Seven Murders for Scotland Yard

1971's "7 Murders for Scotland Yard" (Jack el Destripador de Londres) appears to have been the first Paul Naschy vehicle in which the star moves away from the shadow of El Hombre Lobo, though it was shot on the same London locations as 5th entry "Dr. Jekyll and the Werewolf." This Spanish-Italian coproduction finds the beefy actor as downtrodden suspect in a series of baffling knifings that deliberately echo the brutality of 1887's Jack the Ripper, the culprit using incriminating notes and various body parts to taunt the admittedly hapless police. Naschy's Bruno is a former circus acrobat whose career ended after a fall, and our first on screen victim is his own wife, whose meager earnings as a prostitute allowed him to frequent Soho pubs for yet another beverage of choice. There are shades of Hitchcock with authorities fingering the wrong man, and the influence of Peter Lorre's 1931 "M" crops up when even the underworld frowns on such a dastardly killer making things more difficult for them. Alas, the whole thing simply plods along in perfunctory fashion, the killings staged identically with graphic closeups of the phallic blade conducting its penetrations with no nudity and very little blood shown, comparable more to German krimi than Italian Giallo, none of the female targets developed to any likable degree (only a small child escapes the mayhem). Like his 1973 film "The Blue Eyes of the Broken Doll," Naschy's surly protagonist may not be guilty but he's hardly innocent, leaving behind his share of corpses as he successfully evades the cops (the lack of suspects makes the killer's identity painfully easy). Director Jose Luis Madrid would collaborate with Naschy on two more obscure features, 1973's "The Crimes of Petiot" and 1977's "Comando Txikia: Muerte de un Presidente."

7 Murders For Scotland Yard? There might have been… to be honest, I wasn't keeping a tally of the killings; instead, I was counting down the minutes to the end of this dreadfully dull Spanish giallo starring Iberian horror icon Paul Naschy as Pedro, an ex-trapeze artist (sh'yeah right!) with a manky leg who is suspected of committing a series of grisly London murders in which the young female victims have their organs surgically removed, Jack the Ripper style.

With way too much in the way of boring police procedure, repetitive killings that deliver minimal (and unconvincing) gore, and very little of the style to be found in many Italian giallos, about the only thing that the film really has to offer fans of '70s Euro horror are a few reasonably attractive women in various states of undress (although there's no actual nudity, quite the rarity for this kind of film) and some authentic location work (that said, the scene where Naschy has a knife fight with three men clearly wasn't shot in London—we don't have crickets chirping loudly in the evenings).

3.5 out of 10, generously rounded up to 4 for the hilarious scene in which a victim's severed head is delivered to a police inspector, and then casually passed around the station so that everyone can take a look.

JACK THE MANGLER ( 1971 ) starring Paul Naschy aka SEVEN CORPSES ( MURDERS ) FOR Scotland YARD This is a very hard to see film, but is worth the hunt for fans of Naschy and also giallo knock offs. It's a decent thriller with a mysterious Jack the Ripper wanna be who kills each victim with a distinctive blade, each from a different country. One by one, prostitutes are turning up dead and missing various body parts, a set of eyes here, a heart there. One of the early victims is Naschy's whore for hire wife, and he becomes a suspect in the early investigations, despite the fact that a younger, athletic man is the type sought, and Naschy has a gimpy leg from a high wire accident that ended his circus career. The local criminal element has it in for him as well, the murders bring the cops down on them and it's hurting business. The mystery of who the killer is and why he's so eager to carve up the local tarts is decent giallo fodder and satisfied me. Orchidea de Santis provides some hotness and Andres Resino ( the boyfriend in WEREWOLF SHADOW ) does OK as a friend of the cop running the investigation. The copy I watched is from VSoM and looks like a 3rd gen dub. It's in Italian with English subs that get the job done. Sadly, it's also the covered version of the film and not the nude version that was prepared for export. The film was dubbed into English had played the US in 1976, and this presumably was the uncovered variant, but it's whereabouts are unknown. A real shame as it's up there with a lot of the Italian giallos and without the nudity, it comes off as a bit tame considering it's subject matter. Here's hoping it turns up someday, it's on the list with a few others that really need their nude versions found so these films can be properly appreciated. The plot description that mentions Jack's a cannibal this time around is bogus BTW.

