A Study in Terror (1966)

It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional

A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.

It's a good bad... and worth a popcorn matinée. While it's easy to lament what could have been...

This movie tries so hard to be funny, yet it falls flat every time. Just another example of recycled ideas repackaged with women in an attempt to appeal to a certain audience.

I must confess to being somewhat of a fan of this film. On paper it sounds insane, Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Watson tracking down and facing Whitechapel's most notorious killer, Jack the Ripper. Lots of good points, the atmosphere of the time is really well created, the film has a suitably murky, bleak feel to it, great costumes, at times it feels like a Hammer Horror production. John Neville is excellent as Holmes, physically and vocally he reminds me of the great Basil Rathbone, which is very much a good thing. Barbara Windsor is a delight, at times I did feel like Sid was ready to pop out with a joke, regardless, she lit up the screen. Robert Morley, however, an actor I adore, but he was totally miscast as Mycroft, intelligent yes, quick yes, just lacking the imposing nature the character demands. The chronology is a bit muddled, but efforts are made to get some of the facts in. I wonder would it have been better to invent characters? not sure.The Blu ray is well worth getting as the film looks glorious. It's an odd mix, but one I like. Watch it, just don't take it too seriously. I'm a huge fan of Sherlock Holmes, but also have an interest in Whitechapel, the first half of me is satisfied, the latter leaves me scratching my head, 8/10

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

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.

A Study In Terror is not the only film to pit Sherlock Holmes against Jack the Ripper. Neither is it the best, falling well short of the standard set 13 years later by Bob Clark's Murder By Decree. Concluding with a memorable speech by Christopher Plummer's Holmes about "madmen wielding sceptres," his 1978 conspiracy thriller had the advantage of providing a satisfactory explanation to the conundrum: if the master sleuth really did solve the mystery of the Whitechapel murders, why are we - to this day - none the wiser? This earlier effort is a mixture of lurid exploitation piece, with Babs Windsor among the body count of murdered prostitutes doing her 'tart with a heart' acting, and stodgy social commentary, represented Anthony Quayle's po-faced pathologist denouncing the degenerate morals of the East End. The murders have something of the voyeuristic nastiness of Michael Powell's Peeping Tom, but with the self-reflexive twist of a film-making murderer. The pub scenes on the other hand do conjure up a bit of an atmosphere of bawdiness, with their raucous music hall singing.The plot, such as it is, hangs on the Ripper's surgical skills, the estranged son of a tetchy upper class type, a burly publican and a woman disfigured in an acid attack. I won't say any more, because some viewers might genuinely want to enjoy the detective story mechanics at work here. Stylistically A Study In Terror is Hammer-esquire Victorian Gothic, although the percussive incidental music has a strangely Latin American feel. At best, the film is something of a curiosity, with Donald Houston (later to star in Moonbase 3) amiable enough as Watson. It also features a cameo by Robert Morley as Sherlock's brother Mycroft Holmes, Frank Finlay as Inspector Lestrade and a brief appearance by a very young (not yet Dame) Judi Dench as Anthony Quayle's soup kitchen running daughter.