Murder By Decree (1979) Soundtrack CD Premiere

[serya]

Music to Read About Jack The Ripper To!

I think one of the best JTR films is the 1979 Bob Clark movie Murder By Decree. While I know the royal conspiracy has fallen out of favor with most, myself included, there is no denying the tremendous atmosphere and top notch cast lead by Christopher Plummer bringing a unique sensitivity and compassion to his portrayal of Sherlock Holmes. The film features a lush symphonic score by Paul Zaza and Carl Zittrer.

I've gone through and listened to all the Rippercasts including the excellent movie edition which mentioned this film, lurked around this great forum and posted occasionally including on music for documentaries. I'm pretty pleased to actually bring a project of my own here.

Like many soundtrack collectors, a dream of mine has been to make never released film scores available for the first time. We all have that list of Most Wanted Scores, and this gem was at the top of mine. And it has been a real honor working with Wall Crumpler of Howlin's Wolf Records to finally bring 1979's Murder By Decree to collectors as one of the producers of this CD, a real dream come true for me.

Audio samples, a mini audio documentary about the scoring of the film, and more information can be found here:

https://howlinwolfrecords.com/storemurderbydecree.html

[GBinOz]

Hi Serya,

I have just had a flashback to when I first viewed this astonishing movie. The affable camaraderie between Plummer and Mason as Holmes and Watson, the admonishment by Holmes of the faceless beast we call government, and the heart rending realisation by Holmes that he had lead the perpetrators to MJK. All these moments backed by the hauntingly poignant musical score that keeps popping into my consciousness over forty years later.

For those who haven't seen it, get it and watch it. That's what I'll be doing tonight.

Cheers, George

[Herlock Sholmes]

Music to Read About Jack The Ripper To!

I think one of the best JTR films is the 1979 Bob Clark movie Murder By Decree. While I know the royal conspiracy has fallen out of favor with most, myself included, there is no denying the tremendous atmosphere and top notch cast lead by Christopher Plummer bringing a unique sensitivity and compassion to his portrayal of Sherlock Holmes. The film features a lush symphonic score by Paul Zaza and Carl Zittrer.

I've gone through and listened to all the Rippercasts including the excellent movie edition which mentioned this film, lurked around this great forum and posted occasionally including on music for documentaries. I'm pretty pleased to actually bring a project of my own here.

Like many soundtrack collectors, a dream of mine has been to make never released film scores available for the first time. We all have that list of Most Wanted Scores, and this gem was at the top of mine. And it has been a real honor working with Wall Crumpler of Howlin's Wolf Records to finally bring 1979's Murder By Decree to collectors as one of the producers of this CD, a real dream come true for me.

Audio samples, a mini audio documentary about the scoring of the film, and more information can be found here:

https://howlinwolfrecords.com/storemurderbydecree.html

Hi Serya,

As a longtime fan it’s one of my favourite Holmes movies. A few years ago I visited a few of the locations where the movie was shot. Christopher Plummer also played Holmes in a 30 minute short film Silver Blaze (based on the Doyle story)

[serya]

Hi Serya,

I have just had a flashback to when I first viewed this astonishing movie. The affable camaraderie between Plummer and Mason as Holmes and Watson, the admonishment by Holmes of the faceless beast we call government, and the heart rending realisation by Holmes that he had lead the perpetrators to MJK. All these moments backed by the hauntingly poignant musical score that keeps popping into my consciousness over forty years later.

For those who haven't seen it, get it and watch it. That's what I'll be doing tonight.

Cheers, George

Hi George,

That's great! So true, all those moments, Plummer's Holmes really gets to the humor, tragedy, and righteous advocacy. The music really captures all those feelings so well. Plus that soaring end theme. Thank you!

Tim

[serya]

Hi Serya,

As a longtime fan it’s one of my favourite Holmes movies. A few years ago I visited a few of the locations where the movie was shot. Christopher Plummer also played Holmes in a 30 minute short film Silver Blaze (based on the Doyle story)

That's so great. And at the time of the film many locations were still in their vintage state, adds to much to the amazing atmosphere of the film. And that is a good point about the Silver Blaze film - I did locate that when we were looking at putting this CD out, I had not seen it before. Thank you for that.

[Herlock Sholmes]

That's so great. And at the time of the film many locations were still in their vintage state, adds to much to the amazing atmosphere of the film. And that is a good point about the Silver Blaze film - I did locate that when we were looking at putting this CD out, I had not seen it before. Thank you for that.

If you haven’t seen it before, this is a great website. It shows photographs of film locations then and now. I love it. Murder By Decree is on here.

https://www.reelstreets.com/films/sparrows-cant-sing-2/

[GBinOz]

If you haven’t seen it before, this is a great website. It shows photographs of film locations then and now. I love it. Murder By Decree is on here.

https://www.reelstreets.com/films/sparrows-cant-sing-2/

Thanks for the link Herlock. What a great site. I've bookmarked it for future reference.

Cheers, George

[Herlock Sholmes]

Thanks for the link Herlock. What a great site. I've bookmarked it for future reference.

Cheers, George

It’s a cracker. I think that I found out about it on JtRForums. I’ve an idea that someone like Rob Clack might have put photographs on there.

[serya]

I made a master list of all the documentaries mentioned here and elsewhere a few years ago and was watching them all in order. The best part was the older ones having many sites looking fairly unchanged since the 1880s.

[GBinOz]

Hi Serya,

As a longtime fan it’s one of my favourite Holmes movies. A few years ago I visited a few of the locations where the movie was shot. Christopher Plummer also played Holmes in a 30 minute short film Silver Blaze (based on the Doyle story)

Hi Herlock,

Interesting bit of trivia is that the original choice for Holmes and Watson was Peter O'Toole and Laurence Olivier, but they didn't want to work with each other. I can envisage them in those roles.

Cheers, George

[Herlock Sholmes]

Hi Herlock,

Interesting bit of trivia is that the original choice for Holmes and Watson was Peter O'Toole and Laurence Olivier, but they didn't want to work with each other. I can envisage them in those roles.

Cheers, George

Hello George,

Im usually pretty good on Holmes-related trivia but I didn’t know that. I can imagine them playing them too. Lawrence Olivier played Professor Moriarty in The Seven Percent Solution.

[serya]

One of the things I particularly like about Murder By Decree is Plummer as Holmes and the genuine compassion coupled with the righteous indignation with which he plays him and the fight for justice for the victims.

[Herlock Sholmes]

There have been some excellent Holmes portrayals and some terrible ones. I have my top tier, middle tier and lower tier and I think that I’d put Plummer in the upper part of my middle tier. It’s personal taste though of course.