Pedro Dorian (Paul Naschy) is a former acrobat who had to give up his livelihood when he fell during a high-wire performance and hurt his leg. He now walks with a noticeable limp and lives in a rundown apartment with his wife and former partner Marian. While Pedro mopes around and drinks, his wife goes to work as a prostitute. That night Marian is stabbed to death. She is the second prostitute to have been murdered in London. The press has started referring to the killer as Jack the Ripper.
Superintendent Chambers (Miguel Muniesa) assigns the case to Inspector Campbell (Renzo Marignano). Pedro becomes suspect number one. More prostitutes are murdered. Then “Jack” begins communicating with the police and sending them body parts from some of the murdered women. One correspondence from Jack says that he isn’t getting enough attention, so he is going to start killing respectable women. He sends the head of his next victim to the police.
Winston Amory (Andres Resino) is a schoolteacher who is married to Sandra (Orchidea De Santis). Inspector Campbell is in love with Sandra; however, she remains faithful to her husband. Winston is impotent and believes that Campbell and Sandra are having an affair. When Sandra becomes a victim of Jack, Winston is also looked at, but Superintendent Chambers is having difficulty in believing anyone other than Pedro is responsible.
As Campbell focuses on Pedro, the harried former acrobat decides that he must find the murderer himself and thereby clear his name. Pedro begins looking at Campbell as a potential suspect. It then becomes a game of who’s following whom.
“Seven Murders for Scotland Yard” AKA “Jack el destripador de Londres” or “Jack the Ripper of London” was released in 1971 and was directed by Jose Luis Madrid. It is an Italian Spanish horror mystery thriller and a giallo.
Although some don’t consider the film a real giallo, it does have most of the elements. Strict giallo fans believe that only Italian films are true gialli. Others allow for some Spanish produced films to be considered. Since this one is a co-production between the two countries, I have no problem labeling it as a giallo.
There are a lot more than seven murders in the movie, not to mention a fair number of red herrings. Even though there are a lot of murders and a fair amount of blood, the movie is sometimes a little bland.
The film is not great, but it is rather fun to watch. There isn’t as much sex or nudity as in most gialli but there is enough blood to keep it fully in the giallo genre. It’s also rather low budget wise and the acting is somewhat bad in places. None of that takes away from the film. The lack of nudity may have something to do with Spain’s obscenity laws under Franco and not Italy.