I was torn about whether or not I should write about this borefest from 1974. There’s really very little going for it, and although it’s less than an hour long, the time drags intolerably. Originally known by it’s much better title, ‘A Knife for the Ladies’, the film was rebranded ‘Jack the Ripper Goes West’ in an obvious attempt to dupe Ripper fans into wasting their money. There is no Jack the Ripper in ‘Jack the Ripper Goes West’. We have a knife-wielding crazy that goes west and kills prostitutes, but that is a close as you get to any comparison with Jack the Ripper.
Given that I clearly dislike this film, you may be wondering why I’ve decided to write about it… Well… for about three minutes, ‘Jack the Ripper Goes West’ has some truly fantastic music – music that doesn’t make sense within the context of the film. And if this turgid nugget of reconstituted fecal mess has three redeeming minutes of musical bliss, I feel it is my duty to bring it to your attention. Before we get stuck into the good stuff, let us talk a bit about the film.
Welcome to the barren desert town of Mescal – a town with all the civic charm of a severed arse. Because I refuse to invest much time explaining this film, the following clip should set things up nicely.
As you can see, the film lacks even a rudimentary dynamism. Everything is paced poorly and the lack of any real sound design, gives this film a dead feeling. So we have a killer on the loose in Mescal, and this Doctor Who-looking reject has been called in to see if he can figure things out.
kill me. kill me now.
And for the next 45 minutes, we watch as Mr. Burns, and a band of western movie stereotypes investigate the deaths of these ladies, blaming innocent people in the process. And this is where the film gets especially ponderous. Even if we disregard how boring the storyline is, one may still expect to encounter some gore to make up for what the film lacks in other areas… but you’d be wrong. This film is much more interested in charting the procedural happenings of the investigation. In lieu of any action, I present to you the following scene wherein a woman is slapped – perhaps to wake her (and the viewer) up.
Now I’ll get to my reason for this article… the music! As you may have been able to tell from the above clips, the bulk of the music in ‘Jack the Ripper Goes West’ is banal, stock-standard orchestration – instantly forgettable. It supplements the visuals quite well, I have to say. One of the most frustration things about this film is that, during the opening credits, we’re presented with some truly amazing, completely bizarre synthesizer fuckery. Through a low fidelity fuzz, the droning synthesizer bends and contorts while a ghostly female voice chants over the top. This is the sort of music that would be perfectly at home in the modern world of underground cassette tapes. It’s a beautiful, erie, all-too-short taste of something wonderful. It’s just a shame that it is followed by 50 minutes of rubbish. So, to save you the trouble of watching this film, please listen to the opening credit music below:
I would dearly love to give someone the credit for this piece of music, but I can’t find information on the composer anywhere. It’s a shame because they were responsible for just about the only thing worth mentioning. Perhaps it was the producer’s son who was doodling around with his synthesizer in his bedroom… who knows? Maybe it’s good that it remains a mystery. After this minute and a bit of gold, we must then endure the film itself, but if you manage to stick it out, you WILL be rewarded by a completely ‘what the fuck’ moment courtesy of the song, ‘Evil Lady’, performed by Michael Stull and written by about 50 people. ‘Evil Lady’ is a funky, Django-esque song that has no place bookending such a slow, ponderous movie. Imagine if ‘Little Women’ ended with the theme from SHAFT? That’s kind of what this is like. I have reason to believe that Michael Stull is the vocalist of a band called ‘The Wackers’ who were responsible for this album:
I am very happy to report that this album is called ‘Wackering Heights’, which just seems so fitting. So without further adieu, here is the song ‘Evil Lady’:
Sadly, I can’t tell if I actually like this song or whether I’m just fond of it because it marks the end of this terrible film.
So… was this article worth it? Does it makes sense to dedicate so much time to a dreadful film simply because you quite like 3 minutes of music within? You can be the judge of that. Just be thankful that you don’t have to watch this film.
3 comments
Martin says:
Oct 23, 2013
Do you know where one can get the songs you put up here?
Matthew Revert says:
Nov 8, 2013
Hi Martin. Thanks for the comment. As far as I’m aware, the soundtrack for this film has never been made commercially available, nor has it leaked in a non-official way. The best bet would be to simply rip the audio from the film.
You may have better luck tracking down second hand copies of LPs by The Wackers on sites such as Discogs.
Steven Millan says:
Dec 8, 2014
Hard to believe that one of the genre name DVD/Blu ray companies(such as Shout!/Scream Factory,Scorpion Releasing,and Code Red) hasn’t stepped up to the plate in finding,dusting off,restoring(to HD digital),and releasing the 75-80 minute original cut of this film(with its original A KNIFE FOR THE LADIES title),since its 55 minute version is now OOP and extremely hard to find.