Jack the Ripper: The Murders and the Movies

No murderer in history is more enduringly fascinating, notorious, or mysterious than Jack the Ripper. And few are as cinematic, instantly evoking images of menacing alleyways, flickering gaslights and hansom cabs, swirling fog, prostitutes in their tawdry finery, and the cape-shrouded figure of a faceless stalker. In this absorbing guide, Denis Meikle looks at Jack the Ripper on the large and small screen. Close attention is paid to such standards as Baker and Berman's 1958 "Jack the Ripper" and Hammer Studio's 1971 "Hands of the Ripper, " as well as many less familiar examples of the Ripper genre. Meikle brings the story right up to the present with a penetrating account of the filming of "From Hell, " based on the groundbreaking graphic novel by Alan Moore and starring Johnny Depp and Heather Graham. Horror, costume drama, conspiracy theory: all the cinematic angles are explored, as the author uncovers the murky origins of the slasher genre.