Sherlock Holmes is often called the most filmed fictional character in history, personally I doubt this is true; what about Dracula or Santa Claus (or Jesus)? Also; Those who say this appear to be listing each episode of each TV or movie series as individual portrayals which is clearly cheating. At any rate Holmes is certainly in the top three and he's been found in the movies since the early days of silent film.
THE SILENT FILM ERA:
Sherlock Holmes made his first stage appearance in a London production starring Charles Brookfield in 1893 and again the following year featuring a John Webb. Neither of these plays were on-canon nor were they written by Arthur Conan Doyle although he would have had to approve them as he owned the copyright to the character. The Brookfield play was in fact a parody called "Under The Clock" co-written by Brookfield and Seymour Hicks who also played Watson. Brookfield was a well known actor and writer with a strong resemblance to the classic Sidney Paget Holmes illustrations who had a successful stage career but retired from acting a few years later due to ill health and focused on writing until his death of tuberculosis in 1913 aged only 56. He made no films. Seymour Hicks was another successful stage actor with a longer career best remembered a forty year on-and-off portayal of Ebaneezer Scrooge which indcluded two films, a 1913 silent versiona and the first sound version in 1935, both of which survive. Another early Hicks film was "Always Tell Your Wife" in 1923 for which he hired as director a young Alfred Hitchcock thus giving him his first director's credit. Hicks was knighted in 1935 and died in 1949 aged 78.
CHARLES BROOKFIELD
The Webb play was a different production called "Sherlock Holmes; A Psychological Drama In Five Acts" written by Charles Rogers and unlike the Brookfield play was apparenty not a parody and was also longer but was still off canon. It was known to have played in Glasgow where it was advertised and reviewed in local papers. John Webb was a more obscure figure about whom there are few details but he was reportedly a successful enough actor based at the Surrey Theater in London and born in 1864 which would make him thirty at the time he played Holmes. He was apparently best known for playing stage villians alongside his actress wife Nellie Warden in various popular touring melodramas inluding playing Bill Sykes in a version of "Oliver Twist". The life of a touring player was hard and unfortunately by the 1900's Webb had some sort of breakdown and after a paticularly violent fit where he assaulted Nellie with a butcher knife he was incarcerated at an asylum. At his trial he blamed a case of scarlet fever but I suspect syphilis aggravated by drink is more likely. At any rate he died there in 1913 aged 49. Touchingly his widow Nellie, who would continue on acting, would also post a tribute in the papers in the anniversary of his death every year until 1936 when she is assumed to have died. Webb also made no films. The photo from newspaper reports of his death seems to be the only known one.
These plays were successful enough but disliked by Conan Doyle who decided to write a full dramatic version himself which he shopped around to producers and major stage stars like Sir Henry Irving and Sir Herbert Beerbohm-Tree, both of whom passed on the play as too trivial for their tastes. Irving also passed on Dracula which Bram Stoker had written specifically for him so his judgement was not always equal to his snobbishness although for his part Beerbohm-Tree would go on to star in "My Fair Lady" and make some silent films. Conan Doyle eventually had better luck in America with actor William Gillette who rewrote much of the play and incorporated touches not in the original stories. It was Gillette in fact who wrote the phrase "It's elementary my dear Watson", not Conan Doyle. It was also Gillette who incorporated the iconic deerstalker cap, matching cloak, calabash pipe and ever preasent magnifying glass as stage props to flesh out the role. In 1898 Gillete's version was a smash hit on Broadway and touring to London. By 1903 another London version was opened with British actor Harry Saintsbury. Oddly both London versions featured Charlie Chaplin's first stage credit, as one of the Baker Street Irregulars and Holmes' houseboy, starting in 1905, the young Chaplin would also work with Saintsbury and later give much credit to both men for teaching him about acting.
By 1901 a rival London parody was playing entitled "Sheerluck Jones" starring one Clarence Blackiston which also ran for two years and would later be revived with other actors. Blackiston was a popular comedy and musical performer born in the wonderfully named Giggleswick in Yorkshire (I swear I didn't make up that name) in 1864 who had a long stage career staring as child actor along with some film roles into the sound era before he died in obscurity 1943.
"SHERLOCK HOLMES BAFFLED" (1900);
The first Holmes appearance was in 1900 in a one minute vignette called "Sherlock Holmes Baffled". Like most films of the prototype days it is short and has no real plot, it's simply an excuse to play around with a few camera tricks in the Melies style. The actor playing Holmes is unknown. Even though Holmes had been portrayed on the stage with great success the first proper screen Holmes was in a film called "The Adventures Of Sherlock Holmes or Held For Ransom" (1905) possibly starring American actor Maurice Costello, a well known leading man of the day and a member of the Barrymore dynasty by marriage after his daughter, actress Dolores Costello wed the great John Barrymore. Costello's Holmes, made in 1905 was longer, approx eight minutes. At that length it was still too short to tell a real story so it was probably merely a scene or two from a Holmes story. These sort of vignettes were popular at the time and can be seen in the various similar vignettes taken from Dickens and Shakespeare from that era. Audiences would have already have been familiar with such literary stories so they would have understood a scene taken from popular faction without needing any further explanation. At any rate this film has been long lost so we will probably never get to see it, this is a shame since it would not only be the first proper Holmes but Costello was a fairly important figure of the age not to mention a member of one of the most famous film dynasties. However film historians are unsure if he was actually in the film at all so until a copy surfaces (a few fragments exist in the Library Of Congress) we'll probably never know. He continued acting until the 1940's albeit in smaller roles from the mid twenties onward. As for "Held For Ransom" the only cast members who are confirmed were H. Kyrle Bellew (1850-1911) a British actor and adventurer known for his scandalous affair with actress Mrs Leslie Carter and playing the character of Raffles the Jewel Thief on stage, he could have played Holmes, and Bellew and Costello do bare a certain resemblance so they could have been confused. Mainly a stage actor Bellew made few other films. Watson could have been American actor J. Barney Sherry (1874-1944) who is also listed in the cast and who later appeared in "Custer's Last Fight" which still survives.
KYRLE BELLEW
Another notable lost early Holmes would be two American films made in 1905 and 1908 by Billy Anderson who was actually better known as Bronco Billy, the star of several popular westerns and a fairly important figure of the era. One of the more unlikely stars of the era Bronco Billy, whose real name was Max Aronson was no cowboy but was instead a figure from the New York's vaudeville and Yiddish theatre scenes who was a stocky and dumpy figure who could barely ride a horse or do a convincing fight scene so he is potentially the most miscast Holmes ever. These films (undoubtably shorts) would be odd curios for Holmesians if they ever resurface.
BRONCO BILLY ANDERSON
Oddly for the next decade and a half the various Holmes portrayals came from not from Britain and the U.S.A. but from the non English speaking Germany, Denmark, Hungary and France. This is an indication of the worldwide popularity of Holmes, in fact Holmes was always quite popular in Germany where none other than Hitler was a fan as we shall see. Hungary did the first known foreign Sherlock in 1905 starring one Karoly Baumann. Nordisk Studios in Denmark made thirteen episodes between 1908 and 1910 written, directed and starring Viggo Larsen who then made several more in Germany when Nordisk set up operations there. Even during WW1 Germany had yet another Holmes film in 1917 with Hugo Flink. Other actors in these lost European films were obscure figures like Einar Zangenberg and Lauritz Olsen.
OTTO LAGONI (1910);
A surviving film from Denmark is 1910's "Sherlock Holmes I Bondefangerlor" (AKA Sherlock Holmes & The Confidence Crew") in which Holmes breaks up a robbery crew who are either drugging and robbing travellers at a local pub or are robbing the pub itself. The film is so badly paced and shot (as well as having a poor resolution copy) that it's hard to tell what's going on. Holmes is played by Otto Lagoni who is tall, thin, ponderous, smokes a pipe and moves slowly if at all and doesn't really seem to be much of a detective. He quickly figures out the gang is slipping a Mickey Finn to drug their patsies but then is just as quickly captured himself and needs to be rescued by passing cops. The film climaxes in a car chase and gunfight, albeit a slow motion one. The ending of the film has been lost but appears to have Holmes confront the gang in court. Lagoni has no presence here but he was actually a respected stage actor with Ibsen plays to his credit. Although he made dozens of films between 1909 and 1914 (most now lost of course) in which he normally played a heavy, he apparently thought little of them and returned to the stage and when late in life he wrote his memoirs he did not even mention his filmwork. He died in 1944 aged 75 in Nazi occupied Denmark. Aside from the 1901 "Sherlock Holmes Baffled" short this is easily the worst of the silent Sherlocks but at least it is short running at about twelve minutes.
OTTO LAGONI IN "SHERLOCK HOLMES & THE CONFIDENCE CREW" (1910);
EINAR ZANGENBERG (1911);
Another, and likely better Danish Sherlock was "The Hotel Theives" the following year starring Einar Zangenberg, unlike the stuffy stage actor Otto Lagoni, Einar was a rugged action hero and his Sherlock is chock full of energy. Unfortunately all that survives of the original are a few fragments stitched together into an under four minute clip along with a few stills which still manages to contain a gunfight, a car chase, a rooftop foot chase, a fight on a boat, a fight on a train and more fist fights. It's safe to say this film is off-canon. Does it make any sense? Probably not but like most Scandinavian films it is well shot and makes nice use of outdoor locations. There is apparently no Watson to be seen however. As for Zangenberg, he was one of Denmark's biggest stars and soon left for a bigger stage in Germany and Austria just as World War One broke out where he made several popular movies. Unfortunately he was evidentally a burn-the-candle-at-both-ends type and by the war's end he had worked, drank and partied himself into a sanatorium where he fell victim to the 1918 Spanish Flu virus and died aged only 35.
"THE HOTEL MYSTERY" (1911);
LAURITZ OLSEN (1911);
"The Black Hoods" is another wildly off-canon Danish version from the same year in which our hero faces off against a gang of kidnappers. Oddly while Sherlock saves the day we get no clue as to how as he apparently does no actual detective work, he simply reads the ransom note and automatically knows where the businessman hostage is being held and rescues him and that's it. To be fair given the choppy nature of the editing it's entirely possible that some scenes are missing. For a short film it actually does have a number of scenes and different sets some of which look like actual exteriors and internal houses but the final scene was clearly shot on a stage set with a painted backdrop. Holmes is paid by Lauritz Olsen who is known as the "Most Prolific Actor Of Danish Silent Film" and his credits do list 223 films (six of which are talkies) but most of these are either shorts or minor supporting roles, his career petered out in the sound era and he died in 1955 aged 82. He looks and acts nothing like Holmes and incidentally has possibly the worst makeup job in all of silent film. The Klan like hoods are a nice touch though. I paticularly like how when the Black Hoods sit down have a meeting to discuss crimes they have to take off their hoods to talk which reminds me of a "Get Smart" episode. Once again there is no Watson.
"THE BLACK HOODS" (1911);
GEORGES TREVILLE (1912);
Unfortunately the early German and Hungarian silent versions have also seem to have been lost, at least they are not available. Two copies of the French versions have somehow survived however. These starred one Georges Treville and ran a respectable twenty minutes in length, a typical running time for all but the most epic productions of the day. One surviving Treville is not very impressive however. It's a version of "The Copper Beeches", from 1912 and one of the Doyle canon and thus familiar to the audiences. However it is very slow moving and somewhat archaic even by the standards of the day. There are no title cards to explain dialogue or move the plot forward and the actors often pause to mug for the camera and even gesticulate towards the unseen audience to explain their actions as if they would be able to understand them. This sort of "breaking the fourth wall" was actually quite common in the working class theaters that much of their audience were used to and is often seen in French films of the era in particular but it makes it seem even more creaky to today's eyes. The oddest thing about this particular episode is that Holmes himself doesn't even show up until halfway through and doesn't really do very much and Watson never shows up at all. Under these circumstances Treville leaves little impression as Holmes. The other episode is "The Musgrave Ritual" and it's an improvement, at least this time Holmes is actually present for most of the film and gets to do some actual detecting, although the suspect's quick confession robs some of the suspense. Treville does at least look the part and there are some nice sets. The restored version is in good shape and adds some new inter-titles to clarrify the action. once again there is no Watson although for some reason IMDB lists the character as being in the film. Oddly while the film's intro stresses it was made in Britain with Conan Doyle's cooperation it is actually a French production. The rest of the cast is unknown and we don't know if they were British or French. The Treville's must have been successful enough since he made at least eight in the series and it should be remembered that in the silent era any film could easily cross any language barrier as it was not hard to translate the title cards into any language so the Treville's could have been seen internationally, that at least one of them appears to be an Anglo/French production suggests the films were likely exported to Britain and abroad to Canada & Australia and possibly America depending on the more restrictive import laws of the time.
GEORGES TREVILLE IN "THE MUSGRAVE RITUAL" (1912);
Ever since the "Sherluck Jones" stage parody had a succesful run in London in 1901 there were more film parodies starting in 1911 when Mack Sennett made a series starring himself in his usual slapstick style. There were also a series starring Sherlock's incompetent distant cousin "Burstup Holmes" in 1911. These were directed by Alice Guay Blache, a pioneering female director of the era originally based in France.She made dozens and dozens of movies between 1896 and 1920, mostly shorts. She moved from France to the USA in 1910 where she married film executive Herbert Blache where she made these shorts apparently inspired by the success of Mack Sennett's Keystone Cops. Only one of these films is known to survive and in it Burstup was a bumbling oaf (with an exagerated nose common with vaudeville comics) attempting to solve the case of a man who has faked his death to slip out and play poker with the boys. After Burstup arrests the wrong suspect (his status is a little unclear, he appears be a private detective but he sports a badge and makes arrests) the wife solves the case herself. Holmes is played by Fraunie Fraunholz, a Canadian actor who made other films for Guay-Blache including a version of "The Pit & The Pendulum" which also starred Blanche Cornwall who played the wife in this film. Blache made dozens of films until she divorced in 1922 and returned to France never to work again. She eventually returned to America where she died in 1968 aged 94. As for Fraunholz, when America entered WW1 he swifty changed his German name to Fraunie French but he seems not to have acted again, at least not in films. He died in 1938 aged 62. Blanche Cornwell was even less lucky dying in 1918 aged fifty, perhaps of the 1918 Spanish Flu Pandemic.
"BURSTRUP HOLMES MURDER CASE" ~ (1911);
An odd Italian short was "Stronger Than Sherlock Holmes" (1913) in which a man falls asleep while reading a newspaper account about a crime then dreams about a criminal being chased by a cop leading to increasingly surreal levels of cartoon violence and suspension of the laws of physics. The flim does not have an actual appearence by Holmes himself though and the title makes no more sense than the rest of the film does. Obviously inspired by Mack Sennett's Keystone Kops shorts was actually directed by Giovanni Pastrone best known for known making "Cabiria", one of the first film epics, a sprawling saga of the Roman Empire with massive sets and giant casts which became an influence on DW Griffith, Cecil B Demille and Abel Gance and becoming the first film screened in the White House. Pastrone only actually made a few films before retiring from directing in 1923 and becoming a succesfull businessman. He died in 1959.
"STRONGER THAN SHERLOCK HOLMES" (1913);
SAM ROBINSON (1918);
There was also an all-black version in 1918 called "A Black Sherlock Holmes" starring Sam Robinson although the character was actually named Knick Garter which is a play on yet another fictional detective. The story is a farce in which Garter is a Private Eye who worships Sherlock Holmes to the extent of wearing an oversized deerstalker cap (sideways), tweed suit and sports a large pipe and magnifying glass and he also has a bumbling assistant. The case involves a chemist who has invented a new type of explosive and is targetted by a conman who eventually kidnaps his daughter who Garter/Holmes has a crush on. Garter/Holmes spies on the conman and gives chase ending in a shootout after which the conman meekly surrenders and one of his henchmen switches sides and runs off to elope with the daughter and they all live happily ever after which Garter/Holmes graciously accepts. Our detective is played by Sam Robinson who has sixteen known film credits in 1917-18 starting with a Mary Pickford film "The Little American" with the rest being for Ebony Pictures, a white owned Chicago studio that made all-black films many marketted for both white and black audiences. Their films included comedies, westerns and action/adventure films some of which which were condemmed in the Black Press for using racist Minstrel Show tropes. The company responded after the outcry and further outrage after DW Griffith's "Birth Of A Nation" by hiring black writers and directors and aiming for the emerging Black audiences. There would be a network of black owned theatres in both the urban North and Midwest as well as the segregated South in the 1930's & 40's although while there would have been fewer such theatres in the 1920's there was also a network of Black Vaudeville theatres known as the Chitlin Circuit that could have easily shown two-reelers as the white Vaudeville theaters did by this times, usually at the end of the night or as an afternoon matinee. In addition White owned theatres in cities with a large Black communitee would run some late night showings of Black films which were referred to as "Midnight Rambles". As a farce this film could have been screened for either audience and does have some Minstrel tropes (mostly in Garter/Holmes' sidkick) but is not overtly racist. Ebony's attempts to appeal to both audiences remained controversial in the Black press and were not paticularly successful and they shut down in 1919.
