Murder by Decree

Murder by Decree (1979) is a British-Canadian detective thriller you can watch online on iFILM. Christopher Plummer plays Sherlock Holmes, James Mason is Dr. Watson — a pairing many critics cite as the most convincing on-screen version of Doyle's duo.

London, 1888. Citizens appeal to Holmes to solve the Whitechapel murders that the police seem strangely reluctant to pursue. As he pulls on each thread, the conspiracy reaches higher than any street criminal could manage. Psychic Robert Lees (Donald Sutherland) feeds Holmes visions that, uncannily, line up with the physical evidence. The police obstruct. The establishment deflects. Every clue points somewhere the Victorian establishment would very much prefer to keep buried.

Director Bob Clark turns Holmes' famous cold logic into a weapon aimed upward — at Masons, ministers, and the fringes of the Royal household. The supporting cast includes Sir John Gielgud and Anthony Quayle. For fans of Victorian crime fiction, this holds up as one of the sharper and more unsettling takes on the Ripper story. Watch Murder by Decree (1979) online on iFILM.