Murder By Decree (1979)

As the serial killer known as Jack The Ripper terrorizes the Whitechapel district of London, Sherlock Holmes (Christopher Plummer) is approached by a group of citizens to help solve the killings as the police seem unable or uninterested in finding the killer. But what Holmes discovers is a complicated conspiracy that leads all the way to the throne of England. Loosely based on JACK THE RIPPER: THE FINAL SOLUTION by Stephen Knight and directed by Bob Clark (BLACK CHRISTMAS). The premise behind the Ripper murders somehow being tied into the British monarchy has been around for decades and a couple of other films (STUDY IN TERROR, FROM HELL) have used it. MURDER BY DECREE is the best of those films. The Holmes and Watson (James Mason) here are different than their counterparts in the Arthur Conan Doyle stories and Basil Rathbone movies. Plummer is a warmer, more humorous and flawed Holmes while Mason doesn't play the bumbler of Nigel Bruce's Watson. I thought the screenplay went a bit too far by having Holmes more physical and running around and engaged in fist fights like an action hero. But other than that, it's respectful of its source material. The acting is quite good especially Genevieve Bujold's fragile waif being pushed toward insanity. With Donald Sutherland, John Gielgud, Anthony Quayle, Susan Clark, David Hemmings and Frank Finlay.