Man in the Attic

Rating:
Summary: Ripper still at large!
Review:

THE MAN IN THE ATTIC was the fourth film based on Marie Belloc-Lowndes' 1912 novel "The Lodger," a fictionalized account of Jack the Ripper. Alfred Hitchcock filmed it first as a silent and years later as a sound film, and English director Maurice Elvey surveyed it once in 1932.
This 1953 version, by Argentinean director Hugo Fregonese, is pure Hollywood hokum. The actors, who are supposed to be Victorian Londoners, sound more East St. Louis than East Side. The murders bear only the most superficial similarities to Ripper murders. In other words, the two that occur during film time occur in Whitechapel and the victims are women. Worst (if you're into historical accuracy), or best (if you're into entertainment value), are the two musical production numbers, which are pure 50's-era Hollywood schmaltz. The songs, "You're in Love" and "The Parisian Trot," were written by musical director Lionel Newman, whose score adds its weight in gold to the tense atmosphere.
Jack Palance stars as the mysterious young man who arrives late one night to rent rooms from an eccentric older couple. Palance plays Slade, a young pathologist who craves solitude, comes and goes at the oddest hours, and generally behaves in a manner that has everyone wondering where he was when the latest Whitechapel murder occurred. With his high, bony cheekbones and narrow, deep set eyes underneath a brooding brow the young Palance is able to convey sinister menace without softly hissing a line of dialogue. It's a good thing, too, considering the fluff he's surrounded with. The prettiest fluff sticks to young Constance Smith, a transcendentally naïve young woman, the daughter of Slade's landlord and a music hall star who at one point through a continental bump and grind at Prince Albert.
THE MAN IN THE ATTIC is too silly to be much of a thriller, although it does have its moments of high tension.