The giallo was an Italian invention; however, there were several Spanish movies that are accepted entries in the genre. Seven Murders for Scotland Yard is a pretty typical example of this sub-genre of the sub-genre. It stars Iberian horror icon Paul Naschy in the lead role. In it he plays medical student turned acrobat who is the chief suspect in a series of prostitute murders in London. The killings recall the work of Jack the Ripper.

This is a pretty routine murder-mystery. It's hampered a bit by its low budget. It lacks the sense of style that most of its Italian counterparts had, so it comes across as somewhat more rough-edged. The murders themselves have pretty crude gore effects, while there is a distinct lack of nudity. The latter is clearly as a result of the Spanish origins, seeing as this was made in Franco's Spain and film nudity was a bit of a no-no – Spaniards like Jesus Franco had to make films in France and West Germany in order to ramp up the sex. The mystery itself isn't bad as such but the small cast means that there really aren't a lot of suspects to begin with. Still, it's certainly an entertaining enough flick, just don't go into it expecting too much.

Most people perhaps don't know this, but back in the 1970s, the Spanish horror monument Paul Naschy occasionally did more than just put on his furry werewolf coat and depict Waldemar Daninsky in the legendary and long-running "Hombre Lobo" series! Some of this non- wolf man movies rank among the absolute greatest things he ever did, in fact, like for example "The Hunchback of the Morgue", "Inquisition" and "The Hanging Woman". In that same decade, Naschy also starred in three very worthwhile Spanish variations of the Italian giallo: "Blue Eyes of the Broken Doll", "A Dragonfly for Each Corpse" and this "7 Murders for Scotland Yard"; in which a vicious serial killer copycats the modus operandi of Jack the Ripper in contemporary London. The most entertaining thing about Paul Naschy movies – and this goes for practically ALL Paul Naschy movies – is that he clearly worships himself and seemingly always insists to portray an invincible hero! Even though Nashy was relatively short-sized and rather chubby, the most ravishing women always fall head over heels in love with him and he always beat his opponents in bare-knuckle fights even though they are much fitter. In this particular movie, we are even supposed to believe that Naschy's character – Pedro – was a former trapeze artist in a circus. I can guarantee that it's quite a hilarious sight to see him in his bright purple tights…

"7 Murders for Scotland Yard" is a fun and undemanding giallo that delivers the goods in terms of sleaze, bloodshed and grotesque plot twists. The whodunit-aspect is rather weak, since there are only three primary suspects in the murder investigation and, since it's fairly obvious straight from the beginning that someone is blatantly trying to frame Naschy's character, there are actually just two… More than 80 years after Jack the Ripper terrorized London, someone is once again targeting prostitutes and removing their organs with utmost surgical accuracy. Pedro, the former circus artist who now drinks too much and stumbles around on a handicapped leg, becomes Inspector Campbell's main suspect when also his girlfriend's lifeless corpse gets discovered. While the corpses keep piling up, and Pedro tries to look for the killer on his own, Inspector Campbell is busy blabbering with his best friend Winston. The murders are quite grim and explicit, and after a while Jack the Ripper doesn't restrict himself to prostitutes and even slashes an extremely young and cherubic school girl. What else is there to say about "7 Murders for Scotland Yard"? Well, perhaps that whoever invented this alternative title clearly cannot count properly, as there are far more murders being committed than seven. The biggest shortcomings of Spanish gialli in comparison to their Italian counterparts are undoubtedly the lack of style, the shortage of imaginative camera-work and the absence of a memorable soundtrack. José Luis Madrid's direction is anonymous and flat, but there's enough action and the connection with Jack the Ripper is original.