Murder by Decree 4KUHD 4K UHD

‘Murder by Decree’ is the second film in which Sherlock Holmes solves the mystery of Jack the Ripper:‘A Study in Terror’ (1965) had a simple explanation: the killings were the work of a madman with a grudge against prostitutes.‘Murder by Decree’ (1979) in contrast has an extremely complicated explanation - involving a conspiracy at the highest level of the British establishment.Even the head of Scotland Yard (played by Anthony Quayle) is part of the conspiracy (not a spoiler - this is revealed early in the film).The screenplay was based on a 1975 book, ‘The Ripper File’ by Elwyn Jones and John Lloyd, that blames the cover-up on Freemasons.I always wondered why two of my favorite British TV detectives - Inspector Morse and Inspector George Gently - were so hostile to Freemasons.A highlight of ‘Murder by Decree’ occurs when Sherlock Holmes reveals his knowledge of the Mason's Secret Handshake to Police Commissioner Sir Charles Warren (see photos):Watson: "I say, Holmes. What is this mumbo jumbo?"Holmes: "The handshake and the ring, Watson, are archaic rituals preserved by the thirty-third degree members of the Secret Order of Freemasons."Warren: "We are not a secret order!"Holmes: "Your existence is no secret, Your rituals and membership are secrets you guard as closely as you may …”Warren: "We are a benevolent society!"Holmes then gives a sign - dragging his clenched right fist from his left shoulder diagonally down to his right side, before leaving the room.Watson: "I can't imagine what that peculiar gesture of yours was all about. I couldn't make head nor tail of it."Holmes: "Well, it gave Sir Charles pause, don't you think?"Watson: "It shut him up. Quite a thing too."Holmes: "I don't know which caused him the greater anxiety, the fact that I knew the secret signs, or the possibility that I too might be a Mason.‘Murder by Decree’ REVIEWED ON THIS PAGE stars Christopher Plummer as Sherlock Holmes, with James Mason as Dr. Watson.The old DVD had a pretty good picture, plus audio commentary by the director, but no subtitles (at my age, I need them).Now available on Blu-ray with a sharper picture, English SDH subtitles and two different audio commentaries - the old commentary, and a new one with two film historians.‘A Study in Terror’ starred John Neville as Sherlock Holmes, with John Houston as Dr. Watson.Available on Blu-ray with English SDH subtitles, but with no extra features.It’s a very good film, and costs less than $10 on Amazon.Two British actors appeared in both films:Frank Finlay twice played Inspector Lestrade: Age 39 in 1965, Age 53 in 1979.Anthony Quayle, age 52 in 1965, was the police surgeon in ‘A Study in Terror’. In 1979, at age 66, he played Sir Charles Warren, the real-life Commissioner of Scotland Yard, in ‘Murder by Decree’.Warren was blamed by the press for his failure to stop the Jack the Ripper killings.He’s not treated well by the writers of ‘Murder by Decree’.The director was Bob Clark (1939-2007), who had one of the strangest careers in Hollywood.Before ‘Murder by Decree’, Bob Clark was a director of low-budget horror films (‘Black Christmas’ is probably the best known).Out of the blue, Clark was flown to the UK to direct his first big-budget film.‘Murder by Decree’ boasts an all-star British/Canadian cast:Brits: James Mason, David Hemmings, Anthony Quayle, Frank Finlay, and even Sir John Gielgud as the Prime Minister.Canadians: Christopher Plummer, Genevieve Bujold, Susan Clark and Donald Sutherland.Why so many Canadians, eh?‘Murder by Decree’ was produced by the Canadian Film Development Corporation.If ‘Murder by Decree’ had ended at the 1 hour, 43 minute mark, it would have been one of the great Sherlock Holmes films.But this is followed by a twenty-minute epilogue in which Sherlock Holmes explains what we have just watched.Everything just grinds to a halt.A brief epilogue would have been OK, but twenty minutes is unbearable.I saw this in a movie theater back in 1979, and remember audible groans from the audience.This is still an outstanding Sherlock Holmes film (4½ stars).It was one of the last films to use miniatures, matte paintings and lots of extras (instead of CGI special effects).

