A Study in Terror (1965)

☆ ☆ ☆

A Study in Terror (1965) – J. Hill

John Neville takes his turn as Sherlock Holmes (and Donald Houston is Watson) in this rather middling adventure.  It isn’t that the film is bad, it’s just that we’ve seen Holmes so many many times before (and since) and nothing much stands out from this new portrayal.  The case, however, is new (but not unfamiliar):  Holmes and Watson strive to identify and to capture Jack the Ripper.  The Victorian era and the Whitehall district of London are rendered suitably but unimaginatively – there is something dull about the mise-en-scene too, although it ticks the usual boxes (music hall/boisterous pub, prostitutes in allies, hansom cabs, period costumes). The script tosses up a few red herrings (and young Judi Dench!) but it isn’t too hard to figure out the culprit before he is apprehended by Holmes.  This is, by the standards of the day, a fine B-grade time-waster but I’ll take Rathbone and Bruce any day over these pale imitations!