Original subtitles

Keep walking.

Here. Where do you think you're going?

Oh, officer.

You did give me a start.

You know the rule about unaccompanied women being out in the streets after

nine. I was only going to be rooms.

Yes? Where's that?

Right down there.

All right. Hop it.

Is he about tonight?

Is who about?

You know who.

Or else what are you doing out in this damp?

Him, the murderer.

Look, of it. The same as butchered all those girls.

Either you buzz off or I'm going to walk you down to the police station.

Wow.

All's well around here, George.

What do I look like? Who can I be?

All the blinking coppers is out after me. They think I'm here. They think I'm

there. But when they come to collar me, I'll vanish in the air. Oh, what do I

look like? Who can I be?

Well, here's a bit of something you can say of me.

I ain't a butcher.

I ain't a kid. And I ain't a foreign skipper.

I'm just your own dear loving friend.

Yours truly, Jack the Ripper!

A surgeon's scalpel.

An instrument of mercy in the hands of a skilled physician.

A lethal weapon in the hands of a madman. A murderer such as the subject

of our story for tonight.

Now, no one knows who this man was. No one ever saw his face.

His identity has always been one of the world's great mysteries.

He killed only women, and only a certain kind of women.

And his murders were often accompanied by strange and forbidding rites.

For months on end, he terrorized London, defying whole divisions of police.

And it was they who nicknamed him Jack the Ripper.

Well, he disappeared from the scene as suddenly as he had come.

But... similar murders followed at intervals in other countries.

There are many who believe that Jack the Ripper still walks the Earth, still

continues his diabolical activities.

That's a chilling thought, especially when it's accompanied by highly

convincing proof that it may be true.

Let us discover the facts for ourselves in the company of such distinguished

players as...

Mr. John Williams.

Mr. Donald Woods.

Mr. Edmund Ryan.

And Miss Nancy Valentine.

I suggest that you viewers draw just a little closer together.

The rep are always struck down solitary victims, you know.

It would be a pity if a member of our audience became dismembered.

If you remember, gentlemen, I sent you a telegram after the July killing.

Watch for another murder in exactly 24 days.

We've been getting all kinds of phony tips, crank letters, phone calls, all

sorts of things.

But that third murder did occur, didn't it?

Exactly when I said.

In the same district, in the same way.

And I've flown in from Washington to tell you that there will be another

murder three nights from now.

What is he, a crystal gazer?

I told you, Sir Guy's in the British Embassy.

Medical liaison Captain Jekyll. M.D., fellow in the Royal College of

Physicians, sent ex-pathologist to Scotland Yard. Well, that's quite a

record, but it doesn't mean he can see what's gonna happen night after

tomorrow. Sir Guy says there'll be six murders all told unless we stop them.

What we have here is a psycho, a schizo. Isn't that right, Johnny? It's possible,

Pete. Dr. Carmody is consulting psychiatrists with the police

department. Now, why don't you talk this over with him?

Captain Jago feels that the murderer is a psychopath whose aberrations are

paranoid. That perhaps he's trying to imitate Jack the Ripper.

I don't agree. It is Jack the Ripper.

These murders have been repeated at certain intervals ever since they first

began. Now, I have a chart here which shows... A chart. They always have a

chart. All right, Pete, let's see what it is, shall we?

Now, these murders reoccur every three years and eight months, as rhythmic as

the tides.

For the past 70 years, they've left a trail of blood all around the world, and

the record of it is here with places and dates.

Now, they began in London in 1888, and the next group of six murders occurred

in Jersey City, 1891-92.

then Shanghai, then Vladivostok at the turn of the century, and so on and so

on. Now, here are news reports, a police photograph.

I worked on these cases for 30 years, been over the actual ground, talked with

officials. Now, none of these Ripper murders received the notoriety of those

in London. Many went almost unnoticed, but they did occur.

The pattern is there, the trail of unsolved crimes.

Now, here is the projection of the present series of murders.

Look for yourself, sir. What does it show? Just what you said.

Another killing coming up.

But it can't be Jack the Ripper. If he's still alive, he'd be 90 or more.

He is alive, and he's in this city.

Sir Guy, a man that age is a very frail creature.

When a woman, anyone, is struggling for life, she becomes strong, desperately

strong. A man the Ripper's age couldn't possibly handle him.

