Prostitutes around a bar called Pike’s Hole in Whitechapel are being slaughtered by an unknown assailant that has been dubbed Jack the Ripper (Klaus Kinski). His latest victim is Sally Brown (Francine Custer). The Ripper stabs her to death and takes her dead body to a make shift operating room in an old greenhouse of a rundown mansion. Living in the mansion is a simple minded woman named Frieda (Nikola Weisse). Frieda runs errands for the Ripper, like get rid of parts of dead bodies by tossing them in the Thames.
Besides a regular doctor’s office Jack also rents rooms from a widow named Mrs. Baxter (Olga Gebhard). During the day Jack the Ripper is in reality Dr. Dennis Orloff. Mrs. Baxter is in love with the doctor but he is unable to have a normal relationship with a woman. Orloff’s psychological decay is due to his bad relationship with his abusive prostitute mother. Orloff’s resentment has warped him into a serial killer of ladies of the night. Because he is a doctor he also slices and dices them.
Inspector Anthony Selby (Andreas Mannkopff) from Scotland Yard is charged with finding the killer. He and his assistant Sergeant Rupert (Peter Nüsch) are stymied. He hauls in his meager supply of witnesses, a blind beggar named John Bridger (Hans Gaugler), an old lady named Miss Higgins (Ursula von Wiese), a drunken, unemployed man, who claims to be a fisherman, named Charlie (Herbert Fux), a coachman (Mike Lederer), and some prostitutes. Eventually a sketch artist puts together a fairly decent portrait of the killer. Charlie recognizes the picture as his doctor, Dr. Orloff. He keeps the information to himself thinking that, what he believes to be a rich doctor is ripe for blackmail. Unfortunately for Charlie he is trying to blackmail a murderer who is good at what he does.
In the meantime, Selby’s ballerina girlfriend, Cynthia (Josephine Chaplin) has seen the police artist sketch. While waiting for Selby, Orloff appears at the window of her cab and stares at her. Cynthia recognizes Orloff but Orloff is mesmerized because Cynthia looks like the Ripper’s long dead prostitute mother. Cynthia understands that Selby is getting a lot of pressure from the public to find the ripper. She decides to go undercover on the streets of Whitechapel looking for him, but never tells her boyfriend what she is up to. While she is looking for Jack the Ripper, Jack is looking for her.
“Jack the Ripper” AKA “Der Dirnenmörder von London” was released in 1976 and was directed by Jesus Franco. It is a West German, Spanish and Swiss co-production horror movie. The film was shot without sound and then dubbed into various languages.
The plot is basically Franco’s film “The Awful Dr. Orloff” 1962 only with Jack the Ripper. Dr. Orloff is still in the movie as the killer but here he has the moniker of Jack to draw in Ripper fans. It’s not as well done as “Orloff” but you get to see Kinski have simulated sex with a dead girl. It’s basic Franco but not anywhere near the real Jack the Ripper story.