The idea of loosing Sherlock Holmes on the trail of Jack the Ripper is such a good one that it isn't surprising it was thought of before, in a rather better and lighter movie than this one, called A Study in Terror. Christopher Plummer does not show us Holmes at his deductive best: he is always meeting up with people who know the solution to the case, but he can't get them to spill the beans. Thus, the trouble with this new and dubious theory of the infamous Whitechapel murders is that it isn't so much a mystery as a Watergate-style stonewall ("the Ripper himself, with black pearly eyes, is reduced to the stature of one of the Watergate plumbers"), and it calls more for a political crusader than a gentleman detective. James Mason's Dr. Watson, however, is amusingly interpreted as a fellow who has grown weak and weary from overexposure to his partner's brilliance. With Genevieve Bujold, Susan Clark, Donald Sutherland, and Anthony Quayle; directed by Bob Clark. (1979) — Duncan Shepherd
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