From Hell

Audio problem: Near the beginning of the film Katie Eddowes tells Mary Kelley 'There's one over there'. As she walks past Martha Tabram and Annie Chapman, we hear some dialogue between them about not having very much luck that night. If you look at all three women, their mouths are not matching the dialogue. They appear to be saying something completely different.

Factual error: Towards the end of the movie, Mary sends a hand-written note to Inspector Abberline. The 'r' in her name is written in a North American style, where she is European.

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Sir William Gull: No man amongst you is fit to judge the mighty art that I have wrought. Your rituals are empty oaths you neither understand, nor live by. The Great Architect speaks to me. He is the balance where my deeds are weighed and judged, not you.

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Trivia: When the Ripper is talking to his driver in the apartment, it's actually Ian Holm's voice, he just talking really low.

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Question: In the middle of the movie, one of the doctors tells the others of John Merrick, aka The Elephant Man. They show him for a few seconds Disrobed.. What is the point of showing Merrick in the movie? This scene seems totally isolated from the rest of the plot. It almost feels like they had an extra minute to kill and decided to add it in.

Answer: In the original book, Merrick's appearance is used to show William Gull's education, expertise as an anatomist and that he recognises and respects cultural diversity - Gull assures Merrick that, had he been born in India, he would be worshipped as a descendant of the elephant-headed god, Ganesa. In this spirit, Gull even offers the victim of his first Ripper slaying to Ganesa as a sacrifice, as Indians make a sacrifice to Ganesa at the beginning of an important enterprise. Merrick is present as a vehicle to establish the rich nature of Gull's character. When it comes to the film, however, this subtlety is completely lost - it seems very much that the scriptwriter noted Merrick's appearance in the book and felt that it would be cool to include the character in his script. As such, as you point out, it does feel that Merrick's presence, stripped of the subtleties of the book, is almost entirely pointless.

Tailkinker

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