FROM
HELL TRIES TO LINK JACK THE RIPPER TO QUEEN VICTORIA
In 1888 Jack the Ripper terrorized the East End of
London. At least five prostitutes plying their trade late
at night in Whitechapel had their throats slit, and in four
cases their bodies were mutilated. Thirteen other victims
have been alleged. Jack was never caught, though more than
a dozen persons have been suspected of the crimes. In From
Hell, codirectors Albert and Allen Hughes try to portray
the madness and solve the puzzle, based on a story by Alan
Moore and Eddie Campbell that constructs a tale of political
intrigue. Inspector Frederick George Abberline (played by
Johnny Depp) is assigned to the case by his superior, Police
Sergeant Godley (played by Robbie Coltrane), who summons Abberline
to duty from an opium stupor, a result of his grief over the
death of his wife three years earlier. What Inspector Abberline
uncovers, step by step, is an elaborate plot hatched in the
royal palace of reclusive Queen Victoria, who sought to cover
up a scandal. The scandal is that her eldest son, Prince Albert,
married a prostitute in the presence of several others and
sired a child who would be next in line to the throne upon
Albert’s death. Although Albert was rumored to be gay
in the 1880s, he evidently was also a frequent visitor to
the Whitechapel brothels, and he knew how to slaughter animals
in ways similar to the way victims were mutilated, so he is
one of a number of possible suspects. Abberline's principal
confidant is Sir William Gull (played by Ian Holm), the Royal
Physician, who was secretly working with and covering up for
Albert, as was the Police Commissioner (played by Ian Richardson),
who takes Abberline off the case when he gets too close to
the truth. In the course of his investigation Abberline goes
to Whitechapel to interview prostitutes, notably Mary Jane
Kelly (played by Heather Graham), whom he seeks to protect
from the horrible death in store for those who witnessed the
wedding and knew about the child. For his kindness, Mary once
tries to plant a kiss on Abberline, who first pushes her away
and then pulls her toward him to kiss her passionately. The
plot further vilifies the conspirators by identifying them
as anti-Semites, anti-foreigners, and bloodthirsty Freemason
snobs. To silence Gull, he is ultimately lobotomized, a common
remedy at the time to calm those who were mentally disturbed.
Abberline, unable to arrest the culprits, then returns to
the opium den at the end of the film. The preposterous story
is made more grisly by animations of various sorts, including
the removal of the victims’ internal organs, to provide
something frightening for the Halloween season. MH
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