Review: Sturdy but Narratively Stranded, 'Murder by Decree' on Blu-ray Looks Great, Goes Nowhere

Of all the Sherlock Holmes adaptations, "Murder by Decree" may be one of the most curious. Not because it's terribly bad or that great, but it has an amazing cast suffering with a script that simply has no place to go. With an undue emphasis on colorful characters that threaten to steal the film from the lame, meandering narrative, the Bob Clark-helmed thriller still gets by with sturdy direction and a bevy of great performances. The duet between Christopher Plummer and James Mason turns out to be a unique pleasure, as they play two characters that complete one another and struggle to think clearly when apart.

More of a fond homage to mystery novels than a bright recreation of Victorian-era Britain, "Murder by Decree" is burdened with incident after incident. Yet, the moustache twirling and one-liners still shine beneath all of the tedium. When the inevitable climax rolls the camera back on everything we've seen up to that point, we're reminded of the various minor pleasures littered throughout the runtime. There's a handsome quality to the production that feels at home with all those old Hammer horror films.

Sherlock Holmes (Plummer) and Dr. John Watson (James Mason) are tasked with hunting down Jack the Ripper. Their investigation leads them into a dark web of corruption going all the way up to the Prime Minister of England (John Gielgud). There's also a frightened psychic (Donald Sutherland), an institutionalized woman (Genevi�ve Bujold) and a suspicious inspector all implicated in the plot.

"Murder by Decree" is one of those films where you see things slowly rising to greatness, only to slightly miss the mark in moments that mean the most. It's a work that's caught somewhat between the whodunnit style of normal Sherlock stories and the pomp and circumstance of an older, more violent Hammer horror film. Bob Clark is usually pretty game to milk the terror out of simple images, like that of a horse-drawn carriage carrying Jack the Ripper. But even those images feel a bit neutered and stranded with no place to go.

As for the video presentation, this new Blu-ray release from Kino Lorber and their Studio Classics label is probably the best the film has looked at home. Save for some errant scratches that sometimes creep into the frame, this release has a sturdy video transfer that properly showcases the soft and gloomy aesthetic. There are two audio commentaries to choose from, one being with Bob Clark and the other with film historians Howard S. Berger and Steve Mitchell. If you're a Sherlock diehard, then you probably won't want to miss this one, but you should go into it with checked expectations.

"Murder by Decree"
Blu-ray
$29.95
https://www.klstudioclassics.com/product/view/id/7001