SoTrumpBelieve Must See Movie...

Spidersecu Don't Believe the Hype

Beanbioca As Good As It Gets

Tobias Burrows It's easily one of the freshest, sharpest and most enjoyable films of this year.

TheLittleSongbird Am a huge fan of Sherlock Holmes and get a lot of enjoyment out of Arthur Conan Doyle's stories. Also love Basil Rathbone's and especially Jeremy Brett's interpretations to death. So would naturally see any Sherlock Holmes adaptation that comes my way, regardless of its reception.Furthermore, interest in seeing early films based on Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes stories and wanting to see as many adaptations of any Sherlock Holmes stories as possible sparked my interest in seeing 'A Study in Terror', especially one with such a great idea. There have been a lot of comparisons with 'Murder By Decree', won't compare them other than saying that to me they are good in their own way and personally rank them the same.There are better Sherlock Holmes-related films/adaptations certainly than 'A Study in Terror', the best of the Jeremy Brett adaptations and films of Basil Rathone fit under this category. It's also not among the very worst, although one of the lesser ones overall, being much better than any of the Matt Frewer films (particularly 'The Sign of Four') and also much better than the abominable Peter Cook 'The Hound of the Baskervilles'.'A Study in Terror' generally is a good interesting film. Perhaps at times the script could have been more imaginative. Will admit also to not being that surprised by the identity of the killer, am another person who guessed it correctly prematurely.Most problematic was the music, which just didn't fit and like it belonged somewhere else. Otherwise, there is not much actually to fault 'A Study in Terror' from personal opinion. It is very inaccurate historically, but on its own terms it entertains and shocks effectively. Although modest in budget, the settings and period detail are beautifully realised and have a lot of handsome evocative atmosphere. Very nicely shot too. Generally the script is assured and intelligent, with some nice dark humour, and the story has genuine dread and dark suspense. The deaths are gruesome but not gratuitously so, anybody who knows of Jack the Ripper will know that his murders were among the most horrific and haven't-seen-anything-like-it in history.John Neville is a worthy and charismatic Holmes, if not one of the best as the character, while Donald Houston achieves a good balance of amusing and dignified without being buffoonish or dull. Frank Finlay, John Fraser and especially Robert Morley (with a couple of the best lines) are the supporting cast standouts.Overall, good and interesting. 7/10 Bethany Cox

TLAyres I'm a fan of these iconic mysteries, and this production takes a stab at both Sherlock Holmes and Jack The Ripper but in the long run is not really successful on either front in my view, and not for lack of trying.John Neville was an excellent Holmes, one of the best performances of the brilliant detective. And Donald Houston played Watson somewhere between the original humorous Nigel Bruce and the more solid athlete as perceived by Robert Duvall in Seven Percent Solution. He seems like a younger, stronger James Mason in Murder by Decree. At first I did not recognize Judi Dench, a lovely young blonde in a smaller role.Dialogue as read by the actors at times felt forced, like they had to push through it in quick fashion to move things along. I do think elements of the JTR mystery as they appear here are a bit ahead of their time, but the finale felt unsatisfying and rushed.I thought the best elements were the settings - excellent street scenes and a pub filled with rowdy characters. The prostitutes unfortunately were looking very Hollywood though in their bright expensive dresses and perfect hair like they had just come from a salon, and the film generally lacked grit. There is a lot of teasing about the oldest profession that goes nowhere, and things in general are kept fairly tame, cutting away before anything becomes too appropriately sordid.I'm a big fan of John Scott but his music here sounded too much like a 60's spy television show (the director James Hill worked on The Saint and The Avengers).As noted in the trivia section, it is interesting that two actors in Study In Terror (1965) would appear later in the other Holmes vs Ripper movie Murder By Decree (1979; Anthony Quayle and Frank Finley (who would reprise his Doyle created role of Inspector Lestrade). There are other similarities between the films as well- suspicion of those in places of power, and the same shots of Holmes and Watson having similarly styled conversations riding in carriages together. It made me feel that Decree was more of a remake of Study, with the 1970s infamous Royal Conspiracy Theory solidifying the Ripper plot.Overall, A Study In Terror feels like a Hammer production with less sex and gore, and not nearly as mysterious or atmospheric as other JTR movies like versions of The Lodger and Murder By Decree. Not quite mysterious enough for a Holmes story, and not nearly dark enough for JTR, lost in the mid 60s somewhere in between.

ShootingShark In 1888, a series of horrible murders are being committed in London's poor Whitechapel district. With public outcry growing and the police baffled, the world's greatest amateur detective, Sherlock Holmes, is tasked with finding the identity of Jack The Ripper …The idea of combining the fictional Sherlock Holmes from Arthur Conan Doyle's stories with the real-life murders of the notorious Jack The Ripper is a clever one. Only one of the stories was actually written prior to the murders but the time line is close enough, and the appeal of having a genius investigate perhaps the most notorious unsolved killings is pretty irresistible. Well written by brothers Derek and Donald Ford, it recreates the detail of the murders quite accurately, but also explores the social justice angle well - Holmes is at times almost sympathetic towards the Ripper as a psychotic driven to his deeds, and angry with the establishment who try to downplay the seriousness of his crimes and the squalor in which they occur. The cast are all talented British stalwarts, with Neville (The Adventures Of Baron Munchausen) a fine Holmes, Quayle good in a key part, and classic Cockney pin-up girl Windsor (the star of many of the Carry On films) at the height of her beauty. With some moody sets and good photography this is an effective if minor little thriller. The enjoyable 1979 Canadian film Murder By Decree with Christopher Plummer as Holmes is a virtual remake (Finlay even reprises his role as Inspector Lestrade) and the Holmes vs Ripper idea has also been used in several comics, books and video games.

quim-scd This is a wonderful, entertaining film, with one great cast (Donald Houston makes a superb Watson) and a nice plot although a bit Holmes-centered, which will please some people even more anyway, victorian-like dialogues being quite exceptional. The density of the story is acceptable, even if it lacks some psychological details. One thing, though, has been somewhat of a let down - the overdubbed sounds and music. This is one movie that could benefit enormously from sound revamping, original soundtrack included. It would certainly rank quite higher in movie History if that were to be done (Can it?). All things considered, it is nevertheless a must, not just for Sherlock Holmes or ripper fans, but for anyone who is looking for a good movie, in general.