Seven Murders for Scotland Yard

This had been shown on late-night Italian TV some years back and, later, I recall it being mentioned favorably online; hence, given its theme of an updated version of Jack The Ripper and the fact that it starred Euro-Cult icon Paul Naschy, I decided to check it out this time around. However, it turned out to be quite a mess: not so surprising when considering that the only other J.L. Madrid film I've watched was the similarly dispiriting THE HORRIBLE SEXY VAMPIRE (1970)!; as in that film, the women here are mainly on screen in order to disrobe and get butchered.

The plot provides three possible suspects of the serial killings: a crippled and bitter ex-trapeze artist (Naschy) whose wife is among the victims, a handsome schoolteacher of noble birth but who's actually impotent and, surprisingly, a police commissioner who just happens to be the latter's boyhood chum and is also secretly in love with his wife (Orchidea De Santis, whom I saw in the flesh and on screen – in Luciano Salce's equally obscure but infinitely superior political satire, COUP D'ETAT [1969] – at the 61st Venice Film Festival)!

The Swinging London locations are just about the only authentic element here: both the gore and the occasional action scene look extremely phony; another clear measure of the film's lack of budget is that Naschy's accident (which continues to haunt him) is hilariously depicted simply by having the actor throw himself in front of the camera and utter a couple of none-too-convincing groans!

A serial killer is on the loose in modern day London, committing a series of murders that echo the work of Jack the Ripper from the previous century. Scotland Yard is once again on the case and their no. 1 suspect is Peter Dockerman (Paul Naschy), a drunk former trapeze artist (!) whose wife was one of the earliest victims.

This Naschy vehicle is a real snoozer. A majority of the time is comprised of stuffy Brits talking up their theories over and over. This is the kind of movie where you will guess the killer 20 minutes in (a small cast and telling line of dialog helps out here) and then you wait the next hour as they try to mislead you. It also doesn't help that the TeleVista DVD appears to be a clothed version (although sharp-eyed viewers will note that a flashback by the killer features a quick snippet of nudity). The DVD is nice though in that it is widescreen. The crew did a few days of actual shooting in London as Naschy limps around various tourist spots. It is quite fun watch the polite Brits always duck out of the way real quick as the camera pans to them.

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.

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.