Starring John Neville, Donald Houston, John Fraser, Anthony Quayle, Barbara Windsor
Directed by James Hill
(actor & director credits courtesy IMDB.com)
Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Watson try to deduce the identity of Jack The Ripper, whose Whitechapel murders are terrorizing London.
Handsomely mounted with fine art direction and photography, this attempt to pit fiction's most famous detective against one of history's most notorious murderers certainly looks attractive, and I had little trouble allowing myself to be transported back to Victorian London. I was a little disappointed that the story didn't allow for more mental sparring between these two legendary characters, framed more as a whodunit trying to hide the Ripper's true identity until the film's final moments. I thought Neville and Houston were okay as Holmes and Watson although they certainly didn't impress me enough to stand out among the duo's great screen portrayers, and the supporting cast members that best stood out had but brief moments in the picture: Adrienne Corri as the hard to find Angela Osborne, and Robert Morley, in an inspired bit of casting as Holmes' equally clever brother Mycroft. Still, I was entertained by this sumptuous looking if flawed production.
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