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Although Psycho is based on the American serial killer Ed Gein, Hitchcock had a lifelong fascination with notorious English murders, particularly those with bizarre sexual dimensions. Hitchcock's first important movie, The Lodger, is based on the case of Jack the Ripper. The notorious cases of Doctor Crippen and Reginald Christie are both mentioned in Hitchcock movies. All three cases lie behind Hitchcock's last movie set in England, Frenzy |
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The earliest and most notorious of modern serial killers, the unidentified assailant dubbed "Jack the Ripper", murdered and mutilated at least five prostitutes around the Whitechapel area of East London in 1888. Never identified, Jack the Ripper was a media event that quickly passed into folklore. The lore and literature of "Ripperology" is immense: more than 150 non-fiction books have been published reviewing the crimes and their environment, and seeking to identify the assailant; as late as 2002, a book on Jack the Ripper topped the New York Times bestseller list: |
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| Jack the Ripper is also the subject of many works of fiction, films, comics, games, and websites. (See Casebook: Jack the Ripper online.) The best-known fictional work based on the Ripper murders is The Lodger (1913) by Marie Belloc Lowndes. Belloc Lowndes's novel, in turn, has been the source of at least four films. Alfred Hitchcock's adaptation, often considered his first characteristically 'Hitchcockian' movie, was released in 1927. The Ripper murders were still within living memory when the film was made. |
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| In addition to The Lodger, Jack the Ripper clearly lies behind Hitchcock's Psycho, as do two other notorious British murderers, Dr. Hawley Crippen and Reginald Christie. | |||||||||||||||||||||