A STUDY IN TERROR
Aspect ratio: 1.75:1
Sound format: Mono
More than a decade before Bob Clark pitted Sherlock Holmes against Jack the Ripper in the superior MURDER BY DECREE (1978), Herman Cohen produced this ignoble marriage of Victorian supersleuth and notorious mass murderer, featuring John Neville and Donald Houston as Holmes and Watson, pursuing 'Saucy Jack' through the fog-shrouded streets of Whitechapel. As expected, the narrative is spiced with exploitation fripperies (note how Desmond Dickinson's camera leers over the female victims before their gory demise), but the script - co-written by future sexploitation director Derek Ford (THE WIFE SWAPPERS, SEX EXPRESS) and his brother Donald (THE BLACK TORMENT) - is a pleasingly tangled affair, attentive to the customs and traditions of Holmes lore, while the expert teaming of Neville and Houston is further bolstered by an astonishingly starry cast (including John Fraser, Anthony Quayle, Robert Morley, Barbara Windsor, Adrienne Corri, Frank Finlay, Cecil Parker and a young Judi Dench!). The budget is meager, but production values are solid, and director James Hill (BORN FREE, THE BELSTONE FOX) marshals proceedings with a sure hand throughout.
Aspect ratio: 1.75:1
Sound format: Mono
More than a decade before Bob Clark pitted Sherlock Holmes against Jack the Ripper in the superior MURDER BY DECREE (1978), Herman Cohen produced this ignoble marriage of Victorian supersleuth and notorious mass murderer, featuring John Neville and Donald Houston as Holmes and Watson, pursuing 'Saucy Jack' through the fog-shrouded streets of Whitechapel. As expected, the narrative is spiced with exploitation fripperies (note how Desmond Dickinson's camera leers over the female victims before their gory demise), but the script - co-written by future sexploitation director Derek Ford (THE WIFE SWAPPERS, SEX EXPRESS) and his brother Donald (THE BLACK TORMENT) - is a pleasingly tangled affair, attentive to the customs and traditions of Holmes lore, while the expert teaming of Neville and Houston is further bolstered by an astonishingly starry cast (including John Fraser, Anthony Quayle, Robert Morley, Barbara Windsor, Adrienne Corri, Frank Finlay, Cecil Parker and a young Judi Dench!). The budget is meager, but production values are solid, and director James Hill (BORN FREE, THE BELSTONE FOX) marshals proceedings with a sure hand throughout.