Murder By Decree

1979 • 123 minutes
3.7
51 reviews
86%
Tomatometer
PG
Rating
Eligible
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About this movie

Sherlock Holmes hunts his deadliest adversary - the madman known as Jack the Ripper! When Scotland Yard is unable to stop the gruesome rampage of Jack the Ripper, a citizens' committee asks Sherlock Holmes (Christopher Plummer) and his trusted associate Dr. Watson (James Mason) to investigate. Now the brilliant pair must follow a terrifying trail of clues that includes a frightened psychic (Donald Sutherland), a suspicious inspector (David Hemmings), an institutionalized woman (Genevieve Bujold) and the Prime Minister of England (Sir John Gielgud). But even if Holmes' remarkable powers of deduction can unmask the maniacal fiend, can he and Watson face the most shocking secret of all? Find out in this masterful suspense thriller directed by Bob Clark (A CHRISTMAS STORY) that both fans and critics have called the most exciting and original Sherlock Holmes movie ever made.
Rating
PG

Ratings and reviews

3.7
51 reviews
Nicole Peckham
March 9, 2017
Interesting way of combining the Sherlock Holmes and John Watson characters into a semi-historical though fictionalized for the movie murder spree that remains unsolved to this day (though there are many speculations on who did these). However, the movie itself was okay as long as one tried to forget that the writer named these two characters after the Sir Arthur Conan Doyle characters. The writer could have placed anyone into those roles as this movie did not really hold to the normal deductive reasoning skills that we would expect of Holmes nor very much of Holmes and Watson behaviors (though there were some). Not really very true to Doyle's original Holmes and Watson characters. It left much to be desired in that way. For a movie about the Jack the Ripper murders sensationalized and speculated upon it was okay. I think that the writer should have just left Holmes and Watson out of it or did a better job combining the characters into the story. But, if it were not for the character of Holmes I would not have watched this out of sheer curiosity.
Damon Duerr
June 12, 2018
Great movie, not because of the plot per se, but the acting is fantastic. Christopher Plummer and James Mason are perfect together. But this movie was made in 1979, not 2009 as Google shows it.
full metal horseman
January 8, 2016
Excellent film