Robinson himslf was a product of Black Vaudeville and according to some sources was the brother of the more famous Bill Bojangles Robinson although thismay be an error. Bojangles did indeed have a younger brother who had a musical career under the name Percy Robinson and Sam is also from Richmond, Virginoa as were the Robinsons however is known that both Robinson parents died four years before Sam was born so assuming both dates are correct they can not be brothers although they may or may not be otherwise related. There was at least one more entry from Ebony Films using this same character, he has a diffrent name but wearsthe same costume and is the same bumbling oaf. The films Robinson made with Ebony made up all but two of his film credits but as he died in 1972 aged 81 it's certainly possible he had other minor roles that were not credited. This is also possibly true of the rest of the cast which also contains George Lewis (as the chemist) who was a producer and had his own stage company who supplied most of Ebony's casts and he does appear in a few of the other Ebony films. He is not to be confused with a New Orleans Jazz clarinet player of the same era.
"A BLACK SHERLOCK HOLMES" (1918);
This film, along with the rest of those of Ebony Studios, were assumed lost for decades until a few Ebony films turned up and are now of great historical intrest as early all-black films. Unfortunately this print is in poor shape which makes much of it's storyline hard to follow. On the other hand it's severely distressed state gives it a dreamlike quality which I've enhanced by adding the soundtrack.
ALWIN NEUß (1911-1916);
The Danish Nordisk company began making movies in Germany by 1911 including a series of Holmes films starring German actor Alwin Neuß who had previously starred in a version of "Dr Jekyll & Mr Hyde". The important surviving film is a version of "Hound Of The Baskervilles" with followups continuing even into the early years of WW1. The film is decidely off-canon with the villianous Stapleton using bombs and hiding in tunnels and secret passages in Baskerville Manor and there is even a long (and confusing) sequence with Stapleton disgusing himself as Holmes leaving Holmes to then disguise himself as Stapleton! Meanwhile the Hound is a minor presence and actually looks pretty friendly while Watson (actor unknown) barely shows up at all. All of this has little to do with the original story and in fact this film has more in common with the gimmicky haunted house films of the later 1920's like "The Cat & The Canary". Neuß doesn't really look, or for that matter act, much like Holmes, often relying on shooting his way out of trouble with little real detective work going on. He would continue acting for the rest of the silent era dying in 1935. Writer Richard Oswald would return as director for another better version in 1929 albeit with American actor Carlyle Blackwell as we shall see.
DIE HUND VON BASKERVILLES (1914);
WILLIAM GILLETTE (1916);
1914 brought not one but two versions of "A Study In Scarlet" an American version in 1914 starring Francis Ford, (brother of director John Ford) and the British finally got into the action in 1914 with a version of "A Study In Scarlet" produced by Samuelson Studios starring an accountant and amateur actor named James Bragington who was reportedly cast solely due to his resemblance to the classic Sidney Paget drawings. This film is considered one of the great lost films by British archivists and only a few stills remain. Bragington did not act in film again. A couple years later Samuelson Studios tried again with Henry Saintsbury who had been playing role on stage for a decade by that point. These two films are once again not available. This is unfortunate since as we've seen Saintsbury was one of the first to play the role on stage and was quite well known at the time so this must be considered the great lost Holmes film especially since the William Gillette film was found.
In 1916 William Gillette, who had popularized the role on stage back in 1898 finally got around to playing the role on film. It is probably good that the now 62 year old Gillette waited since by that time film technology and technique had advanced enough to do the role justice. This is a full-length version clocking in at almost two hours, a major production of the era, with a decent budget. This film had been considered lost until a copy surfaced in 2015 and was restored for DVD release. The film looks fine and has good sets, although not quite as lush at the German version, there are some scenes of the urban slums which nicely capture the seedy menace of a Jacob Riis photograph. Gillette is a fine Holmes with plenty of imperious stage presence although in this off-canon story, which combines parts of the plots from "A Scandal In Bohemia" and "The Final Problem", doesn't actually leave him much room to do actual detective work and the 62 year old Gillette avoids any strenuous physical activity. Watson is played by Edward Fielding as an affable non-entity and Moriarty by a scenery chewing Ernest Maupain. Fielding had a long career on both stage and screen with literally dozens of films albeit mostly in minor roles, including the 1940 Hitchcock film "Rebecca", while Maupain's career was limited to the silent era. Far more interesting is Majorie Kay playing a character based on Irene Adler to give Holmes a love interest. Gillette actually asked Conan Doyle's permission to have Holmes get the girl in the end and Doyle told him he could do whatever he wanted with the character including killing him off if he desired.
PROBABLE MARJORIE KAY WW1 POSTER
Something of a mysterious figure, Kay was actually only 17 years old in her film debut, she did apparently do some modelling and singing prior to this. She is a pretty and winsome figure with a vulnerable presence who more than holds her own here and would seem to have a future in film. However soon after this film was done America entered WW1 and she volunteered to become a wartime Red Cross nurse for the duration, during which time she also modelled for Red Cross posters. After the war she was reportedly involved with a proposed film based on her wartime experiences which never came to be made and she instead turned to a successful career in musical theatre including singing with Enrico Caruso at the Metropolitan Opera and in the Broadway musical "The Night Boat" into the early 1920's when she moved to Hartford, Connecticut, retired from film opening a dance school and married three times dying in 1949 aged only fifty. This would be her only film credit. Chester Gillette had little interest in film work and continued to act on stage, especially as Holmes, (he also did a Holmes radio play) for much of the rest of his life dying in 1937 aged 83.
WILLIAM GILLETE IN "SHERLOCK HOLMES (1916);
EILLE NORWOOD (1921-1923);
The British Holmes films moved into high gear in 1921 with a series of half hour Holmes films starring Eille Norwood, a veteran stage actor who was already in his sixties by this time and thus at least a full generation older than Holmes should be. However this makes little difference as he was evidently a vigorous man and known for his skill with stage makeup and costumes so his age is not apparent. Unlike Treville, Norwood not only had presence but he was also a skilled and trained actor who understood the new medium thoroughly, there would be no more mugging to the cameras or standing about awkwardly. The Norwood's were all taken from the original Doyle canon which they stick to with reasonable faithfulness, although occasionally a car can be seen passing by in the background. Norwood made a solid Holmes, cool, confident and in control. Besides being an actor, Norwood, whose real name was Anthony Brett, designed crossword puzzles for the daily express which seems like a perfect side gig for Holmes. Watson as played by two lesser known actors, Hubert Willis and Arthur Cullin, was a bland but acceptable sidekick. The Norwood's are solid but not without their faults, most of which are due to their short length making for rather truncated stories and by-the-numbers camera work. The series was succesful enough to inspire a full length version of "The Sign Of Four" in 1923 to close off the Norwood era. Like all the Norwood films this one is reasonably faithful to the original although there are cars and motorboat chases at the climax which probably go on a little too long but a modern audience might not mind as it gives a chance to see the (not very crowded) streets of London and Thames River of a century ago. The outdoor sets include a realistic section of Limehouse, a working class area with a lot of Chinese, Indian and African immigrants, most of who are played by actual Asian and Black actors rather than white actors in black and yellowface which most American films used at the time, although the Indian characters do appear to be white actors. Overall however these films are well regarded by most Holmesians, none other than Arthur Conan Doyle pronounced himself a loyal fan. Norwood would make an amazing forty seven Holmes films, covering almost the entire canon before retiring, missing the chance to make any sound versions. This would turn out to be Norwood's last film role although he did continue to play the role on stage into the 1930's before retiring. He died in 1948 aged 87. Of this series at least three of the short films survive along with the full-length film and a few still photos.
EILLE NORWOOD AS HOLMES IN "THE DEVIL'S FOOT" (1921); .
JOHN BARRYMORE (1922);
The first American full length Holmes movie came in 1922 and starred John Barrymore, the greatest actor of the day (and son in law of the afore mentioned Maurice Costello) in a version of the popular William Gillette play. John Barrymore (AKA The Great Profile) looks every inch the figure from Sidney Paget's drawings, tall, imposing, aristocratic, aloof, with that classic profile and bearing. Barrymore dominates the screen in ways that Treville never could dream of. There is also a Watson played well enough by Roland Young (later star of the "Topper series"). We also have the first great Moriarty in Gustav Von Seyffertitz, who is wonderfully skeletal and mantis-like. As might be expected with such a Germanic name and sinister appearance Seyffertitz had already made his name during the Great War playing evil German officers in various propaganda films so he was an obvious choice to play the criminal genius. Other notable names in the largely American cast included later famous names like Louis Wolheim, William Powell (of "The Thin Man"), and future Hollywood gossip columnist Louella Parsons. The film's hour and a half length finally allowed for a detailed plot and character development. The Gillete play departed from the Doyle canon by providing a back story showing Holmes and Watson meeting at university, but it is otherwise true to the spirit of the Doyle stories, it also introduces Moriarty in a case involving a young aristocrat in trouble. The film is a major studio production with a decent budget filmed in London and is well shot and makes good use of several outside sets. The film does stray somewhat outside the late Victorian era to include a few automobiles but this should not seem especially out of place to modern viewers and doesn't at any rate play a significant role in the story. The film is the best silent Holmes but was long considered lost until a version turned up a few years back and it is now available on DVD from Kino Video.
JOHN BARRYMORE AS HOLMES (1922);
CARLYLE BLACKWELL (1929)
In 1929 Austrian director Richard Oswald had another crack at "Hound Of The Baskerville, more than a decade after the 1914 German version which he wrote. This time he had the full arsenal of Expressionist techniques. The film is a riot of shadows & fog, dark & stormy nights, dark staircases, reflecting window panes and a highly mobile camera with plenty, if not an excess, of pans and tracking shots. All this technique does somewhat draw attention to itself but is undeniably well done. The film actually manages to keep quite close to the original story until the final quarter when it again goes wildly off-canon to include the secret passageways, explosions and gunfights from his 1914 script although he does at least resist the earlier confusing mutual disguises sub-plot. Holmes is played here by American actor Carlyle Blackwell in an otherwise German cast. Blackwell had been a prominent leading man in the 1910's America before moving to Britain where he starred in a popular series of films based on the English detective Bulldog Drummond and he was probably cast here with an eye to export the film to Britain and America. Unlike Holmes the Drummond character solves cases with his fists and Blackwell is more stocky and square-jawed than we expect of Holmes and there is an odd touch where Holmes is introduced as our "amiable detective" which is decidedly out-of character but while Blackwell is not as good as Barrymore, Norwood or Gillette he is solid enough. This was actually one of Blackwell's last films because as talkies came in he moved back to America where he found himself largely forgotten and he retired other than a few stage Broadway appearances before dying in 1955. Watson is played by George Seroff, as a portly and good natured but not stupid foil. Seroff is a shadowy figure who seems to have used a few different names including Serov and Serow suggesting he may have been Russian or Polish. At any rate he made only a few films before dying later that year with his last being the still surviving and well regarded German/Russian production (of which there were several during the Wiemar years) of Leo Tolstoy's "The White Devil" (1930) which also starred Lil Dagover (from "The Cabinet Of Dr Caligari") as well as being the first film for Peter Lorre. The villainous Stapleton is played (or overplayed) by Fritz Lasp with teeth gnashing, bug-eyed, wild-haired histrionics that conjure up Renfield from "Dracula" or the mad scientist from "Metropolis". Setting aside the overly gimmicky climax this stylish film is easily one of the best of the silent Sherlocks. This film was long thought to be lost until a copy turned up in Poland in 2009 and was restored for release in 2019 (the Blu-Ray version includes the 1914 Oswald version). There are several minutes missing from the early part of the film which the restoration covers up adequately enough with some existing stills and inter-titles.
"HOUND OF THE BASKERVILLES" (1929);
LI PINGQIAN;
There would be one more silent Holmes in "The Case Of The Detective Sherlock Holmes"(AKA "Stories Of Sherlock Holmes") made in China in 1931. China was yet another country where Holmes was translated and became quite popular, at least with the educated westernized elite. This film is a full length version with an all Chinese cast and although clearly off-canon apparently kept the theme of the original basically intact. Holmes was played by Li Pingqian who also directed with Watson played by one Xiao Zhengzhong. We should note that while silent films stopped being made in the west by the end of the twenties they continued making silent films, some very good, in China and Japan until the late thirties. The reasons were not actually technical but cultural as both countries had a theatre tradition of actors silently miming while off stage narrators described the story and provided voices, a tradition they carried over into films. Sadly this intriguing film has apparently been lost except for a poster. Li, also known as Jack Pingqian would go onto a long and prolific career in China and Hong Kong as an actor, director and director into the 1960's making over 90 films. He died in 1984
HOLMES IN THE EARLY SOUND ERA:
The first early talkie Holmes was a version of "Hound Of The Baskervilles" starring one Robert Rendel made in 1932 but is also not available and may be lost. Tod Slaughter, a British actor known for making a series of wildly over-the-top bloody horror films in the 1930's played Holmes on stage but sadly not on film which is really a shame although with Conan Doyle still living at that point such a movie would have needed his permission and while Doyle had shown imself to be pretty lax about such things even he might have drawn the line at a Holmes slasher movie.
CLIVE BROOK (1929-1932);
Compared to the silent era the British were quick to make sound Holmes films with two starring veteran silent film actor Clive Brook in 1929 and again in 1932. The 1929 version is not available which is not a surprise since these early talkies are crude and static to modern eye since they hadn't yet figured out how to make the mics mobile and they are pretty dull compared to the silent films. The 1929 version is confusingly named "Sherlock Holmes Returns" while the second 1932 version is named "Sherlock Holmes" and is billed as being based on the same William Gillette play as the Gillette and Barrymore films which is clearly not true since the stories are completely different. Brook's version goes off canon adding in modern technologies like automobiles, telephones, machine guns and modern clothes. That's not unusual for the time and would also be true of the better known Basil Rathbone and Arthur Wontner versions. However this films goes more wildly off course by adding in American gangsters and ill-advised attempts at comedy. On the other hand the production values are superior to the contemporary Wontner, Reginald Owen and Raymond Massey versions and the direction has some fine expressionist camera work. Brook looks the part and has a restrained, sober air which would have well served in a better film. Brook had a career that started in silent films and would continue into the 1960's and included "Shanghai Express" and "The Four Feathers". Watson was played in the 1929 film by the obscure Harry Reeves-Smith and in the 1932 film by Reginald Owen who would play Holmes himself the next year. He isn't given much to do here and drops out of the story early on. Moriarty was played by Alan Mowbray who would play a villain in a later Rathbone episode and would be a founding member of the Screen Actors' Guild.
CLIVE BROOK IN "SHERLOCK HOLMES (1932);
REGINALD OWEN (1933);
Journeyman actor Reginald Owen then got a promotion to playing Holmes in 1933 in yet another version of "A Study In Scarlet", which Owen himself wrote, with Warburton Gamble as Watson. In spite of it's title this version has absolutely nothing to do with the original story and it suffers from all the constraints of a low budget; cheap sets, static camera work slow pacing and a rushed feel. The film's one distinction is the presence of the great Anna May Wong as a femme fatale but she is largely wasted. As for Owen himself, he does have a confident imposing presence but he is really too stocky for the role and does not look like Holmes at all. Watson is played by one Warbutron Gamble who is utterly bland. Among the rest of the cast is Alan Mowbury who had been in the previous Brook film and would later appear in the later Rathbone Homes series later in the decade as Lestrade. The costumes worn by most of the characters, including Holmes look like regular 1930's clothes rather than 1890's period clothes. The film also includes what would become a feature of Holmes movies of the next decade, dropping Holmes into the modern era with 1930's cars mixing with horse and buggies. This sort of thing seems to have been accepted by audiences of the era but is now viewed poorly. Like many films of the early sound era, especially the cheap ones, this film is talky, slow moving and directed with unimaginative static camera work. It is also confusing and plagued by too many extraneous characters. This film is not highly regarded but it is the oldest sound Holmes most easily available on DVD. Reportedly Owen had planned to do more Holmes versions but this film was not successful enough, especially once the Basil Rathbone series started. Reginald Owen would go on to a long career however, stretching into the late sixties and would include playing Ebeneezer Scrooge (after Owen had slimmed down) in the 1938 version of "A Christmas Carol" which would be the popular version until it was supplanted by the classic Alistair Sim version in 1951 thus giving Owen the odd distinction of having playing not one but three classic figures of Victorian literature (Holmes, Watson and Scrooge) only to see them taken over and personified by other actors (Basil Rathbone, Nigel Bruce & Alistar Sim). This also incidentally makes Owen the second actor to play both Watson and Scrooge since as we've seen Seymour Hicks had also done so albeit only playing Watson on stage in the afore mentioned Charles Brookfield production. He would also appear in supporting roles in such movies as "Mary Poppins", "Mrs Miniver", the infamous bomb "The Hotel Imperial" and into the 1960's in "Five Weeks In A Balloon" as well as the TV series "One Step Beyond" and "Thriller". He worked right up to his death in 1972 aged 85.
