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Review
by
Brian Lindsey
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4
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8 |
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10
= Highest Rating |
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Sherlock
Holmes follows the bloody trail of Jack the Ripper
from London's slums to the corridors of Victorian
power in this well-acted, handsomely mounted but
ultimately disappointing mystery thriller. Indeed,
the film's failure presents a conundrum worthy
of Holmes' formidable deductive powers... With
a great cast, competent direction and a literate
script, why is Murder By
Decree so bloody dull?
Would that the "World's Greatest Consulting
Detective" actually had the chance to exercise
some of those powers here. In Murder
By Decree Sherlock Holmes (Christopher
Plummer) is given virtually nothing to do other
than follow a series of hand-fed clues. When the
Ripper murders roil London in the autumn of 1888,
Holmes is put on the case by a group of political
radicals who fear the slayings will be used as
a pretext for a government crackdown on the less
privileged elements of society. An anonymous tip
leads Holmes and faithful companion Dr. Watson
(James Mason) to a professional medium, Robert
Lees (a spaced-out Donald Sutherland), who claims
to have experienced precognitive visions of the
murders. Lees tells them that he recently sensed
the physical presence of the murderer on a London
street; he followed the man — whose face he could
not see — to a tony section of the city where
a number of prominent medical men reside. Watson,
meantime, is dispatched to Whitechapel to see
what information he can glean from the friends
and associates of the murdered prostitutes. Roadblocks
are thrown in the detectives' path by Sir Charles
Warren (Anthony Quayle), the blustery head of
Scotland Yard, who obviously knows more about
the case than he lets on. It becomes evident to
Holmes that the Ripper is no random serial killer,
that the victims were slain to keep them quiet
about something. Regardless of the consequences
he and Watson will risk their reputations and
their lives to uncover the truth.
I'm a
big fan of Granada Television's Sherlock Holmes
stories starring Jeremy Brett as well as Peter
Cushing's turn as the Master Detective in Hammer's
Hound of the
Baskervilles (1959). Even with a dunderheaded
Watson and an unfortunate proclivity for setting
Holmes' adventures in the 1940s —
he should be riding in a horse-drawn carriage,
not a Packard — those
old black and white films with Basil Rathbone
can be fun, too. So I was prepared to extend Murder
By Decree every benefit
of the doubt. It boasts a truly fine cast. Nowhere
near as cold and abrasive as Brett's interpretation,
nor a vigorous dynamo like Cushing, Plummer's
Holmes is perhaps a bit too empathetic —
even welling up with tears at the plight of a
woman wrongly imprisoned in a mental asylum. Sorry,
but I just can't picture ol' Sherlock getting
this emotionally involved. (This is the script's
fault, not Plummer's.) Where he shines as the
character is in his interaction with Dr. Watson,
wonderfully portrayed by James Mason. This Watson
is no fool or fumbler on hand merely for comic
relief. Mason and Plummer have very good onscreen
chemistry and the their scenes together are the
highlight of the film. In addition to Sutherland
and Quayle they're supported by Deep
Red's David Hemmings as a Yard detective who
sympathizes with the radicals, Susan Clark as
a prostitute who knows too much, Frank Finlay
as Inspector Lestrade, and Sir John Gielgud as
Lord Salisbury, the British prime minister. Genevieve
Bujold (Coma) is
excellent in the brief role of Annie Crook, the
streetwalker whose fate lies at the vortex of
the mystery.
Unfortunately this topnotch
cast is wasted. Given the potential of the scenario
— literature's most famous detective versus history's
most infamous serial killer — the film is surprisingly
flat and uninspired. While competently helmed
by Bob Clark (Children
Shouldn't Play with Dead Things), with good
production values and period detail, it simply
fails to come alive. Now I don't expect a Holmes
flick to be drenched in gore but Murder
By Decree can't generate even a modicum
of suspense, which ultimately proves fatal.
The film is just too long and too talky; by the
time the climax rolled around I didn't really
care who was doing the killings or (more important
to this particular story) why they were
being done.
Trivia
note: Virtually the exact same take on the Ripper
case, sans Holmes and Watson, was presented in
the Hughes Brothers' From
Hell (2001) starring Johnny Depp. That film,
even with its MTV aesthetic of style over substance,
is by far the superior movie.
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| Anchor
Bay's DVD edition of Murder
By Decree is first class. Complimenting a
fine-looking widescreen transfer (boasting a mono
audio mix that's strong and clear), the disc features
the theatrical trailer, well-written talent bios
of Plummer, Mason and director Clark, an image gallery,
and the entire shooting script as a DVD-ROM supplement.
Clark, who certainly has a higher opinion of the
film than yours truly, provides a full-length audio
commentary. The packaging includes insightful liner
notes by Michael Felsher. 3/05/03 |
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