Best Ripper Suspect as Fiction

[Barnaby]

Have you by any chance read mine ?

http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00F4PH392

Hi Trevor,

Not yet. I too didn't know if it was available in the U.S. But if I can order it here then I will put it on the short list.

[Barnaby]

I like the juxtaposition of the horrors of the Whitechapel murders with an average guy going to work, his kid's birthday party, visiting the in-laws etc. I should suspect the murders occur shortly after the in-law visits.

[Shaggyrand]

[QUOTE=RivkahChaya;353090
Who would be the best director for a film like this? I used to be the biggest movie-goer you could find, but that was before I had a child. Now I mostly see Pixar films.

Anyway, I'm trying to think who is very good with atmosphere and suspense, and can hold back on the gore. I think a film should emphasize the way people at the time were haunted by not knowing, and less about how much CGI guts can be packed into 2 hours. I wonder if Ridley Scott would do it? Too bad Mervyn LeRoy is dead.[/QUOTE]

Scott is too in love with his strange personal theology lately. I would think one would have to look more toward South Korea or Hong Kong for someone to take charge of the film as described.
As for Pixar... If you animated it Brad Bird might rock it. Just give the Ripper a loveable singing rat as a lookout. They could sell plushes of it for the little ones to cuddle... With a razor blade sewn into the middle somewhere just fun.

[Pcdunn]

What about the idea of showing some shmo, and never naming him, following him around in his really ordinary and uneventful days, while showing the Ripper murders without showing JtR fully? The shmo would sort of be an everyman with a cursory interest in reading about the murders in the paper, and discussing them in the pubs. Slowly, a suggestion might build that he knows a little more than he ought to, or at least than the other characters in the movie do. At the end, it would be strongly suggested (but not confirmed absolutely) that the shmo is JtR.

In my version, the shmo has an injury from a knife that has become infected, and he is becoming progressively more ill. The film doesn't show his death, but suggests it is coming.

Who would be the best director for a film like this? I used to be the biggest movie-goer you could find, but that was before I had a child. Now I mostly see Pixar films.

Anyway, I'm trying to think who is very good with atmosphere and suspense, and can hold back on the gore. I think a film should emphasize the way people at the time were haunted by not knowing, and less about how much CGI guts can be packed into 2 hours. I wonder if Ridley Scott would do it? Too bad Mervyn LeRoy is dead.

Hi, Rivkah,

Neat idea for a film. Hitchcock would have directed it perfectly!

What about Guillemo del Toro?

[RivkahChaya]

I don't think it would have been Hitchcock's cup of tea. Albeit Psycho is practically the perfect film, Hitchcock generally wasn't at his best when following killers. Cf.: Rope. He was much better with the wrongly accused; in fact, that was his signature subject. Also, taking the POV of the person being stalked worked well, or the "unconventional investigator," which had a lot of crossover. Spellbound has all of those elements, and in spite of all its Freudian theories being very dated, still works as a film. The Dali sets help as well.

Now, del Toro is a possibility. I haven't seen that much of his work, but what I have seen, I've liked. All his films use a lot of CGI, though, and I'm envisioning a film with little CGI.

I have a very odd suggestion, especially because she hasn't worked in a while, and she mostly have worked in TV, but it's Randa Haines. She directed Childen of a Lesser god, and is very good with atmosphere, and allowing actors to communicate through body language. If a lot of the film follows a single actor, you need someone who can elicit that. FWIW, she also directed some episodes of the attempt to recreate Alfred Hitchcock Presents in the 1980s. She also directed a lot of episodes of Hill Street Blues.

She's also good at something Roman Polanski is good at, which is making you wish you could see what is happening just off the screen, to the point that you shift in your seat, as though you could see more if you just craned your neck. A director who can switch scenes while keeping the audience mindful of the fact that other characters still exist is the kind of director this would need.

[Shaggyrand]

Haines is a good call. Maybe could go with an Italian director? Little CG work, strong sense of atmosphere. Michele Soavi, maybe? Dellamorte Dellamore is a personal favorite and highly recommended for anyone because it just is.

[curious4]

Actually Hitchcock did make a film along the lines of the Ripper murders. The film "Frenzy" he deals with a serial killer of prostitutes. It is a very good film and shows how difficult it is for the police to catch such a murderer. And of course there is "The Lodger" - same theme made in 1927. Frenzy did make me include an extra suspect in fact.

