Last fall, businessman Russell Edwards announced that he had finally uncovered the truth behind history’s most famous serial killer, Jack the Ripper. Edwards claimed that DNA left behind on a victim’s shawl was used to identify the Ripper as Aaron Kosminski, long considered a primary suspect. As soon as the news was announced, DNA experts and Ripperologists came forward to denounce the findings based on doubts about the shawl’s provenance and the likely contamination of the evidence. And, so it goes with our fascination with the Ripper mythology: We want so badly to find out his true identity, but then again, we don’t.
The mystery behind Jack the Ripper’s identity allows filmmakers and writers to use him as a symbol or representative force. The Ripper has been part of cinema history since 1924, when he appeared in a nightmare sequence in the German Expressionist film Waxworks. Since then, a variety of directors have interpreted the mystery, adding to the rich folklore surrounding the historical figure. I recently caught a film version of the Ripper story released in 1953 called Man in the Attic, starring Jack Palance, Constance Smith, and Frances Bavier, and I was reminded of how potent a character he could be.
Man in the Attic is a version of The Lodger, a 1913 novel by Marie Adelaide Belloc Lowndes. Four other versions of the novel have been produced, including the first and most famous, Alfred Hitchcock’s The Lodger: A Story of the London Fog. In Lowndes’s story, a mysterious stranger rents rooms from a middle-aged couple during the murder spree of Jack the Ripper. The longer the man lives there, revealing his unusual habits, the more the landlady believes her new lodger is the Ripper.
LEO TOVER’S HIGH CONTRAST LIGHTING IS QUITE DRAMATIC.
MR. SLADE AND HIS DOPPELGANGER SHADOW
Though Hitchcock’s film is the most suspenseful version of the novel, Man in the Attic has much to offer. Director Hugo Fregonese and his cinematographer Leo Tover chose a visual style straight from the German Expressionist canon, which is the film’s greatest strength. The black and white cinematography paints Jack the Ripper’s London just as it should be—dark, foggy, and sinister. Low-key lighting dominates the exterior scenes, accentuating the mystery, while the high-contrast lighting in the concluding sequence elevates the intense emotions inherent in the unfolding events. In addition, Expressionist techniques telegraph certain ideas to the viewer. When Mr. Slade, the title character, checks out the available rooms in the Hawleys’ big Victorian house in the opening scene, the shadow across half his face tells us he has a doppelganger, or a dark side that he is hiding. As the story progresses, other visual cues remind us that his doppelganger is about to emerge. His exact shadow shape is often cast against a wall or surface—a literal representation of his dark side. Another cue is his reflection in a mirror during a scene in which he encounters Lily Bonner, the beautiful but brazen actress to whom he is attracted. Though other characters will later cast a dark shadow shape, indicating their two-faced attitudes toward Mr. Slade, the visual cues suggesting that the lodger has two sides to him are omnipresent.
MR. SLADE’S FACE IS HALF LIT AND HALF IN SHADOW, INDICATING TWO SIDES TO HIS CHARACTER.
Other Expressionist symbolism includes the bar shadows that dominate the upstairs landing where all the characters’ bedrooms are located. The shadows are cast by the balusters on the staircase, and foretell that the characters are trapped, either by circumstances or by their internal neuroses.
Fregonese also uses subjective camerawork to depict the visual point of view of the Ripper as he attacks one of his victims, a technique that became a cliché of the slasher genre during the 1980s. However, the German Expressionists of the 1920s pioneered this technique, which was used by Hitchcock on occasion and by Fregonese in Man in the Attic. I don’t know a great deal about Fregonese, but he had an interesting if eclectic career. Born in Argentina, he made films in Latin America, Hollywood, and Europe. His marriage to Faith Domergue seemed to have had a negative impact on his life and career; he was unable to settle down in one country or one film industry. His filmography consists of several interesting projects (Old Shatterhand; Hardly a Criminal; Savage Pampas), and his career is ripe for assessment.
FRANCES BAVIER IS A LONG WAY FROM MAYBERRY IN THIS FILM.
Jack Palance stars as Mr. Slade, and his uniquely feral-looking features suggest there is more to the character than his quiet, stifled personality indicates. The character of Mr. Slade embodies the film’s theme, which revolves around sexual repression. Mr. Slade is dysfunctional when it comes to relationships because he represses his feelings of attraction and desire, but he is not the only male that handles these issues badly. The men in the audience during Lily’s risqué performances fairly salivate at her scanty costumes and bawdy songs. Their reactions to Lily are shown from Mr. Slade’s perspective, and he finds their expressions lewd and course. Lily acknowledges that her success as an entertainer is dependent on the repressed desires of these men—a provocative statement on sexual attraction (sex) as a commodity.
CONSTANCE SMITH AS THE PROVOCATIVE LILY BONNER
My favorite character in Man in the Attic is Mrs. Hawley, played by Frances Bavier, better known as Aunt Bea from The Andy Griffith Show. Mrs. Hawley is the first character to become suspicious of Mr. Slade, and her half-baked theories exasperate her husband while entertaining viewers. Baby boomers who grew up watching Bavier portray Aunt Bea take the character actress for granted, but her performance in this film shows off her adeptness at creating comical yet realistic characters.
Another clever aspect of the film was the references to historical figures of the Victorian Era. In the first scene, Mr. Hawley is complaining about George Bernard Shaw, who criticized the class system in England by noting that no one cares about the women of Whitechapel who are being killed. If it were a member of royalty, then more would be done about it. Queen Victoria is quoted twice in the film. At first the good Queen makes a public statement that the Ripper must be a bachelor because surely no married man would commit such atrocities. Later, she releases another statement, noting that the Ripper cannot possibly be British, because no Brit could commit such vile murders. I don’t know if Shaw or the Queen ever made such statements, but the comments serve as a criticism of the monarchy as an institution, and the class-based society of England.
Man in the Attic is in rotation on FXM Retro; if you subscribe to cable and have this channel, look for this well-crafted suspense thriller.