Ah, Sherlock Holmes. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's iconic detective character has enjoyed innumerable media incarnations since his first appearance in magazine format in the 19th century. Basil Rathbone in the 1940s provided the most famous film series, while Jeremy Brett's BBC series in the 1980s was probably the definitive smallscreen version. But those are just two of the most famous examples (since joined by Robert Downey Jr.'s enjoyably testosterone-heavy verson from last Christmas); 1979's "Murder by Decree", an Anglo-Canadian co-production (which would explain the presence of a number of prominent Canadian performers, such as Christopher Plummer, Donald Sutherland, and Genevieve Bujold). Not an adaptation of part of Conan Doyle's canon, rather, an original yarn, "Murder by Decree" is the prominent screen version of one of post-Doyle Holmes authors' favourite story setups: the great detective vs. Jack the Ripper. Spoilers follow.We open in Victorian London with a night at the opera (for a performance of "Lucrezia Borgia", which is a subtle tie-in to many of the themes of the film itself), a nifty opening that immediately sets the stage for the simmering class tensions that underlay much of the film (though they don't drive the plot). The film opens with Jack claiming his third victim, and the police have been confounded, but they have yet to call on Holmes (Plummer), much to his and Watson's (James Mason) puzzlement. Eventually summoned by an anonymous source, it becomes apparent that the head of the police isn't keen on Holmes' participation. Engaged by a group of businessmen (or are they?), Holmes takes on the case anyway, and finds himself in the middle of a number of conspiracies (the title itself should tell you a lot, though it's actually somewhat misleading in the end).As far as Ripper-ology goes, this is a filmed version of the Prince Albert Victor/Masonic conspiracy theory (Sutherland is Robert Lees, the psychic, in a cameo; Bujold is Annie Crook), the one more famously seen in Alan Moore's "From Hell" and its cheap film adaptation. This version instantly wins points from me by casting the murdered women as dowdy/unattractive women over 40 (well, apart from Bujold, but she's a long way from a supermodel too), like they were in real life, rather than in "From Hell" the film, where they're all sexy twentysomethings. There's no glamourization of poverty and prostitution here, the same sort of thing that Moore the author was keen to avoid in his writing. And their take on the conspiracy itself even makes a modicum of sense, since it actually brings up how absurd the idea that any sane person in Westminster or Buckingham Palace would regard a handful of prostitutes as a major threat to the monarchy. In this version, the higher-ups merely think it's "inconvenient", and two fairly deluded Masons take this as a sanction to get rid of the supposed problem, which the others then have to cover up to save the Order's face. Actually, it's very Watergate, which makes sense given the time of production.This is perhaps the best entry on the supremely odd resume of the now-late director Bob Clarke, who had previously made the slasher film "Black Christmas", and whose subsequent efforts would include the infamous sex comedy "Porky's" and its sequel, and the cult classic Christmas film "A Christmas Story" (and "Baby Geniuses", but let us honour the dead and never speak of that again). Plummer is a fine Holmes, though a bit more emotive than many will be accustomed to; personally, I thought it was appropriate to give him a bit of humanity. A lot of his portrayals tend toward him being a walking brain and far too aloof. James Mason makes a bid to quietly steal the show as Watson; physically he's in the Nigel Bruce mould, but he's quite competent and not played exclusively for laughs, which is rare enough. Sutherland is fine in a cameo that seems mainly to serve to keep people guessing whether he'll turn out to have a more substantive part. Bujold has only one scene, but it's a crucial one, and very well-handled. Sir John Gielgud cameos as Lord Salisbury, honestly seeming a bit flat. A group of solid British actors fill out the rest of the cast.Recommended.

Even though this film is a few decades old its stood the test of time. Good performances by all the actors even in the small parts. Th final performance by Chris Plummer when he confronts the Government ministers about the plot to kill the child is as fine a peace of acting you are likely to see. The late Jeremy Brett who played a superb Holmes on British TV liked the performance of Christopher Plummer, praise indeed.

Non è leggibile con i lettori italiani. So riesce a vedere solo con lettori americani. Nella descrizione del prodotto non era esplicitato.

