Review of Murder By Decree

Introduction

If you want to find "Murder By Decree" in the Sherlock Holmes canon, you won`t have any luck, because the story never appeared in The Strand Magazine, and indeed was never even written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.

The story is the popular Royal Conspiracy theory dreamt up in the 1970`s that connected Jack The Ripper with the Masons and the Royal Family. The plot went that the Prince of Wales of the time had been seeing young ladies that he should not have, and the union with one had been blessed with a little mite whose existence Queen Victoria would not have been amused about. To cover up the machinations of "the establishment", a number of Whitechapel prostitutes were murdered, culminating in the butchering of Mary Kelly (an attack that bore no resemblance to the modus operandi of the preceding murders).

The theory is a compelling one, but no different to the other theories that have surfaced before and since. What makes this interesting is the inclusion of the Holmes character as the investigator rather than Fred Abberline, the original investigating officer (who was not a drug addict as "From Hell" would have us believe). Interestingly, the picture is the second time the cinematic Holmes crossed paths with Jack The Ripper, the first being "A Study In Terror". Trivia fans may be interested to know Frank Finlay plays Inspector Lestrade in *both* movies.

The cast is the best thing about the movie, with Christopher Plummer as Holmes and James Mason as Watson. David Hemmings, Frank Finlay, Anthony Quayle, John Gielgud, Donald Sutherland and Genevieve Bujold offer stellar support. One of the murder victims is Dot-Cotton-To-Be June Brown.

Video

For a movie shot on the muted, soft side, the 1.85:1 anamorphic widescreen image is excellent, showing little wear and tear and a pleasing range of contrast. Of note, however, are the extremely dodgy model shots of the Victorian London skyline. In 1979, there was enough of the old docklands to make location shooting less of a problem although a considerable number of exterior scenes are in fact shot in the studio.

Audio

This is just a DD 2.0 mono mix, as per the theatrical release.

Features

Only a theatrical trailer in 4:3. There aren`t even HOH subtitles, just a selection of euro-subtitles for the rest of the EU. This is in contrast with the R1 Anchor Bay release which had a modest collection of goodies which could so easily have been transferred to this release.

Conclusion

This picture is Hammer-Lite, the one calorie edition with no added blood and guts. There`s plenty of atmosphere and Anthony Quayle in a very dodgy hairstyle. A pleasing piece of hokum, but a story that was told in more compelling documentary-style without Holmes by the BBC around the same time.