Suppose he hasn't got any older.

What was that? I said, suppose Jack the Ripper hasn't got any older.

But everybody gets older.

Police, doctors, maniacs, everybody.

Not everybody, Captain Jacob.

Well, with all respect, Sir Guy, you must admit that by the natural process

of living... What about the unnatural processes of living?

and these most unnatural murders. I've studied everything about them,

especially their dates and the pattern made by those dates.

I've studied their rhythm, the solar and lunar rhythm, the sidereal aspect, even

the astrological significance.

Now, suppose Jack the Ripper didn't murder for murder's sake alone.

Suppose he wanted to make a sacrifice.

What kind of sacrifice?

And it is said that if the blood sacrifice is made at the proper time,

with the proper ceremonies, when the moon and the stars are right,

the gods grant a boon.

A boon of eternal youth.

You seriously suggest that Jack the Ripper is still young?

You'll see for yourself if we catch him.

I just don't believe it.

We'll go into that another time.

Now, I'll leave this material here with you, if you don't mind.

You can find me at my hotel.

But the important thing is, have I persuaded you to take special

precautions three nights from now and prevent another murder?

I hope so, gentlemen.

Rhythms, blood sacrifices, boons of youth.

This cookie is really crumbling.

You know, if you really made an effort, I think you could get the other foot in

your mouth. What do you mean by that?

I think he means you might be more tactful, Pete.

Tactful? I have got three unsolved killings on the blotter. I'm supposed to

be charming to every flaco who comes in here with a cloudy crystal ball?

That flaco, as you call him, happens to be one of the world's foremost doctors.

And the mayor says we gotta humor him. Aha!

Now it comes the mayor.

And all along, I thought that you were under Sir Starchy's spell.

It is possible, Pete, that you've been talking when you should have been

listening. All mouth and no ears at all.

No, I mean it. We have three murders here and not a single clue. And in comes

a man, not just any crackpot, mind you, with a theory.

Unnatural processes, eternal use. Are you kidding?

Not at all. He predicted the latest killing, gave you the date and the

district. He did that?

And now he says he can tell you when the next murder will take place. Bourgeois.

Have you got any better theories, Captain Jago? Well, since you don't,

obviously, you will extend Sir Guy every courtesy and cooperation.

You know, he may win you a promotion in spite of yourself.

Shouldn't Jago be back by now?

He's getting reports from his men.

He has quite a few of them staked out.

I think this is him coming now.

114, this is 12.

Anything over there?

Yeah.

Well, keep your eyes open.

Give me the mic, Joe.

Yeah, Charlie?

Jago. Back already?

Yeah, I'm back.

Everything okay there?

Yeah, we got the whole area blanketed.

Walkie-talkies at every stakeout. You've got an awful lot of ground to cover.

Yeah.

We're checking every alley and dead end five times an hour.

Can you close in fast enough?

Mm-hmm.

Well, if we get an alarm, we can surround any spot within 30 seconds.

Let's hope he shows.

Well, if he does, we're ready.

I'll talk to you later.

Do that.

So, we are going by your chart, Sir Guy. Waiting for the Ripper. But that doesn't

mean I buy it.

Ninety years old and still looks like a young man.

Evidently, you've never heard of the Comte de Saint-Germain.

The Comte who?

Saint-Germain.

It's a matter of record that for 150 years he remained unchained. He was

attached to the French court. Voltaire called him the man who never dies and

who knows everything.

He'd never tell how old he was or where he came from. Are you trying to tell me

that this Count and the Ripper are the same? No, no, no. He was a fabulous

character. No one ever saw him eat.

Are you kidding?

It's a mystery how he prolonged his life, but he did.

Well, modern medical science are working toward the same end today.

But I believe Jack the Ripper...

has achieved his own dark and dreadful way of doing it. What do you mean by

that? Well, I think somehow he thrives on the very lives he takes.

Most of his murders are like satanic rites.

Blood sacrifices, you mean?

Well, it goes deeper than that.

Well, if he's in the city, a cook like this wouldn't be hard to spot.

Sir Guy thinks he may be associating with the avant-garde painters and

musicians.

Well, John, is he?

What do you mean?

Well, he means most of them end up in my studio.

Your studio?

A vestige of my misspent youth. You may not believe this, Sagai, but before I

went into medicine, I studied sculpture.

