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Sherlock Holmes meets Jack the Ripper! Here comes the original caped crusader!
When Watson reads from the newspaper there have been two similar murders near Whitechapel in a few days, Sherlock Holmes' sharp deductive is immediately stimulated to start its merciless method of elimination after observation of every apparently meaningless detail. He guesses right the victims must be street whores, and doesn't need long to work his way trough a pawn shop, an aristocratic family's stately home, a hospital and of course the potential suspects and (even unknowing) witnesses who are the cast of the gradually unraveled story of the murderer and his motive.
Wuchak
Jun 18, 2026 · via TMDB
**_What if Sherlock Holmes & Dr. Watson took on the 1888 Ripper case?_** This was the first of two films that had this plot. The second one, “Murder By Decree,” came out fourteen years later and featured Christopher Plummer and James Mason in the roles of Holmes & Watson whereas this features John Neville and Donald Houston. It’s more colorful and arguably has a superior cast of women, led by raven-haired Georgia Brown as the notable singer at the tavern with Edina Ronay showing up in the last act as Mary Kelly. “Murder by Decree” is a half hour longer, more convoluted, and has a muted palette. Yet they’re both of about the same overall quality. They fill the bill if you're in the mood for a Victorian milieu, black coats, London fog, cobblestone streets, horse-drawn carriages, gas lamps, taverns, Whitechapel women, ghastly murders and old-fashioned detective work. Neither are as sordid & gory as Klaus Kinski’s 1976 rendition or Anthony Perkins’ “Edge of Sanity” (1989) nor as entertaining as “From Hell” (2001). You could call them respectable versions of The Ripper case that are dialogue-driven and eschew exploitation. I’d compare them to Jack Palance’s “The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde” (1968). Keep in mind that the murderer was never identified or arrested and so every cinematic account that reveals the killer's identity is a fabrication or, at best, plausible theory. Aside from the aforementioned “From Hell,” one of the most entertaining films of this ilk is “The Two Faces of Dr. Jekyll” from 1960. I realize I’m mixing up the fiction of Robert Louis Stevenson’s novella with the real-life case of Jack the Ripper, but the two killers are somewhat linked in that Stevenson's story was published 2½ years before The Ripper slayings debuted. And the stage production of “Dr. Jekyll” in London, 1888, had to be shut down due to the hysteria over the grisly Ripper killlings in which even those who merely played murderers on stage were considered suspects. It runs 1h 35m and was shot in May-Jun 1965 at Shepperton Studios, which is just southwest of London. GRADE: B-
CinemaSerf
Sep 5, 2024 · via TMDB
Now, in my humble opinion there will never be a better "Sherlock" than Basil Rathbone, nor can "Watson" be anyone other than Nigel Bruce. That's not to say that others ought not to try, though - and here John Neville and Donald Houston turn in OK performances as our sleuthing duo. This time, they are charged with solving the mother of all crime mysteries - the identity of "Jack the Ripper". A lot of attention to detail has been incorporated into the superior production, the film evokes well the sense of seedy Victorian Whitechapel with it's lively nightlife and ladies of "ill repute". It actually has just a shade of "Hammer" about it. I did think, though, that the extensive cast diluted the potency of the thing though. There are too many characters and aside from Anthony Quayle, they sort of served to clutter up the story. The writing isn't bad, it tries it's hand at a little humour now and again, but it is frequently wordy - a little too descriptive denying us much opportunity to do any investigation along with them, ourselves. It's a decent watch, an authentic postulation of what might have happened, but Neville just isn't "Holmes" material for me, sorry...
User reviews courtesy of TMDB.
John Neville
Sherlock Holmes
Donald Houston
Doctor Watson
John Fraser
Lord Carfax
Anthony Quayle
Doctor Murray
Barbara Windsor
Annie Chapman
Adrienne Corri
Angela
Frank Finlay
Inspector Lestrade
Judi Dench
Sally
Barry Jones
Duke of Shires
Robert Morley
Mycroft Holmes
Edina Ronay
Mary Keller
Charles Regnier
Joseph Beck
Cecil Parker
Prime Minister
Georgia Brown
Singer
Dudley Foster
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Peter Carsten
Max Steiner
Christiane Maybach
Polly Nichols
Kay Walsh
Cathy Eddowes
John Cairney
Michael Osborne
Avis Bunnage
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Terry Downes
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Jeremy Lloyd
Rupert
John Scott
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Arthur Conan Doyle
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The Man Who Was Sherlock Holmes
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Sherlock Holmes Faces Death
The Hound of the Baskervilles
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Dressed to Kill
Sherlock Holmes and the Voice of Terror
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The Royal Scandal
Silver Blaze
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The Lodger
Sherlock Holmes and the Deadly Necklace
Man in the Attic
The Masks of Death
Waxwork II: Lost in Time
The Sign of Four: Sherlock Holmes' Greatest Case
Dr. Watson and the Darkwater Hall Mystery
From Hell to the Wild West
Adventures of Sherlock Holmes
7 Faces of Jack the Ripper
A Rogue in Londinium
The Grey Dame
Jack the Ripper
The Haunting at Jack the Ripper’s House
The Adventure of the Speckled Band
Sherlock: The Abominable Bride
The Sign of Four
Sherlock Holmes
Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows
The Lodger: A Story of the London Fog
The Pearl of Death
The Hound of the Baskervilles
The Scarlet Claw
Miss Marple: They Do It with Mirrors
Evil Under the Sun
Sherlock Holmes Faces Death
The House of Fear
The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes
Young Sherlock Holmes
The Hound of the Baskervilles
Sherlock Holmes in Washington
Enola Holmes 3
Terror by Night
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The Hound of the Baskervilles
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The Jester
Appointment with Death
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The Limits of Control
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Winged Creatures
Murder in Three Acts
Perfect Sisters
Aug 10, 1966
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1987 · 14 wins
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2008 · 14 wins
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1978 · 13 wins
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2000 · 12 wins
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1981 · 11 wins
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