Murder by Decree

This 1979 movie has a great pedigree. I was especially excited while watching it as I seemed to remember various scenes from my childhood. This film must one of those on a tight turn-around on Saturday afternoons and late night network fillers. And there's a great reason for that.... it's great!

Murder by Decree has Christopher Plummer, James Mason and Donald Sutherland! It features Sherlock Holmes pitted against Jack the Ripper (again!) I will strive to not spoil anything in case you haven't seen it yet, but I think the very title reveals almost too much! I mean, who gets to make "decrees"?!

Plummer does a fun turn as Holmes. Not very stuffy and much more a man of action without betraying the character of the Great Detective. Much more of note is James Mason. He does a fantastic job as Watson and only took the part if he could rewrite or add a few scenes that give the good doctor dignity and intelligence; here is a man worthy of being the partner of the Worlds Greatest Detective. There is an absolutely delightful and telling scene with just Holmes, Watson and the case of the last pea:

The basic premise/conceit of the movie is the same as From Hell so it might seem a mite familiar. The ending could never be done today. Not the plot, but pretty much Holmes has a meeting with three officials and debates with them for about 10 minutes. And then the credits. Weird, but satisfying to me. I liked this movie very much. It is available on Netflix.

7% Solution

The Seven-Per-Cent Solution by Nicholas Meyer.

It’s a fun, quick read and probably the first “major” Sherlock Holmes historical team-up. It was made into a rather successful movie starring Nicol Williamson and Robert Duvall as Holmes and Watson, respectively. The book has Watson discovering that Holmes is in severe addiction throes and decides to trick his friend into seeing a new specialist in Vienna. With Dr. Freud’s help, Sherlock remembers and confronts a secret from his past and then they solve a crime.

It’s one of the better non-canon reads and deserves the reputation it has. It is interesting to note that Nicholas Meyer wrote this book when he was only 28. He would later direct another historical fiction, the movie Time After Time, where H.G. Welles chases Jack the Ripper into the 20^th century.

The book was quite popular so you should be able to find it used for very cheap and then movie is on Netflix and pops up on cable once in a while.

Sherlock: A Case of Evil

Just watched Sherlock: A Case of Evil. Terrible.

It came out in 2002 and the only feature of note is that Vincent D'Onofrio plays Professor Moriarty. D'onofrio, of course, plays Detective Goren on Law & Order: Criminal Intent who is based on Sherlock Holmes.

This movie suffers from the worst kind of adaptation; taking the names and some traits but betraying the heart and soul of the source material. James D'arcy is terrible as Sherlock Holmes.

This Made-for-TV movie is available on Netflix and features a 20-something year old Holmes who kills Moriarty in the first 10 minutes. Since the police have been searching for the Professor for sometime this makes Sherlock a celebrity (newspaper headline: Sherlock Holmes Kills Professor Moriarty) and his fledgling detective agency gets a boost.

Ugh. Anyway, this movie is terrible.