REGINALD OWEN IN "A STUDY IN SCARLET" ~ 1933;
RAYMOND MASSEY (1931);
Another early sound Holmes was Canadian actor Raymond Massey who played him in a 1931 version of "The Speckled Band". This one kept reasonably faithful to the canonical story however it also tried to modernize it. Not only the use of cars (including a sports car), radios and phones, but they even changed Holmes' office from a Victorian townhouse to an ultra-modern corporate office with secretaries (dressed in modern attire), gleaming filling cabinets, typewriters, dicta-phones, floor to ceiling windows, an intercom and even some kind of computer that uses punch cards to cross reference crime records. This makes for a jarring touch as Holmes strolls about wearing his Victorian smoking jacket in his shiny mod reception area with typewriters clicking away one minute before entering his own proper book-lined Victorian office the next. Massey himself was a fine Oscar winning actor and he makes for a rather droll, detached Holmes. Unlike Barrymore, Norwood or the later Rathbone and Wontner, Massey doesn't much resemble the iconic Paget drawings. Instead he is tall and lanky with a predominate uni-brow and mile-wide smile. In fact he looks more like the young Abe Lincoln, a role he later famously played. Watson was played again by the bland Warburton Gamble and the villainous Dr.Roylet was played by Lyn Harding, an experienced stage actor who had played Moriarty in the Holmes stage version and would later do so again in the later Rathbone series. In fact it is Harding who got top billing here with Massey taking second, Warburton as Watson is listed fourth. The film takes some liberties with the canonical story by adding an evil housekeeper and an equally evil Indian butler. Unlike the other early sound versions this one has some good camera work for the era with some moody shots and there are also some fairly inventive dream sequences. This film did well enough to lead to one more Massey Holmes film which is currently unavailable.
RAYMOND MASSEY IN "THE SPECKLED BAND" ~ 1931;
ARTHUR WONTNER (1931-1937);
The Clive Brook, Reginald Owen and Raymond Massey series are not especially well regarded by Holmesians but the in the next Holmes it was felt they got the right man. Arthur Wontner was a little known journeyman actor who like Eille Norwood was by then in his sixties had already had a long career and who bore an uncanny resemblance to the Paget Holmes drawings. Tall, with an aristocratic bearing, aesthetic features and slicked down hair, he looked exactly like we expected Holmes to look. Even better he also understood the character, combining a cool intellectual manner with just enough warmth and a touch of humour to keep Homles human. To this day Wontner remains a favorite with many. However good as he was, the Wontner series has plenty of shortcomings. Like the three previous series this one was distinctly low budget and it shows. All the Wontner's have cheap sets, no-name co-stars, and static camera work. The stories abandoned the canon as well to poor effect, the scripts are pedestrian and sometimes slow moving. They also continued the practice of updating the stories to include cars, planes, phones, radios and modern clothes. There were two different Watson's; Ian Fleming (not the James Bond author), and Ian Hunter (not the Mott The Hoople singer) who are pretty bland. The series stands entirely on the shoulders of Wontner and is solely due to him that they are remembered. He made five films starting in 1931 all but one of which is available on DVD. He would have no doubt made more if the character had not been taken over by so completely by Basil Rathbone. He died in 1960 aged 83.
ARTHUR WONTNER IN "THE TRIUMPH OF SHERLOCK HOLMES" ~ 1935;
HANS ALBERS (1937);
As mentioned above Sherlock Holmes was always highly popular in Germany, even under the Nazis. In fact the Germans had always showed a fondness for non-political costume dramas, adventure films in exotic lands and even westerns all through the 1920's and 30's. It has been suggested that the Nazis tolerated this sort of escapism in preference to gangster movies, monster movies and other "degenerate" movies from Hollywood. At any rate in the 1930's two Holmes films were made in Germany with the full support of the Nazi regime. The first starred Hans Albers as Holmes and Heinz Ruhmann as Watson they moved away from the Conan Doyle canon but unlike many other films of the era they are devoid of Nazi propaganda and are otherwise fairly well regarded by Holmesians. "The Man Who Was Sherlock Holmes" from 1937 is considered the best. Unfortunately there are no subtitles and I don't speak German so I can't give a totally informed opinion on this, although from what I can gather the plot involves a organized crime syndicate and counterfeiting. At the end of the film (spoiler alert!) it's revealed that Arthur Conan Doyle has been following the exploits of the great German detective and has been inspired to create his famous fictional British detective, thus preserving German honour. The film was made by the giant UFA studios, the home of the classic films by Fritz Lang, FW Murnau, Paul Leni and GW Pabst. Unfortunately after 1933 these directors had fled Germany but UFA still had an army of talented cameramen, set and costume designers. Like Reginald Owen, the rather stocky, square featured Albers suffers in not looking at all like the traditional Holmes, however given the plot twist that turns out not to matter. At any rate he gives a confident performance and unlike Owen (or Wontner and Massey) Albers does not suffer from a low budget. The film still has all the hallmarks of a UFA film; gorgeous photography, lush sets, strong performances and tasteful music. The movie also has a some light comic touches, including an extended routine where Holmes and Watson sing in the bath (not together), and in the end Holmes and Watson even get the girls. Albers was a popular star in Germany and later appeared in the classic Marlane Dietrich film "The Blue Angel" continuing his career into the Nazi era. He died in 1960.
HANS ALBERS IN "THE MAN WHO WAS SHERLOCK HOMLES" ~ 1937;
BRUNO GUTTNER (1939);
A second German production featured Bruno Guttner in a 1939 version of "The Hound Of The Baskervilles". The same year as the Basil Rathbone version. This one obviously stays closer to the canon than the Albers version but still takes plenty of liberties with new and quite unnecessary characters although the nuances of all this are lost on me as I don't speak German. Holmes is played by Bruno Guttner who at least resembles the character more than Albers (or Reginald Owen) being lean and dark with sharp features and a hawk-like nose although he looks rather sinister, more like a villain. Watson is played by Fritz Odemar who seems actually somewhat younger than Guttner. Unlike the previous German film this one does not really have the lush production and cinematography UFA films were known for and is rather pedestrian by comparison. It is easily surpassed by the Rathbone version. It is however stronger than the previous Wontner, Massey and Owen sound versions.
BRUNO GUTTER IN "THE HOUND OF THE BASKERVILLES" (1939);
OLAF HYTTEN (1933);
Another oddity was a short film called "Sheerluck Jones; Lost In Limehouse" in 1933. Based on the parody play which had been running in London since 1901. This short has some genuinely funny moments and reminds me of a skit that might have run on the Carol Burnet show decades later, one wonders why it was never developed more fully. This short was done by RKO Studios and presumably had a decent budget, much of which was probably used on the sets which included a recreation of the Limehouse section of London which served as the city's Chinatown as well as a horde of extras to reenact a Tong War that Sheerluck inadvertently starts. Sheerluck was played by the balding, chubby Olaf Hytten who looked nothing like Holmes but given that this is a parody that hardly mattered. His Sheerluck was a cluelessly cocky boob of the Inspector Clouseau school of bumbling crime fighters. Ironically Olaf Hytten would later appear in a number of small supporting roles in some of the later Basil Rathbone series. He died in 1955.
OLAF HYTTEN IN "THE LIMEHOUSE MYSTERY" (1933);
The Limehouse section of London was also the setting for the Reginald Owen film and there was also an even shorter version of the Limehouse theme done with marionettes in 1930 for perhaps the oddest Holmes parody at least until the inevitable Lego Sherlock Holmes movie.
"THE LIME JUICE MYSTERY" (1930);
BASIL RATHBONE (1939-1946);
The classic era of Holmes on screen came with Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce as Holmes and Watson starting in 1939 with "The Hound Of The Baskervilles" and following through a series of thirteen more films along until 1946 with even more episodes of a radio series. Rathbone and Bruce would personify Holmes and Watson for an entire generation and effectively crowded out any other film adaptations until Rathbone got tired of playing the role and quit suddenly. Rathbone, with a serious background in theatre, was concerned that he had been typecast and would never be accepted in another role. He turned out to be right, he would make other films but never live down the deerstalker cap. For his part Nigel Bruce felt quite differently, by all accounts a cheerfully unpretentious fellow with no illusions that he would ever be a leading man, he thoroughly enjoyed his time as Watson. The Rathbone era is so well known that I won't spend a lot of time on it here. However we should take a minute to deal with Nigel Bruce as Watson. He gets considerable flack by modern writers for his portrayal of Watson as a bumbling oaf, which was not his role in the original stories. The literary Watson was a brave man of action; a former army doctor who had been wounded in action, he was also a writer who narrated the stories. None of this is implied by Bruce's loyal and well meaning and loyal but dull twit. Doyle's Watson was also of the same age as Holmes, not the doddering older man portrayed by Bruce. These are valid points but it should be pointed out that the previous actors who had played Watson had made little impact and had been quickly been forgotten, Bruce was not. Whatever else can be said about Bruce he did make the role his own. The films are clearly Rathbone/Bruce films, and even Rathbone saw them as such. It should also be remembered that the character of the comic sidekick was an accepted one, usually played by Smiley Burnett or Gabby Hayes in dozens and dozens of westerns in the thirties and forties. Audiences at the time certainly enjoyed the characters. Incidentally, a decade after quitting the series Rathbone would make an attempt to return for a proposed television series, but inexpicably it was not picked up. Rathbone would however make one last appearence as Holmes from beyond the grave as his voice (but not Bruce's) was used in the 1986 Disney animated feature "The Great Mouse Detective". Rathbone died in 1967 aged 75 while Bruce died in 1953 and while Bruce had been known for playing doddering older characters he was actually aged only 53. One piece of odd trivia is that while Rathbone and Bruce were seen as the very epitome of British stiff-upper-lip doggedness, especially during the War, neither were in fact British at all with Rathbone being from South Africa and Bruce being born in Mexico albeit of a Scottish family descended from Robert De Bruce. Supporting actors from previous Sherlocks included Alan Mowbury (from the Reginald Owen film) as Lestrade, Lyn Harding (from the Raymond Massey film) as Sebastian Moran and Olaf Hytten (Sheerluck Holmes) in various minor roles. Guest stars included Ida Lupino, George Zucco, John Carradine, Ian Wolfe, Patricia Morrison, Lionel Atwill, Denis Hoey, Reginald Denny, Skelton Knaggs and Gale Sondergard.
BASIL RATHBONE IN "HOUND OF THE BASKERVILLES" (1939);
The first two movies "Hound Of The Baskervilles" and "The Adventures Of Sherlock Holmes" were made by Fox Studios were reasonably faithful to the Doyle era and were done with the usual lush Fox production values with ornate sets and costumes. However after the second film Fox dropped the popular series for some unexplained reason and it was then picked up by Universal for the rest of the series. The Universal series had smaller budgets and more importantly they abandoned the Doyle canon entirely to update them to contemporary times. This would leave Holmes riding on planes, visiting Washington and hunting Nazi spies. These later war time films also have some fairly blatant pro-British propaganda. This sort of thing may be distracting to modern audiences but these films were certainly popular at the time.
BASIL RATHBONE IN "THE ADVENTURES OF SHERLOCK HOLMES";
Of the later Universal Rathbone's "Terror By Night' is a personal favorite. Although the entire film takes place on board a train which would seem to be somewhat limiting, I like the enclosed feel and methodical no-frills pace. The somewhat limited setting also means that unlike the other Universal series this one is forced to stay reasonably close to the era and even the spirit of the Conan Doyle canon.
BASIL RATHBONE IN "TERROR BY NIGHT";
One last Holmes before leaving the 1940's and entering the TV age is this World War Two era British public service short about saving fuel starring two unknown actors playing an espcially gawky Holmes and a rotund Watson. Nothing more is known about them including if they were even full time actors.
"SHERLOCK HOLMES & THE CASE OF THE REDUCED FLAME";
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HOLMES IN THE EARLY TELEVISION ERA:
ALAN NAPIER (1949);
Rathbone was so popular that even after he bailed out of the series nobody would be tempted to make another Holmes movie for over a decade until Hammer Studios would remake "Hound Of The Baskervilles" with Peter Cushing in 1959. For a decade Holmes would instead be found on the small screen. Rathbone himself would reconsider his earlier walk-away from the role and considered making a TV series but for whatever reason that prospective series never happened. The first TV Holmes would come rather early, in 1949 as a one-off filmed on Hal Roach Studios on sets left over from another movie which meant that unlike most of the early TV shows of the era this film has lush sets and costumes. Holmes was well played by Alan Napier, best known for later playing Alfred the Butler on the 1960's Batman series, and Melville Cooper as Watson. Napier was an excellent Holmes, tall, cool and confident and it's a pity that this was only a one-off and a full series wasn't made. The plot is taken from the canon and is reasonably faithful to the original although like the Norwood silents the half hour length makes it feel rather rushed. They also add in a completely unnecessary boyfriend character to act as red hearing, but he is just annoying. Napier died in 1988 aged 85.
ALAN NAPIER IN "THE SPECKLED BAND" ~ (1949);
JOHN LONGDEN (1951);
The first attempt a Holmes series resulted in a pilot episode filmed in 1951 starring John Longden, who had appeared in some of Alfred Hitchcock's early British films. Longden is one of the worst Sherlocks, a morose man known for his heavy drinking, he was a dour presence with a bullet head and a beetle-browed glower. In fact he looked more like a Holmes villain than Holmes himself. This one also suffers from a low budget and bland supporting players. The plot is taken from "The Man With The Twisted Lip" and is again reasonably faithful to the original story. This pilot was not picked up and remained a one-off but has somehow survived. Longden died in 1970 aged 71. Watson was played by Campbell Singer, a British actor with an obscure but long career as a supporting man on TV well into the 1970's including appearances in "Dr Who", "The Avengers" (with future Watson Patrick McNee), "The Saint" (with future Holmes Roger Moore") and "Coronation Street". He worked right up to his death in 1975.
JOHN LONGDEN IN "THE MAN WHO DISAPPEARED" (1951);
RONALD HOWARD (1953-1956);
Another TV one-off was an off-canon story called "The Sting Of Death" starring Boris Karloff as Sherlock's brother Mycroft Holmes in 1955 in an American one hour live TV production in which Mycroft is lured out of retirement in the country to solve one last crime. In 1951 the British finally got into the act with a series starring Alan Wheatley (who also played the role on the radio) which is not currently available and given the way the BBC discarded much of it's early library may never be. The first really successful television Holmes series was an independent production done in Europe by American writer/producer Sheldon Reynolds from 1953 to 1956 that aired in Britain, North America, Australia and other parts of Europe in syndication for years afterwards. Holmes was played by Ronald Howard, the son of actor Leslie Howard of "Gone With The Wind" fame, Watson was played by Marion Crawford in a slightly Nigel Bruce mold. These half hour episodes quickly departed from the Doyle canon, sometimes widely, and they are hampered by their short length which leads to the usual rushed feel. In some of the stories Holmes seems to solve his case through dumb luck, dumb criminals or lucky coincidence rather than deductive reasoning. The stories do however at least hold true to the Victorian settings and do a good job with their fairly limited budget. Howard is a popular Holmes for many, with a dry, understated style that almost winked at the audience and fit the show's easy going style. He is easily the most likable Holmes and although that is hardly the point of the role it is not unusual for a television character of the era. Howard died in 1996 aged 78.
