Aside from those in Shakespeare's plays, few fictional characters have been envisaged with so many styles, settings and interpretations as has Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes. From an eccentric isolated from humanity by his intellect to full blown action hero to everything in-between. The one thing, though, that always seems to carry through is is his almost super human ability to think, to pick out details, and to draw accurate conclusions there from. I should say "almost always" because in the 1979 movie Murder by Decree, Holmes as portrayed by Christopher Plummer is the most human I have ever seen him. He is caring, compassionate and far more likeable than is usual. James Mason turns in perhaps the best performance of Watson ever put on screen. The two's chemistry together is damn near perfect. The visuals of the movie suffer from a few obvious stage sets as opposed to actual locations but overall convey the mood and fog of London quite well. The plot of the movie involves the Jack the Ripper murders and who was really behind them. Does our hero figure it out? Well, he may be a mere mortal in this movie but he's still Sherlock Holmes.
Currently streaming on Netflix