The Ripper

Here, stop here, driver.

Here, mum?

Not here, mum.

This is no place for a lady like you.

Yes, please stop.

Stop here.

You must stop now!

As you wish, mum.

That'll be six shills, please.

I wouldn't mind waitin'.

East End, no place for a lady like yourself.

There'd be no extra charge, and I can wait, m'lady.

That won't be necessary.

Good evening.

Thank you, mum.

And good evening to ya.

- Now, from that description, what famous crime

is brought to mind?

Mr. Patton.

Jack the Ripper.

Correct.

See, that's the kind of picture

that's been painted in our minds by Hollywood.

Kind of imagery that movie makers

are so fond of using to manipulate

history and make it more exciting.

If you'll pardon the expression, more colorful

than it actually was.

It should come as no surprise to any of you

that Hollywood often portrays

historical events in a much more romantic light than

was actually the case.

And if you weren't aware of that before,

you will be by the end of this course.

As a matter of fact, there were several inaccuracies

in the description I just gave you

of Jack the Rippers' first murder.

Which, by the end of the semester

you should be able to pick out.

Any questions?

Yes, ma'am.

- Well, Hollywood makes movies about murders.

We know that.

But what about murderers imitating

what they see in the movies?

Has that ever happened?

Good question, and yeah it has.

We'll cover that later in the course.

It's the old question of art imitating life,

life imitating art.

Take a good look at that later on.

Yes?

- Um, did you hear about that murder downtown?

It's the one they're comparing to Jack the Ripper?

It's like this prostitute, um, you know she bought the farm,

same kinda deal that um, that you're talking about,

um, earlier.

- Yeah, now that you mention it, I, I do remember.

What's your name?

Brian.

Brian.

For those of you who didn't read about it,

what Brian is referring to is a murder that took

place over the weekend

where a prostitute was killed by someone

who slit her throat from ear to ear.

Police are calling that a modern day Jack the Ripper.

Why do you suppose they're doing that, Brian?

I, don't know.

Yes.

- Well, because Jack the Ripper like, killed prostitutes.

And when he did, he sliced their neck

across here all the way across.

And then he'd cut them up, just like this.

Well, that's how he did it.

Exactly.

That was Jack's proclivity.

Prostitutes.

Looks like you could've been there.

We're not only going to talk about Jack the Ripper.

The name of this course is Famous Crimes.

It's on your syllabus,

but for the sake of redundancy I'll put

it up here anyway.

On Film.

What we'll be doing is looking at a number of famous crimes.

We'll take a look at the Brinks robbery,

St. Valentine's Day massacre, um, Bluebeard, Leopold Loeb,

and the White Chapel murders.

Those actually committed by Jack the Ripper.

We'll get a pretty solid account of each one

based on what history tells us about it.

Then we'll view one or more films based on the incident,

and discuss how the crimes were portrayed by Hollywood.

Yes, ma'am.

This may be a dumb question, but...

- Young lady, there is one thing you will learn

in my class.

There are no dumb questions.

Okay, then who was Bluebeard?

You're joke...

Oh, that's a dumb question.

- He does that all the time, it's a big joke.

No, I'm sorry, I'm kidding.

Seriously, Bluebeard was a Frenchman named Landru

who knocked off several wives.

He collected them like some people collect stamps.

We'll learn a lot more about him too.

It's all right here in the text for this course.

Leo Matlin's Crime Cinema.

It's a must.

And really good reading.

Well, for those of you hoping for a short first class,

I'm gonna make your day.

If there are no further questions,

we'll see you all tomorrow.

And one more thing.

This is the first time the university

has offered this course.

It's sort of an experiment.

Whether it's repeated or not will depend a lot on you

and how good you make me look.

So make me look good, okay?

Hmm?

Okay, we'll see you tomorrow.

It's gonna be an easy A, huh?

I think so, man.

Let's go.

Goodbye.

You must be a glutton for punishment.

Two semesters in a row.

- Hey, I can spot an easy A when I see one.

- I see you managed to drag an accomplice along this time.

- Oh, Cindy Blair, Professor Richard Harwell.

Hi, it's nice to meet you.

Same here.

I suppose Steve has already told you

about the University's automatic grade point inflater.

Me.

- Well, he told me I'd learn a lot about movies.

- Well, you know it's tough when one of your students

thinks he knows more about the subject matter than you do.

Did you see House of Wax last night?

Last night, I thought it was tonight.

Nope. Last night.

Dammit, I wanted to tape it.

- Well, you can still catch Conqueror Worm tonight.

- Wait, wait, Theater of Blood is on tonight.

- No no, Theater of Blood's tomorrow night.

Conqueror Worm's tonight,

House of Wax was last night.

Does he always talk like this?

Yeah, most of the time.

- See ya. - Bye.

See, I told ya he was a neat professor.

Yeah, he's okay.

- Okay, that's great kids, that's real good.

That's what I wanna see.

Uh, let's take it again from the top,

but this time, relax and smile, okay, right?

You all remember how to smile, yeah?

Great, let's do it again, this time full out.

Okay, let's go.

You got it.

Okay, great.

Good, that's what I wanna see!

Keep it up.

All right, you're moving as one.

Can you all feel that?

Good.

Stretch.

Okay, great.