It is not only a funny movie, but it allows a great amount of joy for anyone who watches it.

The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

One of the best movies of the year! Incredible from the beginning to the end.

It's a good bad... and worth a popcorn matinée. While it's easy to lament what could have been...

I must confess to being somewhat of a fan of this film. On paper it sounds insane, Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Watson tracking down and facing Whitechapel's most notorious killer, Jack the Ripper. Lots of good points, the atmosphere of the time is really well created, the film has a suitably murky, bleak feel to it, great costumes, at times it feels like a Hammer Horror production. John Neville is excellent as Holmes, physically and vocally he reminds me of the great Basil Rathbone, which is very much a good thing. Barbara Windsor is a delight, at times I did feel like Sid was ready to pop out with a joke, regardless, she lit up the screen. Robert Morley, however, an actor I adore, but he was totally miscast as Mycroft, intelligent yes, quick yes, just lacking the imposing nature the character demands. The chronology is a bit muddled, but efforts are made to get some of the facts in. I wonder would it have been better to invent characters? not sure.The Blu ray is well worth getting as the film looks glorious. It's an odd mix, but one I like. Watch it, just don't take it too seriously. I'm a huge fan of Sherlock Holmes, but also have an interest in Whitechapel, the first half of me is satisfied, the latter leaves me scratching my head, 8/10

A Study in Terror unites two of my favourite movie characters, one fictional, and one very real: Conan Doyle's super sleuth Sherlock Holmes and infamous serial killer Jack the Ripper. Although it's far from the best film to feature either character, there is still plenty of fun to be had as Holmes (John Neville, channelling Basil Rathbone) does his thing, uncovering a dastardly blackmail plot that has had dreadful consequences for Whitechapel's working girls.In merging the literary with real-life, huge liberties have clearly been taken with any facts, and avid Ripper-ologists will be able to tear a new one out of the script as historical detail quickly falls by the wayside in favour of the fanciful. Fortunately, the film is just too much fun to let factual inaccuracy spoil matters too much. The murders are nice and gruesome, there's a well staged fight scene that sees Holmes and Watson (Donald Houston) duke it out with some thugs, we get to meet Holmes' equally brilliant brother Mycroft (Robert Morley), eye candy is provided by the rather-too-attractive, soon-to-be-dead whores (who include Carry On regular Babs Windsor), and the whole mystery keeps the viewer guessing right till the end.

Thirteen years before Christopher Plummer would don the deerskin cap and rail against Jack the Ripper, this small b-movie directed by one James Hill preoccupied itself with the same subject matter, not failing to combine a traditional Sherlockian murder mystery with then contemporary horror inclinations. Indeed A STUDY IN TERROR leaps across the screen with a pre-credits murder scene that finds a prostitute with a knife jammed through her neck and the gruesomest is yet to come.It is obvious director James Hill opted for a more visceral approach. In hindsight we can recognize what through the years and through a constant succession of films has been defined as clear genre typing: the slasher. That succession of films leads infallibly back to Hitchcock's pivotal frightfest, PSYCHO.Indeed A STUDY IN TERROR, perhaps indirectly, homages the most iconic scene in Hitchcock's movie and by extension one of the most iconic scenes in movie history. Jack the Ripper's knife slashes through the water he has submerged a poor gal in the same fashion the murderer's knife slashes through the air in the famous shower scene. We get no 'money shot' but the visceral impact is the same. James Hill goes one further and has a stream of blood following each slash of the knife. This is sixties Brit horror territory of course and the bright red blood reflects that. It looks like someone stole the kind of recipe for fake blood Hammer kept stashed away in their little vault of horrors.The visceral impact of the knife slashing the water combined with the flowing blood offer the next clue as to the movie's identity. Indeed what would such a clear combination of the visceral with the stylized bring to mind but Italian horror? Later on a certain scene is shot through the killer's POV (what better slasher trademark can you think?) in a sleazy bedroom suffused with red lights, as a prostitute undresses on the bed. Hill cuts away before the violent conclusion but I was still waiting for the knife-wielding black-gloved hand to appear. In that light, some might say slasher, I will say giallo, the Italian craze that took Europe by storm in the late sixties with its mix of stylish horror and whodunit plots.I'm a big horror fan so I'm naturally more enthusiastic about the horrorish aspects of A STUDY IN TERROR but traditional Holmes afficionados need not be afraid. What horror exists is only a means of violent punctuation to an otherwise excellent murder mystery that is the central element of the movie. John Neville turns in a great Holmes that makes up for Donald Houston's average Dr. Watson, the production values are good, the empty streets of Whitechapel, London are sufficiently foggy and the plot remains suspenseful and offers quite a few potential suspects for the viewer to ruminate over.Overall A STUDY IN TERROR is an unexpected success both as a Sherlock Holmes-meets-Jack the Ripper murder mystery and a horror/thriller film of sorts.