And I still have some of my bohemian blood.

Artsy-crafty, hocus-pocus. There's a lot of hogwash.

Superstition. Like the way people used to believe that a murdered man's eyes

would open.

If the person who killed them passed by, his wounds start bleeding again.

Believe me, those things don't happen. I know.

I've tried them.

I'll tell you something else.

I don't believe anybody's gonna get knocked off tonight.

The Ripper will come.

He has to.

Oh, we'll see.

I'm just gonna check around again.

live around here yeah just up the block we have orders to see all you girls

safely off the streets why we don't want you getting hurt that's all you really

think this guy's around here who knows come on let's go

This your place?

How's this?

Oh, it's you.

Yeah, sure I remember you.

Yeah, I guess I could.

Where's the party?

Yeah, I know where it is.

I guess 20 minutes, half an hour, I don't know.

What's the number?

57.

Yeah, I got it. 57 and just walk in.

Okay.

Okay, honey. See you in a little while.

called to her through the window. And believe you me, I never saw anything

like what I saw in that room in all my born days.

I sure didn't get my name right. Maggie Radenick. I used to be a headliner in

burlesque. Miss Vavum of 1938.

Dr. Fisher, in the three previous cases here, did he follow a pattern? Were the

mutilations the same?

Not in the first killing.

All the others were exactly like this.

It's part of his ritual. He's always done it.

Right back to 1888.

All right, let the photographer have it a couple of minutes.

We found the body an hour ago.

Anything to work on?

Not a clue, nothing.

He was here.

He's gone.

Nobody heard him. Nobody saw him.

Shagai was right again, wasn't he?

And I'll give you another date, Captain Jager.

The night of the 22nd.

I can't worry about that.

I've got enough here.

When I think I had this whole section staked out, covered, and the papers,

they'll go big for this one.

Soon after Jack the Ripper disappeared from London, an artist said to be an

American vanished from his lodgings and left some bloodstained clothing behind.

Later on in Dusseldorf, after similar murders, the police learned of a man who

spent all his time studying in art galleries.

In Cleveland, a man who had vanished was said to be an art dealer.

And in Bordeaux, France, they discovered an artist who always destroyed his

pictures. which was what the man in London had done.

Now, none of these men were traced, but I believe it was the same person each

time. So, Guy, tell them what makes you think the Ripper might be hiding among

the artists here.

Art is limitless. It would give him an interest in living.

Also, he'd be less conspicuous among unconventional people.

I still... People don't see how a man can be 90 years old and look young.

Where is that chart you told us about?

Well, the police have it at the moment. But you know, there's a strange rhythm

to the Ripper's murders, just as there are cyclical rhythms which control other

things. There are rhythms which control the sunspots. Every 17 years, a

particular type of locust swarms and flies.

Every 14th year, the price of nutmeg peaks, then drops again.

But in the Ripper's murders, it's always 126 days between his first

and second murder, but only half that, 63 days between the second and the last,

the sixths.

Isn't it weird?

I've heard of these rhythms.

What causes them?

Ah, that's one of the mysteries of the universe.

Well, what do you want us to do?

Sir Guy just wanted to tell us why he's here. Maybe we can help him.

And when do you expect the ripper to rip again?

The guy says Saturday night. Oh, but that's less best than party night.

That's right. You'll find almost all the local painters there. It's kind of a

trade show, artists only.

But we'll get you in.

I'm just doing a picture for it now.

That's right. And if anybody's interested, I'm ready for you to look at

it right now.

There you are. What do you think?

I don't see why you had to paint me with all those dead flowers, Jaime.

You just spoiled a good picture.

If that's the way he sees you, Arlene, you can't argue with it.

Oh, he's dropped little spats of oil on it. It's still wet.

It looks like dew.

But it's not.

When I was painting it, I wanted to paint fresh, beautiful flowers, Arlene.

But that's the way it came out.

And that's not do, Rowena.

Those are teardrops.

So Guy has been talking about cycles and rhythms and murder and things we can't

account for.

Well, like I said, I'm with him.

All the time I was putting Arlene's face on that canvas, that song was going

through my head.

I'm your own dear, loving friend.

And I had a feeling with it.

What feeling, Jaime?

Come on, tell us.

If you want to know,

I feel like I'm standing looking down at wreaths and dead flowers.