RONALD HOWARD IN "THE CURSE OF THE RED HEADED LEAGUE" ~ (1954);
DOUGLAS WILMER (1964);
Holmes would return to TV in with a series made by Granada for the BBC in 1964 starring the next great Holmes and Watson; Douglas Wilmer and Nigel Stock. Wilmer dared to portray Holmes as not especially likable, instead he was often smug, arrogant, rude and full of self-regard. This was a bold choice, especially for a television character who would be in people's homes every week, but it was true to the Holmes of the canon. Nigel Stock made for a good Watson as well; brave and loyal if still a textbook second banana. Stock did however manage to reclaim the role from Nigel Bruce's comic sidekick. The Wilmer's were the first since the Norwood silents to carefully adhere to the Canon. As such they paid scrupulous attention to detail and looked quite authentic to the Victorian era with fine attention to sets. In spite of the excellence of the series Wilmer was not happy with the experience. Relatively low budgets and short shooting schedules left little time for rehearsals, a situation made worse by the habit of delivering scripts the night before, often incomplete, leaving Wilmer to reportedly revise them himself on the fly. After a season Wilmer refused to return for another. Most of the Wilmer series has survived however and all are available on DVD. Wilmer would later reprise Holmes in an appearance in the parody film "The Adventures Of Sherlock Holmes' Smarter Brother" starring Gene Wilder, Marty Feldman and Dom Deluise. As of this writing Wilmer is still alive aged 93 and occasionally working, including in the 1983 James Bond film "Octopussy" (with future Holmes Roger Moore) and a cameo in the most recent Benedict Cumberpatch Sherlock Holmes TV series. Nigel Stock died in 1986 aged 66 after making a return in the later "Young Sherlock Holmes" film playing a tutor to the young Sherlock. Future Watson David Burke turns up in one episode as a villian. (update; Douglas Wilmer died in 2016 aged 96)
DOUGLAS WILMER & NIGEL STOCK AS HOLMES & WATSON (as the surviving video episodes are copyrite protected this is actually footage from a 1988 BBC cooking show that reuses footage from the original series);
PETER CUSHING (1959-1968 & 1984);
When Holmes returned to the big screen it was in the 1959 version of "The Hound Of The Baskervilles" made by Hammer Studios in Britain starring Peter Cushing as Holmes and Andre Morell as Watson. This film took some serious liberties with the original story but it was up to the usual high Hammer Studios standards with gorgeous photography (it's the first Holmes in colour), and has everything you would expect from a Hammer film; blood, lush sets, vibrant colours, women with plunging necklines and more blood. The story goes wildly off-canon in ways that most Holmesians disapprove of and has some bizarre choices with fellow Hammer player Christopher Lee totally miscast as the wimpy Henry Baskerville instead of having him play the evil Stapleton. Cushing however became the first great Holmes since Rathbone by putting his own stamp on the character. While Cushing was a little short and slight for the role he had a fidgety intensity with dart-like movements, flashing eyes and clipped precise diction. His Watson was played by the stolid Andre Morelle who worked to make Watson less of a comic relief character he had become thanks to Nigel Bruce, Marion Crawford and Melvile Cooper. Critics at the time sniffed at the movie's liberties but it has become more popular over time, largely due to Cushing. After Wilmer quit the TV series after one season Granada was not ready to give up on a successful series and replaced Wilmer with Peter Cushing returning to the role, this time in colour as two hour specials (the Wilmer's were one hour in black and white), with Nigel Stock remaining. These ran from 1965 to 1968. The Cushing episodes of the TV series are are up to the same high standards in authentic set design as the Wilmer series, in fact with their extra running times they may actually be better. Reportedly they also suffered the same problems however with scripts being fired off on the fly. The series included Cushing's second version of "The Hound Of The Baskervilles". Unfortunately most of the Cushing's have been lost except for five episodes which are now available on DVD. Twenty years later in 1984 Cushing would return for a lack-luster off-canon film "Sherlock Holmes And The Masks Of Death". The veteran cast included Watson as played by respected character actor John Mills (who had recently played the sci-fi hero Prof Quatermass) and Anne Baxter ("All About Eve", "The Razor's Edge", "The Ten Commandments") as Irene Adler with the ever reliable Ray Milland ("Dial M For Murder", "The Lost Weekend" "Bulldog Drummond"), also showing up as the Home Secretary, a role that was originally to be played by Sir John Geilgud before he had to drop out. Geilgud had already played the same role in the 1979 movie "Murder By Decree (see below). Unfortunately the cast were also elderly and tired and it shows, especially the visibly frail Cushing who died later that year thus quashing plans for a sequel. This was also among the last films for Baxter and Milland who would both be dead within two years. This rather dreary film has been withdrawn from circulation for years and is not available in DVD or TV reruns but it can sometimes by found online.
PETER CUSHING IN "A STUDY IN SCARLET" (1966);
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EUROPEAN TV PRODUCTIONS;
As noted Holmes has always been popular in Europe and a few TV versions were made in the 60's obviously inspired by the BBC's Douglas Wilmer series.
ERICH SCHELLOW (1967-1968);
A German production; Around the time the Douglas Wilmer/Peter Cushing series was being made in the U.K. a similar series was being made for German TV. These episodes make an interesting comparison with the Wilmer series since they are both in black & white with similar production values and are true to the canon originals, although the German versions do take a few liberties with the story in "The Speckled Band", which is the only episode I've seen. The episode is obviously in German with no subtitles but the story follows the canon enough to follow along. Holmes is played by Erich Schellow and Watson by Paul Roth both of whom had long resumes in Germany. Schellow and Roth are not as excellent as Wilmer and Stock likewise the Dr Roylott character played here by Fritz Tillman does not have the menace of Felix Felton in the Wilmer version let alone Jeremy Kemp in the later Jeremy Brett version. However they are solid enough and the sets look good if a little cramped. This episode was directed by Paul May who was another veteran of German film but was no relation to 1920's German director Joe May.
"THE SPECKLED BAND" (Germany 1968);
NANDO GAZZOLO (Italy 1968);
At the same time the German version was being made an Italian series also popped up with versions of "Hound Of The Baskervilles" and "Valley Of Fear" starring Nando Gazzolo as Holmes. Although little known internationally Gazzolo had a long career in Italy was also had a successful side job as a voice actor, dubbing movies from English to Italian including having done voices for James Bond, Phileas Fogg and Peter Cushing's Sherlock Holmes. Gazzolo's Holmes is serviceable enough if bland as is Watson as played by Gianni Bonagura, another actor with a long Italian resume. These mini-series are spread out into three hour-long episodes which reverse the problem of earlier versions that were too short for their materiel and forced to rush past some details and are instead glacially slow moving and very talky. However they are basically on-canon except for one point where the police are shown in distinctly Italian uniforms including their odd headgear.
NANDO GAZZOLO IN "HOUND OF THE BASKERVILLES"
HENRI VIRLOJEUX;
The success of the Holmes stories led inevitably to stories about brilliant gentlemen master thieves of whom the "Raffles" series was the best known. The French version of "Raffles" was "Arsene Lupin" who was the subject of a series of stories and novels starting in the 1900's and a French TV series from 1971 - 73 starring French leading man Georges Descrières. Lupin's nemesis was a British private detective named Herlock Shomes and his sidekick named Wilson in a clumsy attempt to avoid copyright issues. As played by Henri Virlojeux, Holmes or Shomes is short, hawk-nosed, dour and humourless but intelligent and obsessed with catching Lupin who is always a step ahead. This Holmes will not catch his man but he is not a parody oaf however and is treated seriously as a worthy rival to Lupin. Watson/Wilson is played by Yves Barsacq as portly and dense if loyal. In another attempt to make things just a tad different they dress Wilson/Watson in the usual Holmes long-coat, cap and pipe. Virlojeux had appeared in the classic "400 Blows" and would later appear in French productions of "The Count Of Monte Cristo", "The Barber Of Seville", "Inspector Maigret" and the animated "Astrix & Obelix" series, he died in 1995 aged 71. Barsacq also did voicework for "Astrix & Obelix" as well as the French versions of "Tintin" and "Inspector Gadget", he died in 20215 aged 83. Lupin's mistress was played by Swiss actress Marthe Keller who was the only one to break into American films best known from "Black Sunday" and "Marathon Man".
"ARSENE LUPIN CONTRE HERLOCK SHOMES" (1971);
JEAN CLEMENT (1989-90)
Sherlock, I'm sorry Herlock, would continue to chase Lupin a decade later with similar lack of success in "Herlock Shomes Ariving Too Late", a production made by the the French Education Ministry for children. Around the same time they would dispense with Lupin and the silly name change and make at least one proper Holmes film with a verison of the canon story "The Solitary Cyclist". There is little information on these films which are oddly not included on IMDB and all that is currently available are incomplete clips on Youtube that show that the stories are dry, talky and slow moving but authentic looking. In both Holmes is played by the dour Jean Clement about whom there is also little information and Watson by Philippe Nahon who does have a long list of credits in France including in an "Inspector Maigret" series. He died in 2020 aged 81.
"THE SOLITARY CYCLIST" (1988);
======================================================
POST WAR FILM VERSIONS;
CHRISTOPHER LEE (1962);
In 1962 Christopher Lee finally got a chance to play Holmes himself, albeit in a low-budget black and white German production called "Sherlock Holmes and the Necklace Of Death". Lee does a predictably solid job and the film is not bad but it looks decidedly low-rent and suffers by comparison to the lush Hammer or Fox films. Watson is played by Thorley Waters, one of the few British actors in an otherwise German cast and crew of unknowns, many of whom reportedly spoke little English. Waters, like Andre Morelle and Nigel Stock worked to humanize Watson as a more respectable second banana. Waters would return to the role opposite Douglas Wilmer in the 1975 Gene Wilder comedy "The Adventure Of Sherlock Holmes' Smarter Brother". And Lee would return as Holmes again twenty years later.
CHRISTOPHER LEE AS HOLMES (1962);
JOHN NEVILLE (1965);
Setting aside Christopher Lee's German quickie the 1960's saw a chance to experiment with the Holmes character in films with decent budgets and thoughtful scripts as opposed to the pure escapism of the Rathbone and Cushing films and the Howard TV series or the slavish devotion to the canon of the Wilmer and Cushing TV series.
1965's "A Study In Terror" had John Neville battling Jack The Ripper with Donald Houston as Watson. Neville was a English-Canadian stage actor (making him the second Canuck Holmes after Raymond Massey) who gave a solid, serious if low-key performance in a dark and, by the standards of the day, bloody film. Watson was played by Donald Huston who is not a strong as Nigel Stock or Andre Morelle. The film does have the always delightful Robert Morley as the perfect Mycroft and also starred future Holmes players with Frank Finlay as Lestrade and Anthony Quayle as a suspect. After the vibrant technicolour of the Hammer film this film set the feel for many Sherlock and Ripper films since with a gloomy, crowded London of shadows, fog and damp cobblestones for a dark atmosphere. Nivelle would move to Canada and have a long and honoured career on stage and screen including starring in the title role in the Terry Gillium big-budget extravaganza "Baron Munchhausen" and being awarded the Order Of Canada. He died in 2011.
JOHN NEVILLE IN "A STUDY IN TERROR" (1965);
ROBERT STEPHENS (1970);
This was followed by a light hearted big budget Billy Wilder epic called "The Private Live Of Sherlock Holmes" with Robert Stephens as Holmes and Colin Blakely as Watson. The film sparked some tut-tutting by briefly toying with the nature of the relationship between Holmes and Watson but was otherwise conventional enough, if decidedly off-canon. Stephen's portrayal of Holmes was fairly campy with plenty of winking at the audience and his oddly high-pitched trilling voice and detached amusement. Blakely's Watson was decidedly more hyper-kenetic and temperamental but they played off well together. Christopher Lee returned this time as Mycroft with Genevieve Page as a femme fatale and Frank Thorton ("Are You Being Served") in a bit part. The film sported fine production values and lush sets along veering off into steam-punk with a submarine and a Loch Ness Monster. The original concept for the film was to have it a much longer epic with more cases, some parts of which were actually filmed before scaling things back. The deleted scenes are included on the DVD version.
"THE PRIVATE LIFE OF SHERLOCK HOLMES" (1970);
EDWARD FOX (1974);
Although not technically a Sherlock Holmes story as he doesn't actually make an appearance "Dr Watson & The Darkwater Hall Mystery" has Watson solving a case solo after Holmes is sent off for some rest & relaxation. This was a one-off BBC TV movie based on a story by Kingsley Amis story and stars the great Edward Fox ("Day Of The Jackal") with his impeccable lilting diction. Fox would have made an excellent Watson alongside any contemporary Holmes and did later turn up (albeit largely wasted) in the Charlton Heston "Crucifer Of Blood" while his brother James would appear in the first of the Robert Downey jr films. Unfortunately like many BBC shows this one is currently unavailable aside from a short clip on Youtube of the opening.
"DR WATSON & THE DARKWATER HALL MYSTERY" (opening, 1974);
NICOL WILLIAMSON (1976); Based on a successful off-canon novel "The Seven Per Cent Solution" had Holmes battling drug addiction with the help of Sigmund Freud. Holmes was played by Nicol Williamson and Watson by Robert Duval sporting a laughable accent. Williamson played Holmes as distraught, temperamental and fragile but was otherwise a believable Holmes. Set on the continent the film lacks the shadows and fog atmosphere of "A Study In Terror" or the later "Murder By Decree" nor does it have the lush production of the Billy Wilder or Hammer Studios versions but is a solid entry with an interesting premise which plays with the Holmes story while still treating it with respect. The film also featured Lawrence Olivier as a jittery Moriarty, Alan Arkin as a sturdy Sigmund Freud along with Vanessa Redgrave, Joel Grey, Jeremy Kemp as a villain (he would turn up again as another villain in the later Jeremy Brett series) and Charles Grey (who had played Blofeld in a James Bond movie) as Mycroft, a role he would later play in the 1980's Jeremy Brett BBC TV versions.
NICOL WILLIAMSON IN "THE SEVEN PERCENT SOLUTION" (1976);
CHRISTOPHER PLUMMER (1979);
"Murder By Decree" was a UK-Canadian production from American journeyman director Bob Clark (his credits include "Porky's", "A Christmas Story" and "Black Christmas") and that returned to the Jack The Ripper theme, it starred Christopher Plummer and James Mason who made a thoroughly human and believable Holmes and Watson. The film had a moody and eerie fog and cobblestones atmosphere and a strong cast. The plot was based on the now familiar theory about the Royal conspiracy behind the Ripper murders. The film was highly atmospheric and nicely captured the dark side of Victorian London with narrow streets of crumbling houses and damp cobblestones enveloped in sheets of shadows and fog. Plummer had already played Holmes in a forgotten 1977 short Canadian TV version of "Silver Blaze" which while short was nicely done and scrupulously on-canon and could have been the start of a decent TV serires if Plummer had been interested in doing one. In this one-off Watson was played again by the ever-present Thorley Walters.
"THE SILVER BLAZE" (1977);
Here Plummer (who was incidentally a cousin of Nigel Bruce, Rathbone's Watson) showed less detachment and more emotion and moral outrage than the normal Holmes which greatly humanized the character (Jeremy Brett would later pronounce himself a fan of Plummer's work) while Mason's Watson was a warm, loyal and stolid presence. The two worked well together and created a lived-in team. Also appearing were Anthony Quayle and Frank Finlay both of whom had also appeared in the earlier "Study In Terror" starring John Neville, with Finlay again as a fine Lestrade. The impressive all star British-Canadian cast included Sir John Gielgud (who had already played Holmes on the radio in the 50's), David Hemmings (from "Blow Up"), Donald Sutherland, Genevieve Bujold, Ian Richardson (who would later play Holmes), Susan Clark, and Chris Wiggins ("Rocket Robin Hood"). As a trivia note the original plan was to have a dream cast of Peter O'Toole as Holmes and Laurence Olivier (who had already appeared as Moriarty in "The Seven Percent Solution") as Watson. However it turned out they hated each other and while O'Toole agreed Olivier said no and by the time they were ready to film O'Toole wasn't available any more. O'Toole would get his chance twenty years later. Sort of. Plummer would carry on his highly succesfull career finally winning an Oscar before dying in 2021.
"MURDER BY DECREE";
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COMEDIES;
Besides these off-canon but essentially serious minded experiments with the character the seventies brought some high profile if not especially high concept parodies.
JOHN CLEESE (1973-1977);
The first notable Holmes parody besides the long running "Sherluck Jones" skit came from Monty Python's Cleese in two TV movies; "Elementary My Dear Watson" in 1973 and "The Strange Case Of The End Of Civilization" in 1977. Cleese can deliver Sherlock's clipped rapid-fire dialogue with smug authority and he even basically looks the part in his exaggerated stork-like way. Basically he's Basil Fawlty as Holmes but it works in what is that rarity; a Holmes parody that's actually funny. Watson is played by William Rushton. Both films are set in modern times although Holmes and Watson still dress as if it were the Victorian era and race about in Hansom cabs. There are some absurdly complicated murders and some good jokes. Personal fave; A police detective stands over a dead body with a knife in his back and asks; "Has this sort of thing happened before?". Answer; "Not to him". After that the plot gets overly weird but Cleese is solid.
"ELEMENTARY MY DEAR WATSON" (1973);
In the second episode Holmes and Watson are the direct descendants of the originals, still working as detectives in contemporary London as the descendant of Dr Watson is bumping off the world's greatest detectives. And Henry Kissinger. More silliness ensues. This episode has a stronger supporting cast with Arthur Lowe as an exceptionally clueless Watson, Connie Booth (Cleese's then wife and "Fawlty Towers" co-star) as a foul tempered Mrs Hudson, the great Denholm Elliott ("Trading Places" and the first and third Indiana Jones movies), Bert Kwouk (the crazed houseboy from the Pink Panther movies) and Joss Ackland, best known as the ogreish South African ambassador from the second "Lethal Weapon" movie. Ackland would later turn up in the Jeremy Brett TV series.
"THE STRANGE CASE OF THE END OF CIVILIZATION" (1977);
PETER COOK (1978);
Peter Cook was an obvious choice to do a Holmes parody and he did the character a few times on TV before making the 1978 version of "Hound Of The Baskervilles" along with his usual partner Dudley Moore playing a frenzied Watson. Other stars of British comedy appear as well including Denholm Elliot, who had already appeared in on of the John Cleese parodies and Terry-Thomas. Consisting mostly of a series of unrelated skits with only a nodding acquaintance with the original Conan Doyle story, the film is notorious as being the worst Holmes parody of all time. Actually there are a few laughs but overall the film is too loud, crude and tasteless and a waste of what should have been good casting with Cook & Moore.
PETER COOK & DUDLEY MOORE;
DOUGLAS WILMER RETURNS (1975):
1975's "The Adventures Of Sherlock Holmes' Smarter Brother" was a Gene Wilder production securely in the Mel Brooks school of crudely affectionate slapstick wherein Wilder played a previously unknown jealous younger brother Sigurson Holmes who is a rival detective. The film features other Mel Brooks regulars like Marty Feldman, Dom Deluise and Madeline Kahn and is of a predictable level of silly horseplay. Sherlock Holmes himself is played by none other than Douglas Wilmer, returning to the role a decade after leaving the TV series with Thorley Walters from the Christopher Lee version as Watson. The two (especially Wilmer) bring a much needed sense of familiarity to their roles and the biggest surprise is that Wilmer is actually quite good at comedy and is certainly funnier than Deluise's hammy mugging. The film also does a reasonably good job with production design unlike the Cleese and Cook parodies and at least looks good.