A Study in Terror is set during Victorian times in 1888 to be precise & starts late on night in the poverty ridden London district of Whitechappell where a serial killer known as Jack the Ripper is at large, prostitute Polly Nichols (Christiane Maybach) is the second to dies from his blade & soon after another prostitute named Annie Chapman (Barbara Windsor) falls victim to the Ripper. The worlds greatest detective Sherlck Holmes (John Neville) & his trusty sidekick Dr. Watson (Donald Houston) are on the case after a set of surgical scalpels are mysteriously sent to Holmes in the post, as Holmes investigates the Ripper case the likes of blackmail, dark family secrets, lies & a whole host of other undesirable elements surface for Holmes to shift through & get to the horrible truth...This British production was directed by James Hill & is a surprisingly decent murder mystery. The script by Derek & Donald Ford uses the intriguing premise of having the fictional detective Sherlock Holmes tackle the still unsolved real-life case of Jack the Ripper, it's a neat idea & it works very well thanks to a good script that manages to juggle the mystery & horror elements effectively & to it's credit there's more going on in A Study in Terror than just the Ripper murders for Holmes to get to the bottom of. There are a few suspects & each one is given just about enough motive to put them in the frame for the murders yet there isn't one huge stand out candidate who are obvious, adding to a pleasing amount of mystery is a fair amount of exploitation & action which I didn't expect from a film of this vintage. The character's are good & it keeps to the basic notion of each of it's main stars, Sherlock Holmes is the unflappable super smart detective who misses literally nothing & Jack the Ripper is portrayed as a doctor as he was suspected to be in reality. It moves along at a nice pace, it will probably keep you guessing for most of it's running time & it all comes together in satisfactory climax although it never explained how Holmes himself escapes the fire, does it?Director Hill does a better job than expected with some very atmospheric scenes set in a Victorian fog enshrouded London. The period sets, costumes & props are excellent with with lots of attention to detail throughout. There are some nice moments here especially the long point-of-view murder of the fourth prostitute late on in the film. This was probably considered pretty strong back in 1965 & while not up there with the likes of todays horror films there's some decent gore here, there's a scene set in a slaughter house complete with lots of hanging, gutted pig carcasses, someone has a knife shoved through their neck, there's a slit throat & a cool scene when someone is stabbed in a water trough & the camera is based in the bottom so we can see clouds of blood discolour the water from underneath.Technically A Study in Terror is great, we British know how to turn in a decent period effort & there's even an impressive fiery climax featuring a fight between Holmes & the Ripper in a burning pub. The acting is fine & I loved the cockney accents especially all the prostitutes who were a hoot, there's a good cast here including Barbara Windsor, Oscar winner Judi Dench, Robert Morley, Frank Finlay & Adrienne Corri.A Study in Terror is a neat film that was much better than I was expecting, if your looking for an atmospheric murder mystery with some added exploitation then A Sudy in Terror might be what your after. Definitely worth a watch.