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List Price: $9.98Amazon.com's Price: $8.99 You Save: $0.99 (10%)Prices subject to change.
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Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
Audience Rating: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Binding: DVD
EAN: 0013131213393
Format: Anamorphic, Color, DVD-Video, Widescreen, NTSC
Label: Starz / Anchor Bay
Manufacturer: Starz / Anchor Bay
Number Of Items: 1
Publisher: Starz / Anchor Bay
Region Code: 1
Release Date: January 21, 2003
Running Time: 124 minutes
Sales Rank: 17270
Studio: Starz / Anchor Bay
Theatrical Release Date: February 09, 1979
Editorial Review:
Amazon.com:
Murder by Decree has the distinction of being not only one of the best Sherlock Holmes films, but one of the best pastiches (i.e., a Holmes fiction created by someone other than author Sir Arthur Conan Doyle) featuring the late-Victorian Era detective. Christopher Plummer is very good as Holmes, and James Mason redeems the many mishandled screen portrayals of Dr. John Watson with a rare, insightful performance. The story may not be unique in post-Doyle Holmes adventures--the private investigator pursues Jack the Ripper during the latter's reign of monstrous murders in foggy London--but the script by John Hopkins (Thunderball) is keenly intelligent, developing concentric circles of power and evil with great subtlety. Before losing himself in Porky's, director Bob Clark did a masterful job of surprising audiences with Murder by Decree, convincing viewers they were watching one kind of drama but then unleashing something very different, very unsettling. --Tom Keogh
Customer Reviews
Average Rating: 
Rating: - Sherlock Holmes takes on the Ripper Killings
"Murder By Decree" is a 1979 film that posits the theory that the Ripper killings was a conspiracy. This is also the movie that predated "From Hell", another Ripper movie starring Johnny Depp and Heather Graham. Both are well-made movies, though I felt that the script and acting in "Murder By Decree" was far superior than "From Hell".
In "Murder By Decree", Sherlock Holmes, the gentleman sleuth is called upon by some Whitechapel merchants to solve the Ripper murders. Here Holmes is played ... Read More
Rating: - Perhaps The Best Non-Doyle Based Holmes film
So it isn't the most original idea out there for Sherlock Holmes to attempt to solve the case of the infamous murders committed by Jack The Ripper. At least one other film (A Study In Terror) and several books have (had) been written along those lines so the storyline could have been predictable. Yet Murder By Decree rises above what could have been a tired and predictable story to deliver perhaps the best non-Doyle based Holmes film. It is a must-see for fans of Holmes and does supply an interesting solution ... Read More
Rating: - Murder most splendid
Perhaps a bit dated by today's special effects standards, but this 1979 film is a wonderfully scripted Jack the Ripper tale with all sorts of clever twists and turns. Good acting by all with Christopher Plummer taking the spotlight as Sherlock Holmes on the trail of the madman at the behest of a group of Whitechapel business owners. More of a "why" than "who is Jack" type movie, it cleverly lays out a theory that is now widely embraced by folks who have studied the crimes. Great cinematography, convincing performances ... Read More
Rating: - "Forget it, Sherlock. It's Whitechapel"
This was the first Jack the Ripper movie to get the details of the crimes correct. A great cast, but given the sophisticated script this could have been even better, instead it looks more like a TV movie than a Victorian "Chinatown." Still, Mason's bufoonish Watson is one of the funniest and Bujuld's scene still packs a wallop as does Plummer's summing up at the end. (As was noted on the commentary track for "The Adventure of Sherlock Holmes", it's an amusing gaffe that Holmes wears his deerstalker everywhere -- including ... Read More
Rating:  - Mediocre by Decree
In the long line of Sherlock Movies and TV shows, this is a decent attempt at one of the stories that seems something like "Jack the Ripper". Plummer and Mason are certainly good actors and the sets are fairly decent. The mystery of illicit women being abducted and murdered seems to be swept under the carpet by the government and police. Sherlock Holmes will find out why with his able assistent Dr. Watson. The atmosphere is mainly dark and brooding throughout. Perhaps if I hadn't seen the masterful British series with Jeremy ... Read More
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