"THE ADVENTURES OF SHERLOCK HOLMES' SMARTER BROTHER" (1975);
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NICHOLAS ROWE (1985);
Also off-canon but not a parody was "Young Sherlock Holmes", a Stephen Spielberg/Barry Levinson production in 1985 with Nicholas Rowe as Holmes and Alan Cox as Watson. The story has Holmes as a teen in private school meeting Watson and solving his first crimes. This is directly off-canon since Conan Doyle's stories clearly has them meeting as adults but it's still true to the feel of the characters. Rowe is a perfect young Sherlock, already cool, aloof and self-contained with intelligent eyes and a lean frame. Cox's Watson is a chubby, eager to please but not unintelligent second banana happy to be in Holmes' shadow. The typically big-budget production has a battery of special effects including an Egyptian temple and a flying machine. Holmes get a love interest (sort of) in pretty Sophie Ward with Anthony Higgins as Moriarty. The film also marked the return of an older Nigel Stock this time not playing Watson but a professor and mentor to Holmes. Rowe's strong performance should have been star-making but his career has been pretty low key since, probably because he chose to stay in Britain. He most lately appeared in supporting roles in British detective series like "Midsomer Murders" and "Inspector Gently". In 2015's "Mr Holmes" (with Ian McKellen) Rowe made a cameo as a film version of Holmes that the "real" Holmes watches in a theatre.
"YOUNG SHERLOCK HOLMES";
MICHEAL CAINE (1985):
Even more upbeat and further off-canon was "Without A Clue" in 1985 with Micheal Caine playing Holmes as a drunken impostor and Ben Kingsley as Watson who turns out to be the true genius detective. Caine's Holmes was a bumbling oaf who is hired as a frontman for Watson's literary character while Watson actually solves the crimes. Caine looks nothing like Holmes but under the circumstances that hardly matters, he waltzes through the proceedings with his usual droll if roguish charm. Kingsley's Watson is perpetually annoyed with having to take a backseat to the cloddish fake Holmes-monster he created. Kingsley has the erect military bearing and clipped speech of the military doctor that Watson was supposed to be. Also on board are Jeffery Jones as a doltish and jealous Lestrade and Lysette Anthony as a femme fatale. Anthony would also play opposite Caine in a TV movie "Jack The Ripper" and looks nicely Victorian. Moriarty is played by with smug mustache-twirling glee by the always smug Paul Freeman, best known as the villainous rival to Indiana Jones in "Raiders of the Lost Arc" although he's unrecognizable here. The movie is an affectionate trashing of the Holmes legend that even a Holmesian should enjoy.
"WITHOUT A CLUE";
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
BACK TO TELEVISION;
STEWART GRANGER (1972);
The first American colour TV version of a Holmes story was of "The Hound Of The Baskervilles" starring suave British leading man Stewart Granger, best known from the 1950's versions of "King Solomon's Mines" and "The Prisoner Of Zenda". Granger has presence and would have been a decent choice twenty years earlier but by 1972 he was really too old for the role. His Watson is Bernard Fox, best known for roles as a bumbling Brit in TV comedies like "Hogan's Heros" and "The Monkees" although he also appeared in the war epic "The Longest Day". Then again so did everybody else. Fox brings nothing new to this second banana role. More notable is William Shatner (yes; that William Shatner) as the murderous Stapleton and Anthony Zerbe, normally cast as a snide, oily, heavy, as the somewhat confused Dr Mortimer. Shatner is given little to do and perhaps would have been better off cast as Henry Baskerville with Zerbe as the villainous Stapleton. With a running time of only about an hour the story is rather rushed but stays true to the canon and has decent set and costume design. Granger would go on to star in the 1978 war movie "The Wild Geese" with another former Sherlock, Roger Moore. Granger died of cancer in 1993 after a life time of chain smoking. Fox would go on to play similarly noble if dense characters in "Titanic" and "The Mummy".
"THE HOUND OF THE BASKERVILLES" (1972)
ROGER MOORE (1976);
"Sherlock Holmes in New York" starred Roger Moore (already better known as Bond, James Bond) chasing Moriarty to New York City. Watson was played by Patrick McNee from another spy icon of the sixties; "The Avengers". Moore's Holmes was widely dismissed but he makes an acceptable Holmes although his feathered hair, sideburns and suspiciously contemporary clothes are a distraction. A bigger distraction is that it is difficult for the audience to get past the fact that it is clearly James Bond as Holmes. In his previous best known roles as Bond, Simon Templer ("The Saint") and Beau Maverick ("Maverick") Moore's trademark was a suave, droll self-aware winking at the audience but here he is brisk and no-nonsense, closer to the character he played in "Ffolkes". McNee's Watson is a not-too-bright but well-meaning, warm and good humoured providing the personality that Moore's cold Holmes lacks. The story is obviously off canon but in character although some business with Holmes dressing up in various outlandish costumes and hamming it up (twice!) goes on too long. Charlote Rampling shows up as Irene Adler but is given little to do. John Huston steals the show as an ogreishly campy Moriarty.
ROGER MOORE ~ "SHERLOCK HOLMES IN NEW YORK" (1976);
GEOFFREY WHITEHEAD (1980);
In 1980 Sheldon Reynolds, the American television writer and producer responsible for the 1950's Ronald Howard series tried again with another syndicated series shot in Poland and starring the obscure British actor Geoffrey Whitehead as Holmes and Donald Pickering as Watson. Both are merely adequate, Whitehead lacks the affability of Howard although the somber Pickering is an improvement over the bumbling Marion Crawford. Somewhat surprisingly the half-hour series credits as one of it's writers novelist Anthony Burgess ("A Clockwork Orange") and the series is accordingly more authentic and less lighthearted than the previous Reynolds version. Unfortunately it was also less successful. The budget appears to have the same limits however, and even seems to use the some of the same sets from the earlier series along with some Polish actors in minor roles. Unlike the Howard series which is easily available on DVD this series has been largely forgotten although a DVD series is available. Geofrey Whitehead has turned up in a couple of "Midsomer Murders" and Donald Pickering had small roles in war movies "Zulu Dawn" & "A Bridge Too Far" and he also played Oswald Mosley in a TV movie. Patrick Newell (Lestrade) is best known as Mother in 1960's "The Avengers" series and later turned up in an episode of the Jeremy Brett Holmes series. Kay Walsh (Mrs Hudson) had been in movies since the 30's including in "Oliver Twist", the 1970 "Scrooge" along with the 1965 Holmes vs Jack The Ripper film "A Study In Terror" as Kate Eddowes. As a note of trivia one of the villains is played by Julian Fellows, best known as the later creator of "Downton Abbey", he actually turns up twice in another episode. Let's just say that as an actor he makes a good writer.
GEOFFREY WHITEHEAD AS HOLMES (1980);
GUY HENRY (1980);
Before Granada scored with the Jeremy Brett series they had a mini-series "Young Sherlock", in 1980. The story is completely different from the movie and could be seen as a prequel of sorts to the later Spielberg movie. Working with a limited budget and mostly shot in a rural setting the series lacks entirely the atmosphere and meticulous attention to detail of the later Brett series or the previous Wilmer and Cushing series. It's also slow moving at eight chapters which could have been easily edited down to a third of that. As the young Holmes the obscure Guy Henry is not nearly as perfect as Nicholas Rowe had been in the movie. There is no Watson although Mrs Hudson does make an appearance along with a reference to Sebastian Moran. Henry has since turned up in the Harry Potter series.
GUY HENRY AS YOUNG SHERLOCK;
FRANK LANGELLA (1981);
American actor Langella had played on stage in a revival of the Gillette play which was filmed for public TV in 1981. Langella had already made his name as Dracula both on film (in 1979) and stage and he has his usual smooth assurance. Since the production is simply a filmed version of the play it's very...well...stagy, with no exterior shots at all or credible action scenes. There is also an audience which is a little distracting when they laugh or applaud. Watson is played by the dull and elderly Richard Woods. More interesting is the supporting cast which includes Susan Clark (who had been in the Christopher Plummer Holmes movie), Stephen Collins ("Seventh Heaven"), Dwight Shultz ("A-Team" and "Star Trek TNG"), Tom Atkins ("Lethal Weapon") and a young pre-teen Christan Slater as Holmes' houseboy Billy, the role previously played by the young Charlie Chaplin.
FRANK LANGELLA AS HOLMES;
TOM BAKER (1982);
Tom Baker, already well known as the most popular Dr. Who, took over Holmes for a version of "The Hound Of The Baskervilles" in 1982. The production is pretty low budget but acceptable enough for a British TV series of the time and sticks close to the original story. Baker is a solid Holmes, dry and brisk, more focused than the rather scattered Dr Who, but he lacks the distinctive personality of Wilmer or Cushing. Watson is played by Terrance Rigby, a recognizable British character actor, as a slightly buffoonish Watson. Rigby would play soon turn up again.
TOM BAKER IN "HOUND OF THE BASKERVILLES";
ROGER OSTIME;
In 1983 brought another Holmes BBC TV series with "The Baker Street Boys" which has the odd distinction of being a Sherlock Holmes series with virtually no Sherlock Holmes. The series is focused entirely on the street urchins Holmes sometimes uses in his cases, the Baker St Irregulars known here as the Baker St Boys, even though two of them are actually girls. The Irregulars solve crimes with occasional encouragement from Holmes who is never actually seen except in shadow or silhouette or sometimes an off-screen voice. He is played, if we can call it that, by Roger Ostime who obviously needs no particular talent for this role. Watson is played by Hubert Rees who gets some actual screen time and dialogue, albeit as a minor role. Rees bears a strong resemblance to Nigel Stock, who played Watson opposite Doulgas Wilmer, and he plays him in a similar vein. Moriarty is played by Colin Jeavons who would later show up in the Jeremy Brett series as Inspector Lestrade while Lestrade is played by Stanley Lebor as a sneering bully. The production values are similar to those of the contemporary Geoffrey Whitehead series with perhaps less variety in sets. The show was aimed at kids (the boys actually rescue Holmes at one point) but is watchable for adults and likable enough and while obviously departing from the canon treats the Holmes universe with respect.
"THE BAKER STREET BOYS";
IAN RICHARDSON (1983);
Another British TV attempt, this time (1983) starring that fine Scottish character actor Ian Richardson who had already appeared in the 1979 Christopher Plummer movie as Police Commissioner Sir Charles Warren. Richardson made a nicely droll Holmes, especially while playing off Terence Rigby as a bumbling police inspector. Rigby was a recognizable character actor who had already played Watson opposite Tom Baker and he plays the inspector as a typically pompous blimp; stuffed full of baseless self-regard, and he practically steals every scene he's in. However Watson as played by David Healy is a bland nonentity. Ironically the first episode featured a guest shot by yet another Watson in Thorley Walters who had already played opposite Christopher Lee, Christopher Plummer and Douglas Wilmer and who really should have just been cast as Watson again. Two full-length episodes were filmed ("Sign Of Four" and "Hound Of The Baskervilles") with reportedly more planned until Granada unveiled the Jeremy Brett series. The sets are typically well done but the direction lacks the understated atmospherics of the Brett series. Richardson would later play Conan Doyle's mentor and role model for Holmes, Sir James Bell in a British mini series "Murder Rooms" and in the 1984 spy movie "The Fourth Protocol" he would play opposite future Sherlock Michael Caine but became best known from the original British version of "House Of Cards". He died in 2007.
"THE HOUND OF THE BASKERVILLES" (1983);
JEREMY BRETT (1984-1994);
From 1984 to 1994 Granada returned with probably the greatest Holmes of all time in Jeremy Brett. The Brett television series is simply perfect with it's fanatical attention to detail, beautiful photography and slavish devotion to the Victorian canon which extended to staging certain shots as exact reproductions of Sidney Paget's original illustrations. Brett thoroughly understood the role to the point of embodiment. He had carefully read all the stories (carrying dog-eared and scored copies about while filming) and made strict attention to detail a condition in his contract. He also studied the previous portrayals to make the him the definitive Holmes, taking special note of the work of Wilmer, Cushing, Lee, Stephens and Plummer, all of whom he knew well. Brett's Holmes is deeply nuanced; with purposely theatrical flourishes and odd vocal cadence that suggest Holmes need for attention balanced by his isolation. His detachment masking his intensity and moodiness. He is surprisingly subtle, with brief flashes of amusement and predatory hunger and pride flickering across his face.
His Watson was played in the first season by David Burke (who had played a villain during the Wilmer series) and thereafter by Edward Hardwick, whose father Cecil had played Holmes on the radio and both also did solid work. The series was blessed with a fine supporting cast including Charles Grey as Mycroft (a role he had already played in "The Seven Percent Solution"), Colin Jeavons as Lestrade and Rosalie Williams as Mrs Hudson, all were typically perfect. There was also a notable stable of guest stars including some who were former or future Holmsians including Jeavons (who had already played Moriarty in "The Baker Street Boys"), Frank Finlay (who had played Lestrade opposite both John Neville and Christopher Plummer), Susanna Harker (who would be in "Crucifer Of Blood" opposite Charlton Heston), Jenny Seagrove (who would appear in "Incident At Victoria Falls" with Chrisopher Lee), Jeremy Kemp (also from "Seven Percent Solution"), Joss Ackland (who had appeared opposite John Cleese), Peter Wyngarde (who had appeared in the Peter Cushing series), Patrick Newell (from the Geoffery Whitehead series) and a young Jude Law who would later play Watson. Other guests from the uniformly excellent cast included John Thaw (from "Inspector Morse"), Marina Sirtis ("Star Trek TNG"), Ciran Hinds ("Game Of Thrones"), Nicholas Clay ("Death On The Nile") and Natasha Richardson.
Sadly by the final season Brett was a very sick man, a chain smoker afflicted by heart disease and bi-polar disorder, and he became shockingly pale, bloated, red-eyed and pasty, frequently too weak to engage in physically strenuous activity. During one episode in the final season he collapsed while filming forcing the directors to shoot around him. The directors attempted to cover for this problem by using increasingly artsy camera work in the final two seasons which sometimes draws attention to itself and can make these shows a little confusing. During another episode Brett was too ill to work at all and they had to improvise by making Mycroft the sleuth while Brett contributed only the opening and closing segments. Even with all this Brett soldiered doggedly on and was planning to shoot more episodes hoping to film the entire Conan Doyle canon when he died in 1995 aged 61. Note he was unrelated to Anthony Brett, alias Ellie Norwood of the silent era Sherlocks.
JEREMY BRETT IN "THE SPECKLED BAND" ~ 1984;
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HOLMES AS EDUCATOR;
In the eighties there was an odd genre of films using Holmes as a narrator to educate on various issues.
GUY ROLFE (1984);
"The Case Of Marcel Duchamp" was an odd feature length documentary using Holmes and Watson to explore the career and works of notorious French Dadaist, Cubist and Surrealist artist Marcel Duchamp. Holmes, who is described as retired, sits down with Watson to discuss Duchamp and his works in considerable detail including interview footage with the artist and reenactments including an extended and detailed look at his classic work "The Bride Stripped Bare By Her Bachelors" along with another extended (and weird) dramatization of another French artist Raymond Rousell and a look at writer Alfred Jarry and pioneering filmmaker Edward Muybridge. Holmes and Waston literally just sit around talking and looking at a computer screen (Holmes has also invented a computer) and that's really it. The film is eccentric, rambling and could do with some editing but it would be interesting to any fan of Duchamp or Dada, Cubism and Surrealism but it may be a bit of a slog for Holmesians. Holmes is played by Guy Rolfe who looks like a dour older Peter Cushing. He had been around since the fifties and his credits included "Ivanhoe" and a Three Stooges film. He died in 2003. Watson was played by Raymond Francis who looks older but was actually the same age and had previously played Dr. Watson opposite Alan Wheatley's TV seires Holmes. He would also appear in TV crime series "Miss Marple" and "Ruth Rendall Mysteries". He died in 1987.
"THE CASE OF MARCEL DUCHAMP" (1984);
LEONARD NIMOY (1987);
Mr Spock from "Star Trek" had been playing Holmes in a stage production of the Gillette play since 1975 when he played Holmes in "The Interior Motive", a 1987 half-hour PBS TV special. The playlet is actually a not a Holmes story at all but rather a science lesson about measuring the interior of the earth and it's temperature. Nimoy is brisk and business-like and doesn't even bother to fake a British accent. Watson is played by the much older Burt Blackwell.
"THE INTERIOR MOTIVE";
HUGH FRASER (1986);
An oddity from the BBC; "Murder On The Bluebell Line", a 1986 half-hour one-off has Holmes attempting to solve the mystery of Piltdown Man. In this low-budget quickie Holmes spends most of his time on a train or walking across the fields spinning his theories as told in flashback, and that's about it. The title is blatantly misleading since there is no actual murder. Holmes is played by Hugh Fraser better known as Colonel Hastings in the later long-running Poirot series and Ronald Fraser as Watson. Hugh actually makes a decent Holmes and could have conceivably have played him in a more serious production. The unrelated Ronald Fraser ("The Wild Geese", "Flight Of The Phoenix") as Watson is far too old however.