「名探偵ホームズ／黒馬車の影」のタイトルでDVDは発売されていますが、日本では劇場未公開のホームズ譚パスティーシュ映画です。切り裂きジャックによる娼婦連続殺人の謎をホームズが調査するという着想は悪くないのですが、推理が物語を牽引するのではなくエピソードの羅列で話が進行するため、ミステリとしてはちょっと物足りない仕上がり。スティーヴン・ナイトのノンフィクションにインスパイアされたという事件の真相も、伏線の張り方が露骨すぎてあまり驚きはありませんでした。ボブ・クラークの演出に格段の才気は認められないものの、時代色は良く出ていて、懐古的な気分でのんびり楽しめる作品ではあります。ホームズ役のクリストファー・プラマーは明らかにミスキャスト。英国紳士の雰囲気が乏しいことに加え、名探偵のカリスマ性が欠落しているのが個人的にはかなり不満。英国出身のジェイムズ・メイスンはワトスン役を好演。他の出演者の顔触れも豪華ですが、多くが顔見世に止まっているのはちょっと拍子抜けしました。印象的だったのはアンソニー・クウェイル。撮影を担当したレジナルド・H・モリスは名手オズワルド・モリスの弟。兄譲りの深みのある画調が作品に彩りを添えています。ブルーレイの画質はまずまず。英語字幕を表示できます。

An interesting movie in keeping with the original author's work.

Murder by Decree is directed by Bob Clark and adapted to screenplay by John Hopkins from the novel The Ripper File written by Elwyn Jones and John Lloyd. It stars Christopher Plummer, James Mason, David Hemmings, Susan Clark, Frank Finlay, Anthony Quayle, Donald Sutherland, Geneviève Bujold & John Gielgud.Film pitches Sherlock Holmes (Plummer) and Dr. Watson (Mason) into the hunt for Jack the Ripper in Whitechapel, London 1888...I've been exploited old fellow, by the very people for whom we are searching.The greatest of detectives searching for Britain's most notorious serial killer, it's a killer pitch that had already had a film made in 1965 called A Study in Terror. That was a film that couldn't quite get it right, here, 14 years later, there's a bigger budget and "A" list gloss to help tell the tale. And boy does it work! In the cannon of Sherlock Holmes, Murder by Decree is to Holmes films what On Her Majesty's Secret Service is to the James Bond franchise. Appertaining to the great detective himself, it's the odd one out, a divisive picture, not because it's rubbish or technically shy, but because the main man protagonist dares to be human, a man of conscious; politically, socially and ethically. He's still the same charming, clever and complex character most have come to know and love, but Murder by Decree fronts him out as a human being, with Watson alongside him as a non buffoon bloke doing his bit for the case whilst remaining sensitive about the last pea on his plate! It's these characterisations, splendidly played by two actors of considerable talent, that are at the core of the film's success.If she dies and you come under my hand? Expect no mercy.Period production value is high, it has to be for a Jolly Jack based movie. Bring the dark, bring the smog and bring the Victorian costumes (Judy Moorcroft). Then play it out amongst shadowy lamp lighted cobbled streets and let the sets drip with slum London sweat and tears. All that is required then is to have a source story of compelling interest, of which Murder by Decree scores greatly as well. It's fanciful for sure, but the most spectacular of all Ripper theories. From a secret love child to the Freemasons, and up to Royalty itself, it's a potent notion put forward. That is of course conjecture as a solution, but the makers are to be applauded for taking that idea and successfully combining the Arthur Conan Doyle creations with historical reality, something that A Study in Terror fell considerably short on.Rest of the cast is filled out with some quality as well, where Hemmings, Quayle, Finlay, Gielgud and Bujold don't disappoint, the latter of which gets to really perform with substance in the pivotal scene set in an Asylum. Only real let down is Sutherland, or more like what the makers did (didn't do) with him. His psychic Robert Lees crops up for a couple of small scenes for what we expect will be a telling contribution to the plot, but they aren't. It seems like just an excuse to do Sutherland up like he had just awoken from the grave, and to give the picture some ethereal sheen moments. For the finale and the big reveal of the Ripper, Plummer is simply magnificent. He holds court in front of his peers, including the Prime Minister (Gielgud), and unfurls the explanation with impassioned fortitude, it's then that we realise this was always a Sherlock Holmes movie, and not a Jack the Ripper piece. With that, it's one of the best featuring the Deer Stalker wearing fellow. 9/10