And my heart is weeping inside.

And don't anybody ask who's below those flowers and wreaths.

Jaime, you get the silliest, the most lunatic ideas.

He's such a sensitive boy.

Just look at his work.

He's been reading about that girl.

You know, they're burying her tomorrow.

Isn't that right, Jaime?

I don't know.

But the feeling stays with me.

You have a morbid imagination, Jaime, associating Arlene with that dead girl.

Say, I have a wonderful idea.

Why don't we all go down to the cemetery?

I just love funerals.

Look at the crumbs.

Any one of them could be the Ripper. Or whatever he is.

We may as well have a look around.

You never know.

When this is over, you watch this gate.

I'll take the one down there.

More gravy for the papers.

Look at this from New York. Here she is right after the casket broke. The whole

front page.

And get this headline.

Four murders and the last corpse opens its eyes.

Here's another.

Dead four days, but who is she looking at?

I've never known a four-day-old cadaver to open its eyes. Have you?

Never. All nature's against it.

Now, I'd like to see what you think of this.

You have four murder spots here.

When there are six...

and you join them together in the right way, they'll form a sign.

Now, I have one here from the Black Mass.

He formed it in Calcutta.

And another he formed in Milan, the medieval sign for Beelzebub.

But why does he do it?

An invocation to the dark gods, perhaps.

But if I could guess the sign he's making now, I could say approximately

where the next murder will occur.

Maybe he can figure it out.

I intend to try.

But he could be any one of a thousand.

All this jazz about the Ripper living off the lives he takes, it doesn't make

sense. If you told me it was his son or something, I might buy it. It might even

be a psycho imitating the Ripper. But that is all it is.

Leave it right there, Pete.

Look at all the time we wasted on that crummy idea about the dead girl looking

at them. Are you finished?

No.

I don't think we should just stake out that arty party. I think we should do

more than that. What gave you the idea we weren't?

We're gonna move into that whole area with extra lighting.

Flood lamps, field lights, keep the streets lit up.

You think that'll stop them?

No.

It'll give us a better chance to see them.

How about all those people you were discussing? Will they be at the party?

Everybody will be there.

Including Jack the Ripper?

I believe he will.

Ah, Sir Kai.

Have some punch.

Now, if only Lester would get here, we can get started.

Lester! Lester!

What color, what feeling.

What a pity you'd have no talent.

Oh, that's a nice hat, Chloe.

I like it better every time I see it.

It's positively egregious.

It gives me a feeling, a certain something.

Nausea.

Ah, you do have... Taste, Rowena.

Bad taste, but taste.

Ah, have you picked out the Ripper yet?

No, not yet, Mr. Best.

Let me tell you how to catch him.

Everybody here knows Sir Guy.

He's the man that's looking for Jack the Ripper.

He thinks he's here among us.

Tell you what we're going to do.

We're going to put Sir Guy in the middle of the room and turn out all the lights.

Then when you feel him at your throat, all you've got to do is grab him.

That's a very good idea, Mr. Baston.

But there's just one little thing wrong with it.

The Ripper is only interested in women.

Excuse me.

Ah.

Well, now to the business at hand.

I have to slip away soon on account of my little girl.

It's her, Jaime, painted in the picture.

You can see she has hair like mine, only... Only it's finer and it's much

lighter. Yes, she looks charming.

A natural platinum blonde.

I'm proud of her.

She stays with her grandmother most of the time.

She's been sick lately.

Been in the children's hospital four days.

You know, she won't even go to sleep at night until I go and say goodnight to

her.

I'm only waiting to see who gets the ribbons, and then I'm going to leave.

Oh, I wanted to see me looking pretty.

You're more than pretty.

You're beautiful.

Well, I know I'm supposed to be, but I've never been told that by anyone like

you.

That's something after all the English beauties you must know.

After all, Mr. Carmody's counting the ballots now, and as soon as he gets them

counted, he'll bring them here. Class, here are the winners.

Oh, thank you, Mr. Carmody.

It's the gold ribbon.

He's going to get that one first.

The best picture in the room?

She said she'd be right back. We'll tell her later.

All the while, I had that feeling there'd be dead flowers.

Me looking down on them.

And here I am.

Been coming here every day.

Gets me.

Did I know something was gonna happen?

Like it was fated?

Or did I give somebody the idea?

You see what I mean?