HUGH FRASER IN "MURDER ON THE BLUEBELL LINE" (1986);
REECE DINSDALE (1992);
"Sherlock Holmes & The Missing Link" was a half hour episode of a British series called "Science Fiction" and was the second attempt to have Holmes solve the Piltdown mystery. Unlike the previous super-low budget entry this one is a proper story with Holmes actually attempting to solve the case. He is played by Reece Dinsdale, a TV regular who has appeared in "Coronation Street" and a number of British detective shows and he brings plenty of enthusiasm to the role even if he neither looks nor acts much like Holmes. Watson is played by Gerard Horan who is another TV veteran with a long list of supporting credits. Also along for the ride are Conan Doyle himself as a possible suspect, past Holmes Tom Baker as opening narrator and in a bit part David Suchet from the "Poirot" series. This is a respectable entry that could even have possibly been stretched out for a full hour.
"SHERLOCK HOLMES & THE MISSING LINK" (1992);
LARRY CULBREATH (2023);
"Sherlock Holmes & The Mystery Of Christ" is the Christian equivalent to those TV specials that used the character of Holmes to illustrate a scientific or artistic lesson except in this case the lesson is just a telling of the Bible story of Jesus as told by Holmes to Watson with the "mystery" basically being "Why is Jesus so awesome"? The Bible story is the usual straightforward story that we've all heard before and the shoehorning of Holmes and Watson as narrators is awkward, clumsy and completely out of character for Holmes who is played by one Larry Culbreath who was also the director. He looks nothing like Holmes being older and bearded although the play gets around this by stating that Holmes is retired and the Dr Watson character (played by a Chesley Martin) is actually the son of Holmes' apparently now late sidekick. The bulk of the play is simply a reenactment of the New Testament highlights acted out with Holmes introducing the story. I refer to this a play because the oddest thing about this production is that it is clearly done indoors (presumably in a church basement) with backdrops probably done by the Sunday School students in arts & crafts giving the whole thing an air of not just amateur theatre but a school play. I would probably just ignore this but while it this makes other microbudget productions look like "Citizen Kane" it is also clearly being filmed for some sort of wider audience with at least two cameras being used and a modicum of editing along with closing credits so it not just someone pointing a camera at a church play. Presumably this is intended to be distributed in churches and Christian schools and while most such productions tend to be of inferior quality this one's production lack of any values at all leave it in a class by itself.
"SHERLOCK HOLMES & THE MYSTERY OF CHRIST" (2023);
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HOLMES AFTER BRETT;
BRIAN BEDFORD (1989);
One episode from the 1990's "Alfred Hichcock Presents" TV series remakes featured a breezy half hour quickie starring Brian Bedford (Clyde Tolson from Oliver Stone's "Nixon" and the voice of Robin Hood from the 1977 Disney cartoon feature) as Holmes. Bedford is smuggly superior if too portly to pass for Holmes but given the mocking tone and that's he's presented as retired it doesn't really matter. Watson is played by the Patrick Monkton who looks remarkably similar to Terrance Rigby while Lestrade is played by respected Canadian character actor John Colicos who has a long pedigree playing sci-fi villains is "Battlestar Gallactica", "Star Trek", "Star Lost" and "The Changeling". If you don't see the plot twist coming you really shouldn't be watching Sherlock Holmes. Nice punchline at the end.
BRIAN BEDFORD IN "MY DEAR WATSON" ~ 1989;
EDWARD WOODWARD (1990);
1990's "Hands Of A Murderer" was an American TV movie starring Edward Woodward, a British actor best known in America for the movie "The Wicker Man" and the TV series "The Equalizer" and accordingly he delivers a hard-boiled Holmes. He has genuine presence and unlike many Sherlocks he seems quite capable of delivering a good beating to some goon. On the minus side Woodward looks and acts more like an Anglo-Victorian Mike Hammer than Sherlock Holmes which is a distraction. Watson is played by John Hillerman best known as Higgins from "Magnum P.I.", oddly while Hillerman is known for playing stuffy Englishmen he was in fact from Texas.
"HANDS OF A MURDRER";
CHARLTON HESTON;
1991's "Crucifer Of Blood" was based on a successful off-canon play starring a seriously miscast and tired Charlton Heston (with a vague accent that says "I'm Charlton Heston and I don't do accents") and an only slightly more awake Richard Johnson as Watson. Ironically Jeremy Brett had actually played Watson on stage with Heston which must have been odd given that must have been the first time a Watson was visibly much younger and energetic than Holmes. The story was a really a copy of Conan Doyle's "The Sign Of Four" and featured the always excellent Edward Fox ("Day Of The Jackal") and the always beautiful Susanna Harker, who had also appeared in the Jeremy Brett series. Fox's character is unfortunately so totally dour and foul tempered that Fox's usual charm and lilting diction are wasted. Harker gets to steal the show playing against type as a femme fatale. Harker is one of the few actresses who actually looks at home in a Victorian costume drama and with her china-doll face, perfect skin, big blue eyes and slightly crooked mouth she looks every inch the Victorian sex symbol, unlike some of the bigger names who have dropped into Sherlock's movie world. Rachel MacAdams comes to mind. Not to mention Morgan Fairchild. Harker would also star in the original UK version of "House Of Cards" opposite another Holmes, Ian Richardson.
"CRUCIFER OF BLOOD";
CHRISTOPHER LEE RETURNS (1991);
Fully thirty years after playing Holmes in 1962's low budget "Sherlock Holmes and the Deadly Necklace" Lee returned to the role in two bigger budget TV two part movies "The Incident At Victoria Falls" and "Sherlock Holmes and the Leading Lady" with Patrick McNee as Watson. Filmed in Europe and South Africa both have some fine locations and good costumes. However the stories drag, the direction is bland and many of the supporting players are mediocre at best. Lee and McNee would have obvious choices twenty years earlier but by this point Lee was really too old for the part although the movies try to get around this by simply setting them in the later Edwardian era so it's not a serious problem in-and-of-itself. However Lee seems utterly bored while McNee is typically game for anything. In "Victorian Falls" Claude Akins shows up as a boisterous Teddy Roosevelt to liven things up. The contrast in leading ladies is jaw dropping. In "Victoria Falls" Jenny Seagrove plays Lilly Langtry, she had already played opposite Jeremy Brett and setting aside that she looks nothing like Langtry, she is another beautifully intelligent British actress who looks quite at home in a period piece. On the other hand "Leading Lady" features Morgan Fairchild as the most miscast Irene Adler of all time. Actually Fairchild is stunningly photogenic and even does look amazingly like a Gibson Girl, however she has zero presence and she and Lee have all the sexual chemistry of a department store manikin under a dusty blanket. Playing an opera singer (!) she also has a scene in which she proves she is the laziest lip-sync singer since Charlie McCarthy. It's too bad Lee and McNee didn't get a chance to play Holmes and Watson twenty years earlier. And in a better production. Both films are easily available on DVD.
"INCIDENT AT VICTORIA FALLS";
PATRICK MCNEE (1993);
After playing Watson to Lee and Moore's Holmes McNee finally got his chance to play Sherlock himself in a low-budget quickie Canadian production based on a stage-play version. This time it's McNee's turn to look utterly bored and sleepwalk his way through this even more lackadaisical knock-off. The rest of the cast are unknowns who would stay that way. Watson is faceless, the Irene Adler (who bears a strong resemblance to Cassie Yates) is far too young for the elderly Holmes and Moriarty looks like Buffalo Bill Cody. There are a few attempts at humour which are mostly jarring. The film is visibly stage-bound with most of the action (such as it is) literally taking place on a theatre stage, thus there are not even the sort of lush sets and scenery that even other cheapo Holmes versions managed to provide. In spite of the title this version also has nothing to do with the Hound Of The Baskervilles, or any dog at all. Other than being a dog itself of course. McNee retired in 2003 and died in 2015.
PATRICK McNEE in "THE HOUND OF LONDON";
RICHARD E. GRANT;
Another made for TV oddity, this one features a young Grant as the spirit of Holmes (or not) coming to life to haunt his creator Arthur Conan Doyle, then it gets weird. Grant has the presence and arrogance for the role although he was really too young at this point in his career. He would later appear in a made-for-TV version of "Hound Of The Baskervilles" (see below) and he could easily play Holmes again. Doyle is played by Holmes veteran Frank Finlay who had already played Inspector Lestrade twice (in "A Study In Terror" and "Murder By Decree") as well as appearing in an episode of the Jeremy Brett series.
RICHARD E GRANT IN "THE OTHER SIDE OF SHERLOCK HOLMES";
RICHARD ROXBOROUGH;
The immediate success of the Brett series had the same effect as the Rathbone series; discouraging anybody else, in Britain at least, from trying their hand at the role. After Brett's death Granada tried to return with a darker remake of "Hound Of The Baskervilles" starring Richard Roxborough (who oddly enough would also play Moriarty in "The League Of Extraordinary Gentlemen") and then again with Rupert Everet, both feature Ian Hart as Watson. These could not live up to the Brett levels but are done in the usual high Granada production standards and look great. Roxborough has classic leading man looks with his square face, lantern jaw and piercing eyes and is one of the few Sherlocks who actually looks like he could win a fist fight. However he lacks the remote, ascetic look of a Holmes. This is even more true for Rupert Everett who is clearly too much of a moody matinee idol. Ian Hart gives a strong take on Watson, making him angry and resentful of Holmes' arrogance and caviler attitude, at times he seems about to take a swing at Roxborough's inconsiderate Holmes. This is an interesting take but it actually makes one wonder why he stands by Holmes at all. The role of the villainous Stapleton is played by the always excellent Richard E. Grant who probably should have been given a shot at playing the lead with Roxborough playing Stapleton. The Role of Stapleton's sister/wife goes to Scottish actress Neve McIntosh who is both darkly beautiful and troubled. "Baskervilles" was bloodier than usual and makes some unwise changes to the story for no apparent reason.
RICHARD ROXBOROUGH;
RUPERT EVERET;
Roxborough begged off for the next Granada version, either because he was too busy or because he didn't enjoy the experience, depending of who you ask. "Silk Stockings" goes off-canon having Holmes making use of fingerprint technology. Besides Everet being too young and too pretty for the role he also seems thoroughly bored and sleepwalks his way through with none of the light charm he has shown elsewhere. Ian Hart's Watson is less ill-tempered than the previous outing otherwise he would completely overshadow Everet which would just be wrong. The story is set later than normally in the early 1900's with telephones and fingerprint technology (but oddly no automobiles) which is not unique to the Holmes world but it also makes Everet's youth even more noticeable. The cast includes Micheal Fassbender and has some links to other British mystery series with Neil Dudgeon of "Midsomer Murders" as Lestrade and Pertida Weeks, lookalike younger sister of Honeysuckle Weeks from "Foyle's War" as a damsel in distress.
RUPERT EVERET IN "THE CASE OF THE SILK STOCKING";
MATT FREWER (2000-2002):
From 2000 to 2002 a Canadian-UK series would feature Matt Frewer in his usual oddly mocking tone and Kenneth Welsh as one of the better Watsons. Canadian actor Frewer is best known for "Max Headroom" a role he probably wishes he could live down, along with Stephen King's "The Stand", and his peculiar nasal twang, stork-like movements and general air of offhand irony do not suit Holmes at all. Welsh, a recognizable Canadian character actor, makes a solid Watson, intelligent and loyal but often exasperated by Holmes' rudeness and lack of consideration. The films are mostly on-canon and have fine sets and photography. Welsh died in 2022.
MATT FREWER;
JAMES D'ARCY (2002);
"Sherlock; A Case Of Evil" was a made for TV movie, filmed in Romania and Switzerland which rewrote Sherlock's origin story to imagine yet another version of Sherlock's early cases. In this one he is already a detective albeit not yet well-known. He is radically different from the Sherlock we know; as a cocky, flashy womanizer who loves getting press attention. The point of this movie is to explain how he became more cold and aloof by his experiences with Moriarty, played by Vincent D'Onofrio. Sherlock is played by James d'Arcy who actually bares a striking resemblance to Benedict Cumberpatch (although this movie predates the Cumberpatch series) but his smug, smirking Holmes is jarring. Yes I know that's supposed to be the point but it's still a distraction. Watson is played by Roger Morlidge as portly and somewhat stuffy but not a dullard. As stated Moriarty is played by Vincent D'Onofrio which is a little odd since the stocky American looks nothing like the cadaverous English professor but he plays the role with enough sneering arrogance to get away with it. The damsel in distress is played by Gabriel Anwar ("Scent Of A Woman") who for a change isn't named Irene Adler, although by the end you know why that is. She actually looks more comfortable in period costume than Rachel McAddams say, but isn't really given much to do and we get no real reason why the rakish Holmes should be so suddenly smitten with her. Richard E Grant is back for another Holmes movie, this time playing Mycroft. Like D'Onofrio the skinny Grant looks nothing like the famously fat Mycroft but what the Hell, it's Richard E Grant. The question of why he has never actually played Holmes or Moriarty is itself a mystery. D'Arcy would go on to play the unflappable butler in the "Agent Carter" series while Morlidge has appeared in various minor roles in British productions.
"A CASE OF EVIL";
TIM McINNERNY (2005);
"The Strange Case Of Sherlock Holmes & Arthur Conan Doyle" is a peculiar film which is not really a Holmes film but is instead about Conan Doyle and how he developed hos iconic detective. Doyle, played by Douglas Henshall, is visted by reporter and obsessive fan Selden (Tim McInnerny) who wants to write Doyle's biography and explores his past including his famed tutor Dr Bell (Brian Cox) and eventually Holmes himself makes an appearence, or does he? Also along as Doyle's love interest is the always welcome Emily Blunt. The film is lsow moving and takes time to get to it's point but it does get there. As is typical of BBC productions it looks great and has some fine actors. McInnerny is a veteran who has ironically appeared in "Sherlock" and "Houdini & Doyle" (but not as either lead role), "Black Adder", "Notting Hill", "George Gently", "Gangs Of London", "New Tricks" and "Law & Order UK". He looks nothing like Holmes but given the unique nature of this version that doesn't matter.
"THE STRANGE CASE OF SHERLOCK HOLMES & ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE" (2005);
JOHNATHAN PRYCE (2007);
A 2007 two-part British TV series, this time not by Granada, would feature Johnathan Pryce and focused on the Baker Street Irregulars. Pryce, who has played villains in "Ronin" and a Bond villain in "Tomorrow Never Dies" is actually a rather laid-back Holmes and does not try to match the intensity of Brett, or for that matter Plummer, Wilmer or Cushing. Watson is played by the affable Scottish actor Bill Paterson ("Law & Order U.K."). Irene Adler is played by Anna Chanceller and as Holmes' arch-enemy she does a good job with an over-used character and would later turn up in "Downton Abby".
"THE BAKER STREET IRREGULARS";
ROBERT DOWNEY JR (2009-2011);
2009 brought the first serious big-budget Holmes production since 1985 with British director's Guy Ritchie's film starring Robert Downey Jr as Holmes and Jude Law as Watson. The film is wildly off-canon with Holmes as a dissolute amateur pit-fighter and plenty of noisy steampunk FX. Downey is perhaps too American and too modern to blend into the role the way that English and Canadian actors with costume drama training like Jeremy Brett, Ian Richardson, Christopher Plummer, John Neville and Peter Cushing, however after a while he is able to make the role his own. Downey is always fun to watch, always seeming the same but always able to find a way to make the role distinctive. His Holmes is slovenly, scruffy, unshaven and uses his detachment to mask his emotional immaturity and dependence on Watson. Jude Law's Watson is frequently exasperated by Holmes' behavior and torn between his desire to marry and get a life of his own and his loyalty to Holmes. Law had Holmes experience having previously played a role in an episode of the Jeremy Brett series. There was some criticism that Law was too young for the role but in the novels it is always implied that Holmes and Watson should be about the same age. The film is notable for it's costumes. Usually Victorian men are shown wearing well tailored but dour black suits, the Richie characters wear a more flashy combination of checks and plaids that is actually more authentic than the sepia tones that come down to us from photos of the era. This is a trend that has since turned up in British TV series such as "Ripper Street" and "Copper" as well as "Gangs Of New York". So far so good. However the film's insistence in making Holmes into a steampunk action hero with plenty of CGI explosions is pushing it regardless of the justifications given by Guy Ritchie who insisted that Holmes was an expert in martial arts. Maybe so, but turning Sherlock Holmes into a steampunk James Bond is a bridge too far. Similarly casting the over-rated Rachel McAdams is a distraction, she neither looks nor acts like a Victorian woman of any type unlike the likes of Susanna Harker, Jenny Seagrove, Anna Chanceller, Lysette Anthony or Neve McIntosh. By contrast Mary Reilly, who plays Watson's fiance, looks more at home here but none of them had the name recognition of McAdams. Still the film is fun, has plenty of action and while the larger-than-life version of Victorian London lacks the dark atmosphere of "Murder By Decree" or "A Study In Terror" it is certainly alluring and the film was more than successful enough to justify a sequel with 2011's "Game Of Shadows". This film, while have much the same qualities as the first film loses much of it's feel by leaving London and focusing more on action and CGI and yet another female lead who just doesn't work. It does however have a smugly creepy Moriarty in Jared Harris who would later go on to play Ulysses Grant in "Lincoln". This film was also a hit and there has been talk of another with both Downey and Law on board but nothing has happened yet with Ritchie since moving on to remaking "The Man From Uncle" so there might not be a third in the series.
