Jack the Ripper (1959 film)

Did You Know?

• The film's budget was raised from a combination of pre-sales to Regal Film Distributors at the National Film Finance Corporation.
• A racier continental version was released in France.

Release

Joseph E. Levine acquired the US rights for £50,000 and later stated he spent $1 million on promotion and earned $2 million in profit. He replaced the original Stanley Black score with music by Jimmy McHugh and Pete Rugolo, added narration by Paul Frees to the opening, rearranged the credits to move most technical credits to the end while changing the opening title font, and restored the colour blood insert at the end that the BBFC had ordered removed. After Paramount's US rights lapsed, the film circulated mainly in public domain bootlegs until Severin Films issued a licensed Blu-ray edition in America on Black Friday 2017. That limited pressing was a 2-disc set: a Blu-ray with HD transfers of the British version (mastered at 1.33 ratio) and the American version (mastered at 1.66), and a DVD containing a standard-definition reconstruction of the European continental edition using material from US and UK prints and tape-sourced alternate nude footage (with alternating aspect ratios). A single-disc release without the bonus DVD followed on January 8, 2018. In 2019, a collector provided a film element for the European cut; after scanning it, Severin created a new HD hybrid cut using its nude scenes with the American print (mastered at a consistent 1.66 ratio) and released it on Blu-ray at a discounted price starting with that year's Black Friday sale. The film element used for the American version is a 16mm copy borrowed from the Library of Congress, and the 35mm original camera negative has been lost. In 2024, Severin discovered a 35mm fine grain positive of the European version and a 35mm duplicate negative of the US version, from which they restored both along with additional material from a 35mm release print to produce a 4K Blu-ray set released in May 2025.