Jack the Ripper (1988)

[alex_the_droog]

I thoroughly enjoyed this when it was first broadcast in 1988 and have watched it several times over the years.
I do recall Sir William Gull's decendants being rather upset at the reveal at the end and went to the press to rubbish the show.

It always annoyed me that the Charles Warren, Prime Minister & SI Chalmers characters all said during the series " catch this killer, no matter who it is" and low and behold covered Gulls involvement, lol.

[Phil H]

Reputedly they shot a number of endings and the actors involved did not know which would be used.

I think one version must have had Jane Seymour's character as "Jill" the Ripper - she does not appear at the end notwithstanding the romance with Caine's Abberline; he seems more depressed than would be explained by Gull being revealed as the killer; and Caine has scratches on his cheek which I suspect Seymour gave him in one of the unused endings. One day, I hope we might get a dvd with all the endings that were filmed.

It always annoyed me that the Charles Warren, Prime Minister & SI Chalmers characters all said during the series " catch this killer, no matter who it is" and low and behold covered Gulls involvement, lol.

Surely that was the script's attempt (or one of them) to get across cynicism and duplicity - Abberline the straight cop floundering among these "politicians". Had it not been for his superiors he would have/did solve the case.

Phil

[jason_c]

Reputedly they shot a number of endings and the actors involved did not know which would be used.

I think one version must have had Jane Seymour's character as "Jill" the Ripper - she does not appear at the end notwithstanding the romance with Caine's Abberline; he seems more depressed than would be explained by Gull being revealed as the killer; and Caine has scratches on his cheek which I suspect Seymour gave him in one of the unused endings. One day, I hope we might get a dvd with all the endings that were filmed.

It always annoyed me that the Charles Warren, Prime Minister & SI Chalmers characters all said during the series " catch this killer, no matter who it is" and low and behold covered Gulls involvement, lol.

Surely that was the script's attempt (or one of them) to get across cynicism and duplicity - Abberline the straight cop floundering among these "politicians". Had it not been for his superiors he would have/did solve the case.

Phil

This sums up 90% of cop shows.

[Phil H]

This sums up 90% of cop shows.

I thought that in MOST cop shows over the years the policeman DID get his man - Lewis, Morse, Ironside, CSI, NCIS etc etc spring to mind.

[Phil Carter]

Hello all,

I have always thought that one of the best actors in this film was George Sweeney, who played the part of John Netley.

kindly

Phil

[Monty]

Phil H,

The book, which was better in my opinion, had four endings also.

It also had a glossary for phrases such as grumble n grunt, dollymopsand my favourite letting go the painter.

Monty

[kensei]

Reputedly they shot a number of endings and the actors involved did not know which would be used.

I think one version must have had Jane Seymour's character as "Jill" the Ripper - she does not appear at the end notwithstanding the romance with Caine's Abberline; he seems more depressed than would be explained by Gull being revealed as the killer; and Caine has scratches on his cheek which I suspect Seymour gave him in one of the unused endings. One day, I hope we might get a dvd with all the endings that were filmed.

Phil

Without digging the tape out of my extensive VHS collection to check, I have watched this movie many times and I think I can say with some assurance that Michael Caine does not have scratches on his face in that last scene. It is the actor playing George Godley whose face is quite badly scratched, which is face burn from his having tackled Gull on the cobbles. If Caine seems overly depressed, he has Abberline dealing not only with his success in solving the case needing to be kept secret but also with Jane Seymour's character having broken things off with him earlier over his insistence on persecuting Richard Mansfield as a suspect. I agree with you though, that if there were alternate endings filmed seeing them on DVD would be great fun.

[sdreid]

Do we know who the other two endings were about? In the movie there were more than two others who were hinted at as suspects. I can think of perhaps 6.

[Monty]

Stan,

The book had Gull, Prince Albert V, Lusk and another who I can't recall now.

Monty

[fanoofez]

As there's been a few postings on the mini-series, I thought I'd repost something I wrote back in 2009, which didn't get many responses at the time...

===================

I've been relistening to the commentary on the Anchor Bay Special Edition DVD of the 1988 Michael Caine drama Jack the Ripper with director/writer/producer David Wickes and researcher, Sue Davies.

Both Wickes and Davies are quite insistent that the then embargoed Ripper files were being systematically gutted of information by people unknown prior to their public release. Conducting research for the drama, the production team had been granted privileged prior access to the files and Sue Davies states that this removal of information was still happening during the time that she was researching their contents. Things that were there one visit had vanish the next. They also keep reiterating the point that because the files were embargoed for 100 years, the identity of the Ripper must have been known and had to be someone of some note as there would have been no point locking them away for a century otherwise.

What are people's thoughts about this? Is there any evidence that vast swathes of material had been removed from the files around that time?

Wickes is also quite scathing about various Ripper researchers, saying that he fell out with many of them (he only names Dan Farson), complaining that they really hadn't done any proper research into the case. Do we know who Wickes fell out with other than Farson?

[Rob Clack]

Stan,

The book had Gull, Prince Albert V, Lusk and another who I can't recall now.

Monty

Doctor Llewellyn if memory serves.

Rob

[sdreid]

Thanks Monty and Rob.

I don't remember them pushing Emma/"Jill" much as a suspect in the movie. As I recall, they made stronger allusions to Gull, PAV, Acland, Lees, Netley, Lusk, Llewellyn and Mansfield so with her and them they were teasineg us with 9 potential "Jacks".

[Rob Clack]

Just checked the book and my memory didn't serve me very well. The fourth man in the book is Sergeant Spratling. It was the t.v. series that treated Doctor Llewellyn suspicously.

Rob