ROBERT DOWNEY JR & JUDE LAW AS HOLMES & WATSON;
BEN SYDOR (2009);
Since 2009 would bring a big budget extravaganza with Robert Downey Jr and Jude Law which was a big hit and has lead to one sequel so far. It would thus also inspire Asylum Films, who specialize in low budget knockoffs of current hits, to fire off a low budget quickie starring the utterly unknown Ben Syder in which Holmes battles dinosaurs and steampunk machines. It was in fact Syder's first film and he has so little presence he basically fades into the over-the-top props. He's also too short for the tall Holmes as well as too young. Sydor has had no other feature film or TV credits since. Watson was played by the more experienced Gareth David-Lloyd ("Torchwood") who does an adequate job. Also on board is a sneering Dominic Keating ("Star Trek" TV remake) as yet another previously unknown Holmes brother/rival named Thorpe Holmes. The film got poor reviews but has enough FX silliness to appeal to steampunk fans. A sequel "Sherlock Holmes vs Frankenstein" has been announced but has met frequent delays made worse by COVID and the death of one of it's cast. It will reportedly also star Sydor in some capacity although not as Holmes.
BEN SYDER IN "SHERLOCK HOLMES" 2010;
ANTHONY MANN (2011);
Another Canadian production, this time a low-budget straight to video version entitled "Sherlock Holmes & The Shadow Watchers" written, directed by one Anthony Mann who has also done similar versions of Victorian classics like "Dracula", "Phantom of The Opera" and "A Christmas Carol". Accordingly he chose to cast himself as the lead role. I have't seen his other films but in this case he was miscast. Mann is too short, dumpy, pasty, and sulky to play Holmes. He looks more like a morose Tim Conway. He would have been better off finding a more suitable Holmes and taking the Watson role for himself. The rest of the cast are amateurs who's only other credits seem to be Mann's other films. The direction is mostly drab and static with several scenes involving little more than characters standing around talking. That said there are a few sequences which are actually well done and atmospheric and the sets are not bad and appropriately Victorian. The story has a Jack The Ripper tie-in somewhat taking off from "A Study In Terror" and "Murder By Decree" both of whom also coincidentally having Canadian Sherlocks.
ANTHONY MANN IN "SHERLOCK HOLMES & THE SHADOW WATCHERS";
ANDREW GOWER;
"Murdoch Mysteries" is a popular Canadian/UK TV production onair from 2008 that is based on the premise of a Toronto based detective set in the late 1890's using scientific methods. So he's a similar contemporary to Holmes but in the Murdoch universe Holmes is still a fictional character. However they still found ways to incorporate Holmes into their stories. One was by having Arthur Conan Doyle himself show up a few times but another was having a delusional character who believes himself to be Holmes. He dresses like Holmes and volunteers to solve crimes using Holmesian methods. He is played by British actor Andrew Gower who looks and acts so much like Andrew Scott (who played Moriarty in the Cumberbatch series) that I honestly thought it was Scott until I looked it up. Gowar has also showed up in an episode of "Endeavour" and later as the jilted, closetted ex-fiance in the "Miss Scarlet & The Duke" detective series also set in the Victorian Era.
ANDREW GOWER IN "MURDOCH MYSTERIES";
GARY PIQUER (2012);
"Holmes & Watson; Madrid Days" was a Spanish production that has Holmes going to Madrid where Jack The Ripper, who he had previously chased in "A Study In Terror" (1965) and "Murder By Decree" (1979) has resurfaced and is again killing prostitutes. Holmes is played by Gary Piqeur who resembles British actor Ian Bannon, who has a long film resume in Spain and does a decent if subdued job. As does his Watson as played by another veteran Spanish actor Jose Luis Garcia Perez. Irene Adler also turns up as an opera singer, as she had been in the 1991 Christopher Lee film "Sherlock Holmes & The Deadly Necklace" although while this Irene may not have Morgan Fairchild's impecable beauty she is more believable. The film looks fine but is glacially slow, very talky and doesn't even resolve it's story in fact the film seemed more interested in it's many shots showing off Madrid with characters taking time out to lovingly describe the sights that the film had more in common with the 1961 cult anti-classic art film "Last Year At Marienbad" than with the two previous excellent Holmes vs Jack The Ripper films.
"HOLMES & WATSON; MADRID DAYS" (2012);
SIR IAN MCKELLEN (2015);
2015 saw a new Holmes with Gandalf himself in "Mr Holmes". McKellen plays an older Holmes at the end of his life, living in retirement in post World War Two rural England. Told partly in flashbacks as the old man tries to remember his last cases. McKellen has an inherent stagy dignity that works perfectly for the role. Watson is long dead and is only shown in flashbacks in shadow or as disembodied hands. There is a scene where Holmes goes to the movies to see the film version of himself who is played by none other than Nicholas Rowe who played Holmes in "Young Sherlock Holmes" thirty years earlier but who is yet still younger than Ian McKellen.
SIR IAN MCKELLEN IN "MR HOLMES";
Henry Cavill (2020)
Past films have given Sherlock various previously unknown brothers including a bumbling cousin Burstrup in 1911, a less bumbling but jealous younger brother Sigurson (Gene Wilder) and the not bumbling but more envious older brother Thorpe in the 2010 steampunk version. However "Enola Holmes" was a 2020 film based on a series of novels about a younger sister of Sherlock and Mycroft aged about 16 who goes off to solve the mysterious disappearance of their mother, a character previously ignored (except in flashbacks during "The Seven Percent Solution") and here played by Helana Bonhom Carter ("Alice In Wonderland", "Fight Club" "The King's Speech"). Enola is played by Millie Bobbie Brown ("Stranger Things") who obviously gets the most screen time as a likable tomboy. She's fine but Sherlock here is a supporting character played by a seriously miscast Henry Cavill as his usual affably wooden self. He has none of the intensity or aloofness required and he also is far too jacked, looking like a bouncer for a classy club stuffed into a Victorian suit. Cavil made a fine Superman but he is no Holmes. Mycroft is played by Sam Clafin ("The Tudors") as resentful to both siblings but lacking the indollent intelligence required for his character, although in his case that's due to how the role was written. Lestrade is played by Adeel Akhtar, an actor of Pakistani descent, which seems a little unlikely for the era, as the usual bummbling martinet and also along is Ellie Haddington from "Foyle's War" in a brief role. The film is obviously aimed at girls and it does a fine job with the characters of Enola and Mrs Holmes as strong, smart women in a man's world. The film also looks authentic enough and while it is far too modern to really capture the Victorian Era feel it is an affectionate, enjoyable and sincere effort. Originally slated for the big screen the 2020 pandemic meant it was shunted off to Netflix where it got good reviews. The 2022 big budget brought back Brown, Cavil and Carter (but not Clafin) and had more screen time for Cavil but as with the sequel to the Downey Jr film the story became more rambling and reliant on flashy special effects and stunts but was still reasonably popular enough to suggest room for more. There has also been talk about giving Cavill his own action hero Holmes spinoff. Seriously; This is a bad idea. Don't do this.
"ENOLA HOLMES";
HENRY LLOYD-HUGHES (2021);
"The Irregulars" TV series was another reworking of Holmes into the Young Adult genre in this case with the focus being on the Baker Street Irregulars, the group of orphan street urchins who act as Holmes eyes and ears. Unlike the two previous efforts that went this route; "The Baker Street Boys" (1983) and "Sherlock Holmes & The Baker Street Irregulars" (2007) with Johnathan Pryce, this time there is also an obvious influence from the "Stranger Things" with the focus on the supernatural and fighting magical creatures and an opening to "The Other Side". Holmes here is played by Henry Lloyd-Hughes who bears a striking resemblance to a young Ralph Feines who had already played Moriarty in the disastrous "Holmes & Watson" comedy misfire. Holmes in this case is a wasted, depressed husk burned out by years of drug abuse, grief and his own battles with occult forces. He doesn't even show up until the fourth episode and spends most of his time passed out or barely functional. Meanwhile Watson (played by Royce Pierrson) is a dark and mysterious presence; cold, rude and arrogant with uncertain motives leaving the five teenage irregulars to do the actual work of solving the bizarre crimes. One of the Irregulars is in fact Prince Leopold, Victoria's youngest, hemophiliac son who has run away from the palace unbeknownst to the other teens. Characters from the original Holmes stories show up including Mycroft, Mrs Hudson and Inspectors Lestrade and Gregson albeit sometimes in rather different ways. As the series progresses there are the expected plot twists, the cases get increasingly occultic. While the show is clearly aimed at teens some of the violence is a little gory and there are plotlines that broach series subjects including a gang-rape and there is an implied gay subtext with Watson. It is immediately noticeable that the cast is muti-racial including the Irregulars but also a black Watson and even a black Duke. This sort of casting in historical based shows has also been seen in recent series such as "Catherine The Great" and "Les Miserables" (the TV series, not the film) and while in some ways this can be a distraction it should instead be seen as putting the characters in an alternate multi-cultural universe where Britain can have a black Duke and nobody takes the slightest notice. At any rate the series has clearly already veered wildly far off-canon and into the fantasy world anyway. As for Holmes in this series he is a supporting character, albeit an important one, with the fragile Holmes bearing only a slight resemblance to the original. The series only lasted one season with all the plotlines tied up at the end in ways that would make a second series unlikely and unwise but not impossible.
"THE IRREGULARS" (2021);
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
HOLMES IN THE TWENTIETH AND A HALF CENTURY;
The past couple of years have seen two successful TV series that update Holmes to a thoroughly modern context, a British one starring Benedict Cumberpatch and an American one starring Johnny Lee Miller with Lucy Liu as Watson. Both these shows have been critically acclaimed but controversial with Holmesians due to their complete abandonment of not only the Doyle canon but the entire Victorian or Edwardian milieu but it should be said that they did finally find an answer to the vexing question that has faced all Holmes adapters for the last twenty years; namely how do you followup Jeremy Brett? It is hard to see how it would be possible to out-perfection Brett so the most successful recent adaptations have simply ignored the canon for action and FX (ie the Downey Jr version), having an aging contemplative Holmes (McKellen) or modernizing completely as Cumberpatch and Miller have. But first; these last two are not the only attempts to place Holmes in the modern era.
GEORGE C SCOTT (1971);
"They Might Be Giants" is based on a British play of only middling success with George C Scott playing a lawyer who has a mental breakdown and believes he is Sherlock Holmes. Joanne Woodward as the first female Dr Watson is a psychiatrist who tries to cure him before his brother (who is not named Mycroft) has him committed. Moriarty is mentioned as Scott pursues him but is never shown as he is a figment of Sherlock's imagination. Scott looks and sounds nothing like Holmes but given the nature of the character that's irrelevant and he and Woodward as his foil are solid enough. The film is a comedy mix of Screwball Comedies of the thirties and forties and the Neo Slapsticks of the late sixties like "It's A Mad Mad Mad Mad World" and like most Sherlock comedies it is not really funny being meandering and pointless with an unsatisfactory ending. The title would later be used by a 90's Alternative band which has nothing to do with the movie.
"THEY MIGHT BE GIANTS" TRAILER (1971);
LARRY HAGMAN (1976);
"The Return Of The World's Greatest Detective" was a 1976 made for TV movie which had Larry Hagman then best known as the harried husband from "I Dream Of Genie" as a bumbling American cop who is struck on the head and suffering amnesia decides he is Sherlock Holmes. A premise later explored to better effect in the great British TV series "Life On Mars". This one is played for minor laughs, or at least smiles, and Hagman is enjoyable enough but the whole thing is a decidedly low rent time-waster. Watson is played by Jenny O'Hara as a social worker who knows plays along with the fake Sherlock and the cast includes Nicholas Colosanto (Coach from "Cheers") as a police detective and a young Ron Silver. This movie was apparently intended as a pilot for a proposed series which might have been passable.
"THE RETURN OF THE WORLD'S GREATEST DETECTIVE" (1976);
MICHEAL PENNINGTON (1987);
1987's "The Return of Sherlock Holmes" has Holmes being frozen and thawed out a century later by Watson's great grand-daughter who is herself a private eye to solve a series of murders. Holmes is played by the obscure Micheal Pennington who basically looks like the Paget drawings although he is really too short and slight. Perhaps being frozen solid for a century will do that. He is also too bland and lacks Holmes' intensity. Watson is played by the equally bland Margaret Colin, also along are Nicholas Guest (brother of Christopher and best known as the obnoxious neighbour in "National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation"), Barry Morse ("Space 1999") and Connie Booth from the John Cleese parody and "Fawlty Towers". Only Booth has any personality at all. This made for TV low-budget quickie is a perfunctory waste of time.
"THE RETURN OF SHERLOCK HOLMES" (1987);
BRENT SPINER; "Star Trek; The Next Generation" featured a recurring storyline wherein the Commander Data character (played by Spiner) enters the holo-deck and pretends to be Holmes, in costume, solving crimes in a Victorian setting. He's not actually Holmes of course but the character is reasonably true to the spirit of Doyle's character and he probably would have approved or at least not minded.
MR DATA AS HOLMES;
ANTHONY HIGGINS (1994);
"1994 Baker Street; Sherlock Holmes Returns" was a made for TV movie that was actually intended as a another pilot for a proposed TV series which was never picked up. Once again Holmes has had himself frozen and thawed out in modern times, this time in San Francisco, to chase after the descendants of Moriarty. Holmes is played by Anthony Higgins who had previously played Moriarty in the "Young Sherlock Holmes" movie and he is a much better actor than Pennington having more presence and vigor aside from some laughably bad make-up in the early scenes. Watson is played by Linda Farentino who burned up the screen in "The Last Seduction" but oddly other than a sly sultry-nerd turn in "Men In Black" she hasn't done much else of note and she's pretty bland here. This one has better production values and a better script than the previous two entries and a stronger performance from Higgins and it might have made a passable series although due to it's rather silly premise it lacks entirely the mood or atmosphere of the later Cumberpatch and Miller series.
"1994 BAKER STREET";
MEREDITH HENDERSON (1994-1996);
While not technically a Holmes vehicle the Canadian TV series "Shirley Holmes" has a Holmes descendant, a grand niece, living as a middle-school tween in Canada who solves mysteries. Made for tweens, the series is bloodless and the crimes are mostly petty thefts. The stories are basically light-hearted and the episodes are only a half hour long and breeze by quickly, but they treat the character respectfully enough. Holmes is played by serious, somber Meredith Henderson. While she does have a sidekick in a bad-boy from another school who is not however named Watson, although her dog is. There is a nemesis in the form of another school girl, the devious Molly Hardy, obviously named after Moriarty. The show is intelligent enough and fine for it's intended audience and tolerable for adults although of marginal interest for Holmesians. Henderson has since grown up and moved on to roles in "Queer As Folk" and playing Shania Twain in a biopic. One of the villains in the pilot episode is a young Ryan Gosling.
"THE ADVENTURES OF SHIRLEY HOLMES";
BENNEDICT CUMBERPATCH (2010-2015);
These Holmes in the twenty-first century shows were not taken seriously so when Granada finally returned to Holmes in 2010 and they made the decision to update the canon there was controversy from Holmesians. Holmes is played by Benedict Cumberpatch, a then obscure young British actor (as a teen he had made an appearence in the BBC rural crime series "Heartbeat") with a comically Dickensian name. The role made him a star and even a sex symbol overnight. Cumberpatch is tall and angular with sharp cheekbones, sharper eyes and a deceptively deep and well modulated voice. He can spit out the volumes of Holmes' detailed dialogue with machine-gun efficiency and has some of Jeremy Brett or Douglas Wilmer's air of imperious self-amusement. On the other hand he shows little of Brett's vulnerability although he does show occasional warmth towards his few friends in a fine performance of real depth. Watson is played by the then equally obscure Martin Freeman who does a fine job as well. He rises to the occasion and brings depth to a role that is too often treated as a servile second banana or comic relief. His Watson has the usual dogged loyalty along with the occasional annoyance at Holmes displayed by the most interesting Watsons. This desire to make Watson more the equal to Holmes is a more recent development going back to Ian Hart, Jude Law and Kenneth Welsh. Mycroft is played by the more experienced character actor and writer Mark Gattis who is also one of the creators of the series. He looks nothing like the portly, slow-moving Mycroft of the stories but then again neither did Christopher Lee who also played the role. He is nicely arch, smug and superior, in fact since he is one of the series' writers no doubt means he can give himself a larger role than is normally the case with Mycroft. The series has strong supporting cast including Rupert Graves as Lestrade, Una Stubbs as Mrs Hudson, Louise Brealey as a new character Molly Hooper and Lara Pulver as the sexiest Irene Adler yet. Personally I've gotten bored and even annoyed with the whole Adler character long ago. The original character only turned up in one story and was not a master criminal let alone a life-time nemesis like Moriarty and the reworking of the character by film-makers has been an attempt to introduce sexual tension into stories that didn't have any in the first place to appeal to film audiences. I get why they do it but it's still annoyingly predictable. Even so Pulver as Adler has more than enough cool intellectual sex appeal to justify the character. Besides unlike some other Holmes series (see below) they don't drag out the character endlessly until she overstays her welcome. Moriarty is well played by Andrew Scott who chews the scenery with an obnoxiously snide manner and theatrically nasal sneer.
