Reviews

Richard Brooks, Lee Marvin, and Burt Lancaster are at the top of their game in this turn-of-the-century Western classic.

As the Old West dies, on the eve of World War I, a rich businessman assembles a team of ex-revolutionary mercenaries to rescue his kidnapped wife. The task is complicated by this twist -- the kidnapper is an old compadre of half the rescue team. Brooks makes the most of his material, exploring the rigid code by which such men live, and how contact with the cynical Twentieth Century can use that code as a weapon against its adherents.

Marvin was rarely better than his role here as Henry "Rico" Fardan, a tough soldier, torn between his own memories and his professional sense of honor. His performance is matched by Lancaster, in the role he was, perhaps, born to play. Bill Dolworth is a cynical scoundrel who rediscovers his own sense of decency during the mission. Lancaster is a letter-perfect smartass, and his stunt work is impressive, particularly considering his age at the time this film was made. Robert Ryan and Woody Strode have less to do, but are still interesting. Claudia Cardinale is gorgeous, Ralph Bellamy, suitably slimy, and Jack Palance even manages to invest a little dignity into the only strained sequence of the film -- his monologue about love and the revolution.

The dialogue is rich and memorable -- you may find yourself quoting whole passages. Maurice Jarre's stirring score is apt without being obtrusive. The splendidly photographed desert becomes a virtual character in the story.

A word about weaponry. Hollywood goofed more often than not when showcasing Western armaments. It could easily have happened in this film, set at a time when the Colt .45 and the Lewis gun both coexisted on the frontier. But Marvin's sequence with the Model 1897 Winchester Trench Gun is one of the best photographed gunfights in history, and shows clearly why this pump shotgun was the most fearsome close-quarters weapon ever made.

This film is rarely shown on television or cable. Fortunately, it is available once again on VHS tape, and may be available on DVD as well. While the picture is not well known, it deserves to be mentioned with "The Wild Bunch," "The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance," and "The Searchers."

It is true that the plot of this movie is based on a largely-discredited theory of the Ripper murders. It is also true that Sir Arthur Conan Doyle never wrote of this clash between his fictional detective and the all-too-real serial killer.

None of that matters, however.

"Murder By Decree" may be the best Holmes OR the best Ripper movie ever made. ***SPOILERS*** While Ripper scholars have rejected the Prince Eddy theory, writer John Hopkins makes it plausible enough to sustain this film.

In this task, Hopkins and Director Bob Clark are amply aided by the best cast ever to grace a Ripper or Holmes film. Christopher Plummer and James Mason are the most likeable Holmes and Watson in cinema. No one has ever equalled Jeremy Brett's cold and clinical portrayal of Holmes; for viewers of a certain age (myself included)all Holmes/Watson combos are evaluated against a perspective of Basil Rathbone/Nigel Bruce. But here, for the first time, are a Holmes and Watson who seem genuinely to like each other. These men, we realize, COULD, in fact, be lifelong friends. Plummer's Holmes is suitably erudite, but also has a core of humanity which Brett since,and Rathbone before, sometimes overlooked.

The supporting cast is equally excellent. Deserving of special mention are Anthony Quayle and John Gielgud as splendidly pragmatic politicians who would rather see murder go unpunished than upset the precarious Victorian social order. Frank Finlay is the definitive Inspector Lestrade. Donald Sutherland is eerily excellent as the psychic Robert Lees. Even Susan Clark does well in her turn as the real Ripper's real last victim, Mary Kelly.

I pause briefly here to state categorically that I am NOT a Genevieve Bujold fan. With the exception of "Anne of the Thousand Days," I consider Ms. Bujold's enormous talents to have been largely wasted. This movie, however, may be her finest performance. I defy anyone with a shred of human feeling to remain unmoved by her scene in a Victorian insane asylum, when Holmes and Watson finally track down an Annie Crook driven to madness by her secret. As she whimpers plaintively of "Eddie" and "my baby," one can see why it became necessary for Holmes to show real human feelings in this film.

Sadly, this film does not appear to be available on tape from the major distributors. If you can find it in a library or on pay-tv, I urge you to schedule the time to see this underappreciated classic.

This caper film turns the buddy-movie ethos on its head.

The movie begins with a flashback to college comrades who, as proto-hackers, have learned how to use early computers to perpetrate radical tricks on the establishment. There is a betrayal, and one of the buddies vanishes, apparently to die in prison.

Flash forward thirty years to Martin Bishop (Robert Redford), the surviving buddy, who now hacks company systems as a computer security consultant. Bishop has surrounded himself with a motley crew ranging from an ex-CIA agent (Sidney Poitier), and an overweight conspiracy nut (Dan Aykroyd), to a blind phone hacker (David Straithairn) based on the real-life proto-hacker Joe Engressia. Since Bishop has been in hiding from the feds for thirty years, it's now possible for the government to force him and his team into its toughest caper...or "sneak."

This ensemble cast fits together perfectly, complimented by a letter-perfect performance by Mary McDonald as a control freak who is nonetheless drawn to the out-of-control Bishop. Ben Kingsley also surprises as the outwardly placid villain who is still carrying a seed of rage against his old buddy Bishop. The plot is well-constructed; the dialogue is outstanding. James Horner's musical score becomes a virtual character.

Watch for a well done cameo by James Earl Jones.