Movies - Murder by Decree

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	Movies - Murder by Decree

Murder by Decree is a 1978 Anglo-Canadian film that presents a largely different version of Sherlock Holmes from the Rathbone days, with the aesthete still prevailing yet tinged with a humanity and emotional apathy. Sherlock Holmes investigates London's most infamous case, Jack the Ripper. As he investigates, he finds that the Ripper has friends in high places. James Mason's Dr. Watson is also a departure, as what appears in the beginning as a take on cinema's famous bumbling Nigel Bruce soon shows his level head and scientific and medical training to be valuable assets.

The film is largely based upon author Stephen Knight's discredited royal conspiracy theory.

The film

It is England in the autumn of 1888 and Victoria of the United Kingdom still rules over the British Empire. Sherlock Holmes (Christopher Plummer) the legendary private detective and his loyal companion and chronicler, the earnest Dr. Watson (James Mason), are enjoying an opulent first night at the opera in London’s fashionable West End.

Meanwhile, in the squalid jungle of the East End of London, a prostitute is being horribly murdered. The dreaded killer, commonly known as Jack the Ripper for the gruesome manner in which he mutilates the bodies of his victims, has struck again. The sickly miasma of fear is as palpable as the autumn fogs which envelop the slums. The forces of law and order seem powerless to stop the savage butchery.

Holmes is approached by shadowy figures to take on the case. Although Police Inspectors Foxborough (David Hemmings) and Inspector Lestrade (Frank Finlay) more than welcome his assistance, Sir Charles Warren (Anthony Quayle), the Commissioner of Police from Scotland Yard, actively does not.

The master criminologist is guided in his pursuit of justice, through the seamy Victorian era underworld, to the psychic Robert Lees (Donald Sutherland) who fearfully points him in another direction. Holmes and Watson, constantly in danger for their lives and liberty, become not only the grand masters but also the pawns in this lethal game of hide and seek.

They search out and are found by the hapless Mary Jane Kelly (Susan Clark), a girl of the streets, whose only crime is the knowledge of a fatal secret, which she will protect at all costs. She in turn leads them to Annie Crook (Geneviève Bujold), a servant who made the mistake of marrying above her station, whom even the illustrious detective cannot protect from herself.

The hunters and the hunted stealthily move through the mist-shrouded maze of Whitechapel’s cobblestone streets where every shadow instills fear. Watson is violently attacked by, and Holmes at last comes face to face with, the Ripper.

As he inexorably unravels the mystery, Holmes crosses swords with Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury (John Gielgud), the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, and finds himself threatened by the macabre power of a secret society and the all-pervasive, long reaching might of the Establishment. He is challenged by no ordinary murderer but one with influential and determined friends and what he has to stop – if he can – is Murder by Decree.

Cast:

Sherlock Holmes – Christopher Plummer
Dr. Watson – James Mason
Robert Lees – Donald Sutherland
Annie Crook – Geneviève Bujold
Inspector Foxborough – David Hemmings
Mary Kelly – Susan Clark
Sir Charles Warren – Anthony Quayle
Lord Salisbury – Sir John Gielgud
Inspector Lestrade – Frank Finlay
Dr. Hardy – Chris Wiggins
Mrs. Lees – Tedde Moore
William Slade – Peter Jonfield
Sir Thomas Spivey – Roy Lansford
Carrie – Catherine Kessler
Henry Matthews – Geoffrey Russell
Makins – Roy Pember
Elizabeth Stride – June Brown
Catherine Eddowes – Hilary Sesta

[ Visit the complete Wikipedia entry for Murder by Decree ]

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