Best wishes
C4

[John G]

Actually Hitchcock did make a film along the lines of the Ripper murders. The film "Frenzy" he deals with a serial killer of prostitutes. It is a very good film and shows how difficult it is for the police to catch such a murderer. And of course there is "The Lodger" - same theme made in 1927. Frenzy did make me include an extra suspect in fact.

Best wishes
C4

Frenzy was a pretty good film. However, wasn't it inspired by the Jack the Stripper [Hammersmith Nude] murders?

[curious4]

Could well have been, but I think there are similarities with JTR.
The scene where the killer switches from nice ordinary man to psychopath is particularly good, I thought - and of course the potato scene!

Best wishes
C4

[RivkahChaya]

Actually Hitchcock did make a film along the lines of the Ripper murders. The film "Frenzy" he deals with a serial killer of prostitutes. It is a very good film and shows how difficult it is for the police to catch such a murderer. And of course there is "The Lodger" - same theme made in 1927. Frenzy did make me include an extra suspect in fact.

Best wishes
C4

In both those films, Hitchcock's actual focus was innocent people who fell under suspicion-- more so in The Lodger but really in Frenzy as well.

[SirJohnFalstaff]

If I buy that for Kindle on Amazon.UK, will I be able to read it on my US device?

Hi Trevor,

Not yet. I too didn't know if it was available in the U.S. But if I can order it here then I will put it on the short list.

unfortunately you can't. I have the same problems in Canada. Because of copyrights laws. check Amazon FAQ

[SirJohnFalstaff]

In the hands of a talented filmmaker, Jack the Ripper would make a terrific film. It'd be great if David Fincher would give 'The Autumn of Terror' a go, I think.

I think Fincher would make a great movie/TV serie, if the ending is open. Just a very realistic depiction of the police, witness and media, like he did with Zodiac.

[curious4]

In both those films, Hitchcock's actual focus was innocent people who fell under suspicion-- more so in The Lodger but really in Frenzy as well.

It seems it wasn't popular with the author of the novel the film was based on. His letter to the Times 29-5-1972:

"Sir, I wish I could share John Russell Taylor's enthusiasm for Hitchcock's distasteful film, Frenzy (review, May 24). I endured 116 minutes of it at a press showing and it was, at least to me, a most painful experience.

I do speak with some authority on this subject. It so happens that I am the author of the novel, Goodbye Piccadilly, Farewell Leicester Square, on which the film was based.

Mr Hitchcock employed Mr Shaffer to adapt my book for the screen, apparently because of the latter's successful stage play, Sleuth.

The result on the screen is appalling. The dialogue is a curious amalgam of an old Aldwych farce, Dixon of Dock Green and that almost forgotten No Hiding Place. I would like to ask Mr Hitchcock and Mr Shaffer what happened between book and script to the authentic London characters I created.

Finally : I wish to dissociate myself with Mr Shaffer's grotesque misrepresentation of Scotland Yard offices."

Oops!

Mind you, a journalist from "Film Comment" refers to the novel as "sour and sloppy".

C4

[packers stem]

In the hands of a talented filmmaker, Jack the Ripper would make a terrific film. It'd be great if David Fincher would give 'The Autumn of Terror' a go, I think.

I think the best concept is one that presents a "Jack" who is never specifically identified. Show "Jack" doing what we know he did. I think you'd have to make some concessions in accepting, for a lack of a better term, some witness testimony that may or may not be accurate. I think that Elizabeth Long's statement would show very well on film, with the Ripper, obscured and unrecognizable asking Champman, "Will you?" and Chapman, replying, "Yes".

I think that Joseph Lawende's encounter near Mitre Square and Louis Diemschutz's cart ride would make excellent scenes.

Agree totally Patrick.Would love to see a film with all the right locations and witnesses,something factually correct.Not a Lees or Mansfield in sight...schwartz legging it down the street would be ace

[Mayerling]

I wrote a fictional short story, entitled "With Malice Toward None" in college. It took a cue from Bernard Shaw's "independent genius" reformer idea, and made the man too methodical for his own good when he needed to be more innovative on a sudden impulse. He did not die at the end, but was flummoxed by a copy cat.

Jeff