When I was 10 years old, I thought the 1962 Hammer Film Productions version of “The Phantom of the Opera” was one of the greatest movies ever made. Today – far removed from that 10-year-old version of myself – the slavish enthusiasm I once had for this flick has evaporated, but I still have a fondness for the film’s offbeat charms.
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BOOTLEG FILES 863: “Room to Let” (1950 British drama inspired by the Jack the Ripper murders).
LAST SEEN: We cannot confirm the last presentation of this film.
AMERICAN HOME VIDEO: On a collector-to-collector label.
REASON FOR BOOTLEG STATUS: An obscure film that fell through the cinematic cracks.
CHANCES OF SEEING A COMMERCIAL DVD RELEASE: Not likely.
Unless you are a scholar of either the Hammer Film Productions canon or cinematic endeavors inspired by the Jack the Ripper crimes, there is an excellent chance that you never heard of the 1950 British film “Room to Let.” And that would be a great shame, because “Room to Let” might be the greatest film you never saw.
In concept, there was little in “Room to Let” to inspire greatness. With a 68-minute running time, the film was never intended to be more than the lower half of a double feature bill in British cinemas. The film’s director, Godfrey Grayson, was not responsible for any work that could be mistaken for a classic. And the film covers territory that was previously plumbed in critically and commercially successful works by Alfred Hitchcock with “The Lodger” in 1927 and John Brahm with “The Lodger” in 1944.
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