Jack the Ripper Goes West – 1976
Some movies are just out to fool you. Or at least some releases of the movies out there. Apparently Jack the Ripper Goes West is also known as Knife for the Ladies which is a much better title. Jack the Ripper has nothing to do with this flick. The only similarity is that the women are killed with a knife and that they are prostitutes. Also, apparently, this movie is available on blu ray. I haven’t checked it out but I guess that it’s locked to region A. What fooled me is that I got it in a box with movies that are supposed to be very bloody. I did not expect a western in a box that looks like below. I guess they just took the title and thought that they could squeeze it in there. Maybe no one would notice.
To be fair, it’s a more bloody film than your average western. There are a couple of scenes with a knife slicing throats. But, as you can see below, this won’t qualify it into a bloodbath by any means. I thought it should be a really violent movie. After all, we all know how violent Jack the Ripper really was to his victims, especially a couple of them. Of course, you also need to take into consideration that Jack the Ripper Goes West was made in the mid-seventies. The movie climate was different back then. If it had been made as an independent movie today, there would surely be buckets of blood.
The box looks like this. Do you expect a western?
The story is about this little town where the murders occur and the way the murders don’t get solved. There is an eyewitness and the vigilantes aren’t slow to nail the “guilty” one. Of course, things are not as easy as they seem and once a private detective from out of town get involved the cases are investigated thoroughly. Nothing super-exciting. Once I’ve seen it though, I realized I’ve had this for a long time on VHS. I never saw it for some reason though. But as a final sentence on this review I’ll display the VHS cover which is by far the best of the three that are on display here. Doesn’t make the film better though.
VHS cover
