Once-Lost TV: The Veil (with Boris Karloff)- 'Jack the Ripper'

 In lieu of a new piece on The Boys, it is a Horror Anthology Show with Boris Karloff as the Host.
2020- the Year of Disappointments.

I joke, but this one is kind of interesting.  It is...

The Veil was a 1958 Horror Anthology Show that never actually aired.  It couldn't find a Network or buyer, so sat unreleased until the 1990s.

Now it is Public Domain and on random Discs like the one I got for a whopping $2.99.

Naturally, it is ANOTHER Jack the Ripper Story...

In this 1958 Episode, a Medium has visions of murder.  I wonder if that will be important.

He's pushed by his Wife to go to the Police, so he does.

However, the murders bring out all the 'crazies'...who manage to not be in the wide-shot and then magically appear in an insert shot.

Movie magic!

He has another vision and is, again, pushed to go to the Cops.  This time, he has a detail not given in the Papers.

Instead of proving his powers, however, this...

…lands him in a Holding Cell.

Overnight, two more Murders happen in Whitechapel and now the Police believe him.

He leads them to where he 'knows' the killer lives.

He's a Socialite that is part of the RCS (Royal College of Surgeons).

At first, it seems like he is dead, but he's actually given himself to an Asylum...which somehow makes him 'outside of the Police's jurisdiction.'

Is that how things worked?!?  Whatever- it is better than him being a Time Traveler or Immortal.
The End.

A nice twist on very, VERY familiar territory.  Another Jack the Ripper story- what else can you do?!?  Well, to be fair, this was made in 1958, far before nearly all of the previous examples I've covered here.  Karloff does double-dip on the matter- with Thriller- but he's not actually *in* either Story.  Speaking of not in the Story, this was not actually made for The Veil, so Karloff doesn't appear in the feature himself.  Presumably, he'd have played the Doctor at the end- just a guess.  This was actually made by someone else and then bought to connect to The Veil and pad out its potential sale.  As noted, that sale never happened.  David MacDonald is not a household name, but he Directed numerous TV Shows and Films like Devil Girl From Mars and The Moonraker (no relation to the Bond Film).  The Episode itself looks pretty good, is nicely-acted and has a pretty good resolution.  As people will note, this Story does ignore the final Ripper Murder from 2 months later...which I guess is just a copycat to them.  It hurts the flow of the story to give it the actual ending, huh?  Regardless, this once-lost Show- it only appeared on DVD in the '90s after 30+ years in limbo- is pretty good, even if it randomly cuts from Karloff standing to sitting for no good reason to get this shot....

A good, solid Episode that maybe isn't the most accurate representation of the Show.  Even so, they made Jack the Ripper feel kind of fresh, so kudos.