray when to me the beauty of it is in the strong contrast between light and shadow.All in all this is a very easy film to like. It is beautifully naive in it's portrayal of it's sex murder topic yet at the same time it succeeds in making a powerful point about lynching mob attitude.The characters are rather predictable and bland with one exception: the young American policeman visiting London. With his accent and idealism displayed under a greasy fifties Buddy Holly hairstyle (remember that this is a period piece set in the 19th century)he brings a nice cowboy twist to the legend of Jack the Ripper.