Murder by Decree – 4K

Murder by Decree
1979 – 124 Min.
Kino Lorber – 4K Ultra HD & Blu-ray
1:66 Widescreen
Starring Christopher Plummer, James Mason, Genevieve Bujold 
Written by John Hopkins
Directed by Bob Clark

There’s a reason Buckingham palace was built like a fortress: to keep the lower classes out and the family secrets in.

Murder by Decree is inspired by Arthur Conan Doyle yet it’s set in Charles Dickens’s London, a fractured community of haves and increasingly angry have-nots. The rank and file have blood in their eye but for the moment the battlefield is restricted to the opera house where royals in the box seats are shouted down by beggars in the balconies. Outside the class struggle is overshadowed by a series of murders in Whitechapel where a tuxedoed madman is butchering streetwalkers with surgical skill. Those star-crossed women represent the lowest rung of the city’s caste system, a sure sign these killings have political implications beyond misogynistic rage—this feels like a purge. That the psychopath may be a member of the royal family is of special interest to London’s unexpected savior, a social justice warrior named Sherlock Holmes.

Directed by Bob Clark and written by John Hopkins, the actors are royalty of a different kind; Christopher Plummer is a most regal Holmes; James Mason is Watson, his right-hand man and occasional whipping boy; Donald Sutherland is Robert Lees, a spaced-out psychic who supplies a supernatural clue to the mystery, and John Gielgud is Lord Salisbury, a real-life Prime Minister who supported a policy of “splendid isolation.” That strategy, backwards even for the 19th century, was meant to wall off the world. Unfortunately, the solitude was keenly felt by Britain’s own citizens, particularly refugees like Annie Crook, the broken-hearted soul of the film. She’s played by Genevieve Bujold.

Scotland Yard is represented by Anthony Quayle as Sir Charles Warren, Frank Finley as Inspector Lestrade, and David Hemmings as Inspector Foxborough. Warren was a real-life figure too, notable for his controversial indifference to the Jack the Ripper case. Since the powers that be have turned a blind eye to these crimes—as long as the victims remain mere commoners—the merchants of Whitechapel have turned to the great detective. It seems murder is bad for their business.

Those irate shopkeepers are a reminder that a revolution is in the making yet the high-minded Holmes is surprisingly sympathetic to their cause. Fond of isolation himself, the detective was a famously icy character, an avid chess player who viewed his clients as little more than pieces on a game board. Yet even that other great misanthrope, Ebenezer Scrooge, would find redemption at the end of his story, and so will Holmes.

Hopkins’s script portrays a kinder, gentler detective yet the writer makes sure to honor the canon; when Plummer learns of a fresh clue he chirps, “The game’s afoot!” and he’s rarely without his deerstalker or Stradivarius. But as the story progresses, the stakes grow higher, and Holmes’s mask begins to crack, especially when faced with the  truly tragic Annie Crook. Holmes discovers her in an insane asylum where this steadfastly sane woman has protected a years-long secret that would topple Buckingham Palace, a moment that exposes the autocracy and puts a beautifully human face on misery.

The film is a hornet’s nest of seemingly incoherent distractions like the antisemitic slur found near a murder scene or the shadowy presence of the Freemasons, an arcane fraternity with no use for women. But as the puzzle comes together there are no loose ends to complain about and this relatively simple mystery is made richer for it. But it’s Bujold’s performance, with a suggestion of Falconetti in her heaven-ward gaze, that gives the film an undeniable power, both personal and political. Thanks to Annie, the great detective begins to understand just what the mob at the opera house was yelling about. Welcome to the resistance, Mr. Holmes.

Kino Lorber’s new 4K Blu ray of Murder by Decree makes good use of the UHD master from StudioCanal. Reginald H. Morris’s cinematography is diffuse even in brightly lit interiors and even more-so when the evening mist descends; yet the details still retain their clarity. The film is especially atmospheric in 4K, the foggy streets have additional depth and mystery, and the effect is very movie-like. Kino has included an archival audio commentary from the late Mr. Clark, an audio commentary from film historians Howard S. Berger and Steve Mitchell, and a spate of original theatrical trailers.

Here’s Mick Garris on Clark’s “melancholy thriller.”