Sherlock Holmes (Christopher Plummer) is on the trail of Jack the Ripper.
A Masonic conspiracy is at the centre of things. The head of the police, Sir Charles Warren (Anthony Quayle) attempts to divert the course of justice, radicals jeer the pleasure-loving Prince of Wales (Victor Langley), the Duke of Clarence (Robin Marchal) is revealed as human but unwise, prostitutes are knocked off – rather nastily – because they may or may not know the whereabouts of a certain baby, and Geneviève Bujold goes convincingly mad in a country asylum whose visiting hours only take place in the middle of the night.
The lighting is terrifically moody, exploiting a perpetually fog-enshrouded dockland, a gloomily-lit Baker Street and sundry grisly carvings up by firelight. The marvellous sets – timbered tenements and cobbled alleyways – are superlatively in period, blending in with some real locations and a not-too-convincing model of the Houses of Parliament at night, with all the requisite feeling for late Victorian skullduggery.
The cast does its best and – being an Anglo-Canadian production – a handful of our Commonwealth friends rise to the challenge and utter their few words with commendable British inflections.
James Mason is a delightful Watson – really making the most of lines like “Holmes, I wish you’d refrain from cleaning your pipe with my hypodermic needle!” – and David Hemmings gives an excellent account of a politically active Scotland Yard Inspector.
Sadly, the scattering of clues and red herrings is not really justified by the outcome – a lengthy anticlimax in which Holmes confronts the real culprits and tells them what they already know and we have already guessed.
Sherlock Holmes
Christopher Plummer Dr John H. Watson
James Mason Inspector Foxborough
David Hemmings Mary Kelly
Susan Clark Sir Charles Warren
Anthony Quayle Prime Minister Lord Salisbury
John Gielgud Inspector Lestrade
Frank Finlay Robert Lees
Donald Sutherland Annie Crook
Geneviève Bujold Dr Hardy
Chris Wiggins Mrs Lees
Teddi Moore William Slade
Peter Jonfield Sir Thomas Spivey
Roy Lansford Carrie
Catherine Kessler Makins
Ron Pember Anne Chapman
June Brown Danny
Terry Duggan Catherine Eddowes
Hilary Sesta Lanier
Anthony May Mrs Dobson
Betty Woolfe Elizabeth Stride
Iris Fry Home Secretary Henry Matthews
Geoffrey Russell Lees’ Housekeeper
Peggy Ann Clifford Jane
Ann Mitchell Molly
Katherine Stark Ellen
Elaine Ives-Cameron Betty
Stella Courtney Emily
Judy Wilson Carroll
Roy Pattison Prince of Wales
Victor Langley Princess Alexandra
Pamela Abbott Duke of Clarence
Robin Marchal Doctor
Richard Pescud Nurse
Pat Brackenbury Constable Long
Dan Long Constable Watkins
Michael Cashman
Director
Bob Clark
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The lighting is terrifically moody, exploiting a perpetually fog-enshrouded dockland, a gloomily-lit Baker Street and sundry grisly carvings up by firelight. The marvellous sets – timbered tenements and cobbled alleyways – are superlatively in period, blending in with some real locations and a not-too-convincing model of the Houses of Parliament at night, with all the requisite feeling for late Victorian skullduggery.
