Murder by Decree

Despite featuring memorable characters, great performances, and an immersive atmosphere, Murder by Decree proves frustrating thanks to a fundamentally flawed script that shoehorns Sherlock Holmes into a ’70s conspiracy thriller.

The story sees Christopher Plummer as Holmes and James Mason as Watson investigating the Whitechapel murders of Jack the Ripper, leading Holmes to uncover a vast conspiracy.

A great premise, but the script by John Hopkins sees an uncharacteristically emotional Holmes dip into bouts of teary-eyed melodrama and suffer from a convenient glass jaw, falling unconscious whenever the plot requires it. Worse still, Holmes does little detecting. Instead he relies on a psychic, played with verve by Donald Sutherland, to all but name the perpetrator. Hopkins also plays unfair with the audience, withholding details until the finale when Holmes reveals them in a long-winded melodramatic speech backed by weepy music. At least the dialogue feels period-appropriate without resorting to archaic phrasing.

The Holmes characterization trouble traces back to Hopkins basing his screenplay on Stephen Knight’s then-popular book, Jack the Ripper: The Final Solution. Shoehorning in Knight’s elaborate conspiracy theory requires scenes that only serve to introduce the culprit (sharp viewers will suss out the killer’s identity long before Holmes, leaving the mystery not who but why), though Hopkins doesn’t help by telegraphing other bits (the film features what can best be described as “Chekov’s scarf”) and the aforementioned convenient bouts of unconsciousness.

A shame, as Plummer shines in the role, delivering what the script asks while hinting how he could have played a more accurate Holmes. Alongside him, Mason is even better, turning in perhaps the best Watson on film at that point.

Where prior films reduced Watson to a bumbling audience surrogate, the film’s more emotional Holmes allows Mason’s Watson to function closer to a peer of Holmes—a refreshing change—though the film can’t resist presenting the pair as an old married couple, as best illustrated during a dinner scene when an agitated Holmes mashes Watson’s last pea, leading Watson to pout.

Director Bob Clark, just one film removed from Black Christmas, once again shows his gift for crafting immersive atmospheres. Like the house in Black Christmas, Clark’s interiors all feel lived-in and authentic, but this film’s bigger budget allows him to extend his touch to exteriors too, and his London is a fog-shrouded labyrinth of cobblestone streets that fits the story’s thriller nature. Also like Black Christmas, he stages the Ripper scenes with an effective POV style, though this film’s PG rating keeps the violence largely off-screen.

But ultimately, despite the production and performances, Murder by Decree disappoints. While the idea of marrying a Holmes mystery to a ’70s conspiracy thriller may seem appealing, the genres prove incompatible. Having Holmes uncover a conspiracy is fine, but he’d do so through logic and deduction, not psychics, and his conclusions wouldn’t require the script to magically produce non-existent evidence at the last minute to substantiate them. Frustrating, as Plummer and Mason made a great team. Seeing them in a real Holmes mystery would have been a treat.