In this period, the most popular tale to set on screen was The Lodger. The 1930s and 1940s saw two film adaptations and one reworking of this story. Radio, too, got into the act, allowing Peter Lorre to play the Ripper and allowing a better-established Alfred Hitchcock to make his lodger guilty.

Despite the prevalence of the Lodger theme, Tod Slaughter managed to get a “Spring-heeled Jack” story into the mix. This character, often mistaken for Jack the Ripper, is actually a different English criminal (or legend) entirely. Slaughter’s film appears in the “Faux Rippers, False Sightings and Copycats” list because Spring-heeled Jack is so often conflated and confused with Jack the Ripper that some critics believe Curse of the Wraydons to be a Jack the Ripper film.

1930s-1940s Ripper films:
phantom fiend (1935) | the lodger (1944) | room to let (1949)

the phantom fiend (1935, US)
(a.k.a. the lodger, 1932, UK)

brief synopsis
Once again, Ivor Novello stars as a young lodger who lets a room at the Buntings’ in the midst of a string of Ripper killings. He, of course, exhibits strange behavior—turning pictures of women to the wall, exhibiting sympathy for the killer, and sneaking out late on the nights that killings occur. He even possesses the same musical skills and foreign nationality as the chief suspect. Again, his landlords become suspicious, and again Daisy’s presumed boyfriend Joe (a xenophobic reporter assigned to the killings) becomes angry at Daisy’s interest in his rival. This time, Joe’s suspicions seem confirmed when Mr. Bunting retrieves a bloody handkerchief from his lodger…

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The Phantom Fiend was the 1935 US title for The Lodger (1932). However, the film is best known by this alternate title today. One common misconception about The Phantom Fiend is that it is a slavish, scene-by-scene re-shoot of Hitchcock’s The Lodger. While it is true that Novello again stars, and that his lodger is again innocent, the two films do have significant differences… in plot, in atmosphere, and in the level of self-indulgence they allow their star.

types

Investigation Rippers: Similar to the plot of the 1926 Lodger, but in this case, the romantic rival is a reporter, and there’s a lot more nuts-and-bolts police procedural.
The Lodger Motif: Mad Avenger. In this version of The Lodger, the killer madly avenges his wife’s scandalous deception of him by killing women indiscriminately.

availability
Until very recently, The Phantom Fiend was unavailable on commercial video. It is now available on DVD.

the lodger (1944)

brief synopsis
When Mr. Slade, a pathologist, arrives to let a room with the Burtons, Mrs. Burton hopes that he will end their money problems. Soon, though, he exhibits standard “lodger” behavior - turning pictures of women to the wall, and sneaking out late at night when Ripper killings occur (for the first time in Lodger cinema, incidentally, the killer is actually called “Jack the Ripper”). Slade also inveighs against actresses and the deception of female beauty. His brother had been destroyed by such women. But perhaps most unsettling is that he burns his bloody ulster and rids himself of his black bag… arousing the suspicions of his landlords and drawing police attention. Do the police have their man, or will he - like earlier cinematic lodgers - turn out to be the wrong man?

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The Lodger is another early masterpiece in Ripper cinema. Some believe it to be the finest Ripper movie ever committed to screen. Its star, Laird Cregar, died of heart failure at the age of 28, after going on a crash diet. This is, incidentally, the first version of The Lodger to refer to the killer as “Jack the Ripper.”

types
Investigation Rippers: Unlike the earlier film versions of The Lodger, the policework in this film is all above-board. Investigators have no motivation other than catching the killer. George Sanders rivals Laird Cregar in his turn as the investigating detective on the case.
The Lodger Motif: Mad Avenger. Ripper kills actresses to avenge his brother’s death after falling for an actress. Laird Cregar is outstanding as Jack the Ripper.
Period Atmosphere: Excellent period atmosphere in its re-creation of upper class London, and even the Dance Hall.

availability
The last time I updated this film’s status, it was not available on commercial video but was rumored to be in the works. Now this classic is finally available on DVD, and it is even rentable from Netflix.

room to let (1949)

brief synopsis
In Room to Let, Curly Minter tells the story of a strange lodger who had let rooms at the Musgrave home, some 15 years after the Ripper killings. Fell had quickly taken over the lives of Mrs. Musgrave and her daughter Molly. But the reporter Curly began to suspect him of being Jack the Ripper, and a recent escapee from a local lunatic asylum. When Fell died, though, of a bullet to the heart in a perfectly sealed room, the mysterious killing remained unsolved for 40 years… and so now Curly tells the story to stump an American reporter who has the reputation for solving the insoluble.

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Room to Let is a very nice re-working of The Lodger. It has a complex enough plot structure, in fact, that we should not take JJ’s resolution to the case entirely at face value. JJ’s resolution is itself a narrative, and may get the full story only partially true. The issue of narrative reliability in this film has been discussed extensively in an article published in Midnight Marquee No. 54 - and revamped for the October 2000 issue of Paul Begg’s magazine Ripperologist.

types
Investigation Rippers: A young reporter covering an asylum fire becomes concerned about a lunatic he believes has escaped. He becomes even more concerned when his investigation convinces him that the lunatic is Jack the Ripper.
The Lodger Motif: Monomaniac. This clever re-working of The Lodger features Valentine Dyall as the menacing Dr. Fell (a.k.a. Jack the Ripper). Though we never know precisely what his motive is, he does claim that he has a work to do.
Period Atmosphere: Does a good job with presenting London about 15 years after the Ripper murders.

availability
Hammer Studios still owns the copyright on this film and has apparently enforced it. Room to Let is no longer available.