Was it really just a crazy thought I had, but the Ripper heard me talking

about it and made it come real?

I always believed he was hiding among the sort of people you and John know.

It had to be someone who knew she always went to the hospital that way.

Yeah.

It's funny.

I picked these out and sent them for the kid.

She hasn't been told yet.

Her grandmother's got her now.

I used to think about marrying Arlene.

You know, we got along real fine, and...

Let's go, huh?

Hey, listen, wait a minute.

You think I ought to talk to the police about it?

I don't think it would help, Jaime.

Everybody knew about the painting and about the child being in the hospital.

Yeah, I suppose so.

It's just an idea.

I get the shivers when I think about that Ripper being around all the time,

and nobody knows him.

He's five down and one to go now, isn't that right?

Does your chart say when he'll do the next?

Nine days after that happened.

And a week has gone already.

Yeah.

That is, of course, Crux Caputata, also called the Christian cross, the sign of

signs. No single emblem is more exalted.

Now, I said that the Ripper was making a sign on your map here.

This is where Arlene was murdered.

Now, I found a sign which fits these five spots, and I think it indicates

where he will attempt his last killing.

It's a sign used in the irreligious black mass, the broken cross.

See where this falls?

Ferry Street and Bow Lane. I worked out the exact spot. It's the north corner.

The north corner. Well, you know the place.

A lot of arty people used to go there.

Yeah, it's changed hands. They've got strippers in there now.

Now, I've seen that sign before.

Our vice squad raids some very peculiar places.

They don't just use the broken cross and the black mass.

They break a crucifix. Yes, I know.

Now, Sir Guy has been right about the date.

I think he's hit the place this time, too.

Yes, but that may be the wrong sign.

Now, this one, this one fits all five places, but it sets the six over

here.

This is the devil's eye.

Of course, these signs are a debased form of art.

Here, try the others. I think you'll find they all turn out differently.

Well, anyway, we're gonna have to cover the whole area again.

Can't just concentrate on Ferry Street and Bull Lane. But I'll use men out of

uniform around there. The trouble is, we still don't know what he looks like.

We don't really know who we're looking for.

He could even be a woman.

Tell me, what goes on in a place like this?

It's not what goes on, it's what comes off.

No, I mean, what does one do?

First of all, you check that umbrella and that hat.

Then you sit at a table and order a drink.

Then you watch some attractive young ladies disrobe.

What? You mean, in the altogether?

Yes, in the altogether.

Well, let's not delay a moment, old man.

we'll get him to that.

She's exactly the sort of woman who attracts the Ripper.

audience several in the rooming house in the place above he may show there you

know more men outside but it's as you said you could look at him and still not

know him that's what we're up against he'll have to do something won't he

before we know he's even here that's what we were waiting for when we staked

out the other places perhaps one of us should go backstage make sure this girl

is all right yes good idea i'll do it sir

Well, what do you want?

Are you all right?

Well, of course I'm all right. Why shouldn't I be?

I just wanted to make sure, that's all.

Well, now you've made sure.

Yes.

Thank you.

I saw one of Captain Jago's men back there.

So, Guy, what will you do if the Ripper does get away with it again?

No, I shan't give up.

I still don't understand why he goes on.

What's his purpose?

He goes on because he can't stop.

If he stops, then he dies.

He's a figure of evil.

A vampire who fattens not on blood, but on life itself.

Ghoul nourished by death.

Thirty years I've been after him, and it may end tonight in this place.

If it doesn't, I'll probably turn everything I have over to Interpol and

the authorities of whatever country he appears in.

Perhaps I should have done that long ago.

They're a pretty practical bunch. I'm afraid you'll have a hard time

convincing them.

If I convinced Captain Jago, I can convince anybody.

You know...

It's very close in here. Oh, it's awful.

I suppose it's what they call atmosphere, isn't it? Yes.

Now, look.

Why don't we go outside and get a breath of fresh air? Excellent idea. Come on.

That's better.

We've missed him, don't you think?

Well, the night's still young.

He wouldn't be fool enough to show himself. The place is crawling with

police. But does he know that? I'm sure he does.

He'll get away all right.

Tonight, perhaps.

But now we know how he operates.

It's only a matter of time.

Have you got a match? I left my light on the table, then.

That's a knife.

I know.

Not

John.

Jack.