The strong performances, especially the star making turn by Cumberpatch, brought rave, and even rapturous reviews which stifled all reservations about the updating of the canon. However it must be said that the attempts to modernize the stories are often laboured and gimmicky. Watson as blogger? Maybe. But the Hound Of The Baskervilles as a chemically induced hallucination? I don't think so. And the placing of the Richenbach Falls finale on top of a building and then toying with the explanation before refusing even give one is not clever, it's just annoying and manipulative. It also suggests that the writers simply didn't have one and didn't want to admit it and so bluffed their way out of it. The lack of the fog and cobblestones of a Victorian era setting is a loss as well but perhaps an unavoidable one. One personal pet peeve is the series insistence on continually referring to Holmes as a "sociopath", even by Holmes himself. This is nonsense; sociopaths have no sense of loyalty, honour or decency. Holmes has all three. He is smug, self-satisfied and emotionally remote but he does care about his immediate friends and the audience never doubts he will always do the right thing. Making the Moriarty character as (very) thinly veiled gay with a stalkerish fixation on Holmes also left a bad taste to some.
The series has so far lasted four seasons but had to go on hiatus due to the new found popularity of Cumberpatch and Freeman who had no shortage of other good roles tossed their way. Cumberpatch has since been in "Tinker, Tailer, Soldier, Spy" and got an Oscar nomination for "The Imitation Game". While Freeman was Frodo Baggins in "The Hobbit" trilogy so there's no way of knowing if they will be able to return to the series, or if Granada could even afford them at this point.
UPDATE: The entire cast did return in 2015 for a one-off episode set that was set in the Victorian Era (sort of) which showed to nobody's surprise that they could indeed pull-off a convincing recreation of the Holmes world. The characters are unchanged from their 21st century version with the notable exception of Mark Gatis (one of the series creators) in a wonderful fat suit as Mycroft. The episode has plenty of in-jokes and eventually gets complicated and gimmicky like a serpent eating it's own tail. This turned into a fatal tendency in the fourth season in which all of the too-clever-by-half excesses of the series took over with even devotees complaining the show had become manipulative, confusing, gimmicky and far too obsessed with flashy direction at the expense of actual story telling. The plots became more and more pointlessly labyrinthine with multiple dream sequences and important plot points glossed over or forgotten about completely. In addition the treatment of the winkingly gay Moriarty character (who they killed off but kept sort-of bringing back to tease the audience) became downright annoying. This season got hostile reviews and was in fact so hated that die-hard fans started a conspiracy theory that there was a not-yet seen extra episode that would somehow explain this whole mess. Not bloody likely. Even of it were possible to tie up all of the loose ends of this trainwreck (also not bloody likely) it's even more unlikely Cumberpatch and Freeman would be available or affordable now that they've moved on so that should be the end of this series, out with a confused whimper rather than a bang.
BENEDICT CUMBERPATCH, MARK GATTIS AND LARA PULVER;
JONNY LEE MILLER (2012-2019);
The success of the Granada series led to the American TV series Elementary in 2012 starring Scottish actor Jonny Miller, best known as Sickboy from "Trainspotting". American versions of British TV shows are usually dismissed as crude knockoffs (except for "House Of Cards" of course) and among Holmesians the attitude towards this show has been dismissive. Once again the updating of the canon doesn't always work. Mrs Hudson as a transvestite? Really? However since American TV series have much more episodes than British ones they had to abandon the canon midway through the first season anyway and move on to new ones which is just as well. The acting has been unfavorably compared to the Cumberpatch version but Miller actually does a fine job here. His Holmes is a distinct character, his twitchy intensity masking his fragility and loneliness, and his Holmes puts the issue of drug addiction central to the character in ways that have never been done before. Past Sherlocks, except for "The Seven Per Cent Solution", either glossed over Holmes' admitted drug use or completely ignored it. This Holmes lives in even more squalor than Downey's which gives it a seedy New York atmosphere to compensate for the lack of a Victorian setting. Watson is played by Lucy Liu and while I am not totally convinced by the gender change she does an empathetic job with the role which is more than a second banana. The always reliable Aiden Quinn is fine world-weary Lestrade character who for a change is not a buffoon. Some strong guest stars include Rys Ifans as Mycroft and Vinnie Jones as Sebastian Moran. However I can do without Natalie Dormer (from "Game Of Thrones") as Moriarty/Irene Adler. Merging the two characters was somewhat clever (although I have to say I saw it coming) but once again dragging out the Adler character as an all-knowing criminal mastermind is just irritating. Especially since Dormer has none of the cool wit and sex appeal of Lara Pulver. I know she's from the sainted "Game Of Thrones" but her attempts to play worldly and seductive come off of as petulant. The show had decent ratings and was able to wrap-up it's run on it's own terms with a low key finale which at least did tie up most loose ends unlike the five car pileup of the UK "Sherlock".
JONNY LEE MILLER;
AMELIA GREEN (2018);
"Sherlock Jones" is another attempt to update Holmes as a teenage girl. So far only a ten minute pilot has been made for BBC Wales and thus far no actual followup has appeared which is kind of a shame as the series shows potential. Played by a deadpan Amelia Green as a ten year Welsh girl who dreams of being a detective in her small town. The short pilot is charming and quirky and could definitely work as a half hour comedy series for both kids and parents although by the time they get around to following up Green will have aged out of the character.
"SHERLOCK JONES" (2018);
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SHERLOCK IN ASIA;
As has previously pointed out Sherlock Holmes had long made his way to Asia with a now lost Chinese Sherlock as early as 1931 and several Japanese Anime versions but Holmes really broke through Japanese TV in the 2010's inspired by the Cumberpatch and Jonny Lee Miller modernized TV series.
YUJI ODA (2016);
"IQ246" was a Japanese TV series in which Holmes an aristocrat with a genuis IQ of 246 (hence the title) who spends his time solving murders. He is named Sharaku Homonji and is so fabulously wealthy that he has nothing but free time as well as a luxurious mansion, loyal butler/bodyguard and political contacts that allow him to waltz into murder scenes much to the annoyance of the police. His Watson is a young female police woman asigned to keep him out of trouble named Soko Wato (say it in reverse) played by Tao Tsuchiya, as dutiful, enthusiastic and eager to please but naive and frankly rather dim although her character does develop somewhat. The real crime fighting sidekick is his butler, a stoic and fanatically loyal martial arts expert played by Dean Fujioka. The stories make no attempt to be on canon aside from eventually adding a Moriarty character (resulting in a plot twist which I will not reveal but which you should have seen coming) which is fine under the circumstances but the tone of the show sometimes makes jarring shits from normal crime procedural to loud and broad comedy that usually doesn't land. Homonji is played by Yuji Oda who has a longlist of TV credits going back to the 80's when he started as a pop singer with a few minor hits. His Holmes is flashily arrogant, rude and insulting with the sense of entitlement of an aristocrat who has never had anybody say no to him and never has to do any work, including taking off and putting on his own shoes at a crime scene. The show is clever and fun, is done with a decent budget and is fast paced and looks fine with lots of bright colours but in spite of being about frequent murders is fundamentally lightweight and only lasted one season. Like the BBC "Sherlock Holmes" as the stories become more complicated and gimmicky as the season goes on. Unlike the BBC series it at least does resolve it's plot twists although in a not entirely satisfactory manner. Unlike our next entry this show was not picked up for export and there are no clips on Youtube but subtitled versions can be found if you search around.
YUKO TAKEYUCHI (2018);
Miss Sherlock was another TV series to put Holmes in the 21st Century, this time with the added wrinkle of have both Holmes and Watson being women as well as having an all Japanese cast. This second attempt to update Holmes after "IQ246" is again set in modern Tokyo where Sherlock, whose real name is Sara, is a consulting detective who works with the police as well as with her older brother who works with state security in the Mycroft role. Watson (whose name is Wato, hence Wato-San) is a doctor who has returned from serving as a combat medic in Syria with no home or job and ends up living with Sherlock. As played by Yuko Takeyuchi (best known from the original Japanese version of classic horror film "The Ring") is yet another unlikable Japanese Sherlock. She is rude, arrogant, cynical, sardonic, insensitive and inconsiderate. In fact she clearly enjoys being all these things and it is frankly a little hard to understand why Wato-San puts up with her bullying and put-downs. Wato is an entirely meek and passive figure, a born follower. As the series progresses we do see that Sherlock is starting to mellow and even enjoy having Wato around while Wato is revealed to be far more traumatized by her war experiences and needs the sense of purpose Sherlock provides. Comparisons with the Cumberbatch and Jonny Lee Miller series are obvious however unlike those shows the series largely avoids trying to awkwardly shoehorn stories and characters from the original Conan Doyle stories until midway through when an obvious Moriarty character is introduced although they do thankfully resist the urge to bring in an Irene Adler ringer. The series climax borrows the "Reichenbach Falls as a tall building" device from the BBC/Cumberbatch series but unlike the BBC series which did not even bother to explain how Sherlock survives and mocked the shows fans for spending a year on speculation (which is where that series started to go wrong) this series at least implies the solution if you're paying attention and closes without leaving too many loose ends. Yuko does a good job here playing a strong and stylish character who slowly reveals some vulnerability and the show got rapturous reviews and was released in a subtitled version in America on HBO where it earned a devoted following. Of the two Japanese Sherlocks this is clearly the best being darker, better written with more depth to it's characters and more realistic in it's acting. However whatever plans they had for a likely second season was first put on hold by COVID and ended for good with Yuko's shocking suicide in 2020 aged only 40. In theory the producers could recast the role and carry on but whether the show's loyal fans would accept a substitute under the circumstances is another matter.
"MISS SHERLOCK" (2018);
DEAN FUJIOKA (2019);
Three years after "IQ246" Holmes Dean Fujioka, the loyal butler from that series returned as Holmes himself in "Sherlock; The Untold Stories" (AKA "Sharokku"). Completely unrecognizable from his earlier prim and proper sidekick as Holmes (here named Shishio Homare) he is instead scruffy, slouching and cynical. The Japanese trend seems to be to make Holmes more unlikable than in most Western versions which makes it harder to justify the devotion of Watson and putting them together in close quarters can be a little strained. Ironically as with Yuji Oda Fujioka also has a career as a teen idol pop singer and sings some of the songs on the soundtrack. Watson (here Junichi Wakamiya) is played by Takanori Iwata as a disgraced and unemployed former doctor who has lost his job largely due to Holmes and at first resents the pushy Holmes' presence. There are also Lestrade, Moriarty, Mycroft and Mrs Hudson characters under suitable Japanese names and references to Holmes landmarks. In spite of the latter's presence the stories are off canon until the end. The series is stylish and darker than the previous two Japanese efforts being both more violent as well as being literally darker being shot largely at night. The stories are well written although the tacked on Moriarty ending peters out in a rather low energy way. Like the previous two series this one lasted one season leaving enough loose ends to allow for a renewal which could easily happen as there was in fact a followup special (ninety minutes but much of that was either flashbacks or exposition) which opens the possibility for more and in a version of "Hound Of The Baskervilles" has already been announced for summer of 2022. Like "IQ24" it has not been released in America but subtitled versions can be found. Oddly all the English language show descriptions state that this Sherlock is also a criminal which is not in fact the case in any of these stories which may be some sort of mistranslation of the original descriptions. On balance this one is better than "IQ246" but not as good as "Miss Sherlock".
"SHERLOCK; THE UNTOLD STORIES" (2019);
SOTO FAKUSHI (2020);
"Meiji Kaika: Shinjuro Tanteicho" is different than the other Japanese Sherlocks in that it is actually set in the Victorian Era. However in Japan this time period is known as the Meji Resoration (from 1965-1912) after the Emperor Meji and there are fundemental differences between the societies. Late Victorian London was the smug hub of the greatest empire the world had ever seen. Meji Japan was a society in emerging from feudalism in turmoil including a civil war as the recently ancient deposed order of Shogans and Samauri rebelled. Doyle's Sherlock has no real political or social themes or subtext, he and most of the characters are respectably middle class and complacently patriotic. Meji Sherlock (named Shinjuro Yuki) is a young and wealthy Consulting Detective who is freshly back from studying in America. He is modern and an admirer of Lincoln but he is torn between seeing Japan westernize and sympathizing with the old order as apossible civil war looms. Doyle could have added some political subtext to Holmes if he wanted to, contemporary Joseph Conrad's "The Secret Agent" is after all also set in late Victorian London and is about Anarchists and Russian spies, but neither Doyle nor his audience had any desire to. Soto Fakushi is younger and more iealistic then the usual Holmes but gives a good performance. He has both a love interest and a somewhat bumbling sidekick to provide comic relief which seems to be a common theme in the Japanese Holmes. The budget seems to be smaller than most of the other Japanese productions and is less glossy but Meji Tokyo is quiter than Victorian London so that doesn't matter and it looks realistic.
NAM BO-RA (2016);
"Love Detective Sherlock K" is an odd Korean series in which the modern Sherlock is an adolescent who solves people's romantic problems rather than crimes. Sherlock is played by actress Nam Bo-ra masquerading as a teenage boy detective and at first the viewer does not know if Sherlock is supposed to be in drag or merely a rather effeminate male although this is eventually sorted out. There is a Watson type sidekick although since there are no real crimes here there are no Moriarty or LeStrade characters. The story is more of a light romantic comedy than a mystery and designed as a web series it is told in a series of ten minute shorts, although they are actually less than that as much of each episode takes time with flashbacks and previews. The series lasts eight episodes with an epilogue tacked on so it's easy to watch in one setting. Ironically while Nam and the other female cast are supposed to be teens they are actually in their thirties and as seems to be common in Asia, Nam also has a career as a pop singer.
"LOVE DETECTIVE SHERLOCK K" (episode 1, 2016)
ROHIT KHANDEKAR (2022)
"Being Sherlock" is another web short about an Indian cabbie and Sherlock Holmes fan who fantasizes about being a detective and solving people's problems which gets him into some unexpected trouble. Unknown if this is intended to stand alone or be part of a series.
"BEING SHERLOCK" (2022);
Speaking of Japanese Sherlocks apparently they don't always get their man, or their noodles.
JAPANESE TV COMMERCIAL WITH HOLMES
Note there is a Chinese series called "Young Sherlock" (at least in English) but this is misleading as the series has absolutely nothing to do with Sherlock Holmes. Instead it is a mystery series set in China during the Tang Dynasty between 600 to 900 AD starring a detective/prosecutor named Judge Dee. The character has been around since the 19th century in China and so is a sort of contemporary of Doyle's (aside from the setting) and the series is a lush, well-made historical drama made with a big budget but these are in no way Sherlock Holmes stories.
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CARTOONS, PUPPETS & MORE ALLEGED COMEDIES;
Inevitably Sherlock would find his way into other media.
PUPPET SHERLOCK;
Marionettes (1930);
Probably the oddest of the early Holmes parodies was "The Lime Juice Mystery", a silent short (there is music) done entirely with marionettes. Set in Limehouse, the London Chinatown that had been the setting for the 1931 Reginald Owen film and the 1933 Olaf Hyton short in which Holmes is called on to save a Chinese dancing girl kidnapped during a tong war. The Sherlock puppet looks as you would expect but Watson bears a suspicious resemblance to Stan Laurel and the girl is meant to be Anna May Wong who had in turn also appeared in the Owen film although her character and costume here were clearly taken from her 1929 film "Piccadilly". This is silly but oddly charming.
"THE LIME JUICE MYSTERY" (1930);
ROLPH THE DOG (circa late 70's);
A "Muppet Show" sketch which we can safely say is a tad off-canon although we have to take points off for not having Holmes and Watson played by Dr Bunson Honeydew and Beaker.
"THE MUPPET SHOW" (late 70's);
Around the same time there was also another Muppet Sherlock on "Sesame Street" in the form of "Sherlock Hemlock" billed not entirely accurately as "The World's Smartest Detective". His Watson is yet another dog albeit this time a non-speaing one. Note this is apparently the first Sherlock to wear a mustache;
"SHERLOCK HEMLOCK" (1980's);
HAND PUPPETS (2009);
Technically these cute handmade ones don't actually move so it's really more of diorama. This is also silly but kind of sweet. There are a few more episodes with the same puppets but they have even less to do with anything Holmsian.
"THE DARKENED ROOM" (2009);
FINGER PUPPETS (2012);
What could be more low-budget than finger puppets? This is silly but still kind of works, unfortunately they don't seem to have finished the series stopping after three shorts so I guess we'll never see if Holmes solves his case.
"SHERLOCK HOLMES & THE MYSTERY OF THE QUEEN'S BACON" (2012);
sherlock holmes and the mystery of the queen's bacon - episode 01 from Finger Theatre on Vimeo.
LEGO HOLMES (2016);
A Lego Sherlock Holmes was inevitable and in 2015/2016 we got two seperate amateur versions done by different people, a short, but faithful, version of "Silver Blaze" and a longer, and still resonably faith version of "Hound Of The Baskervilles". Stop action Lego animation requires some time and skill but is not expensive and so lends itself to amateur productions which in this case are actually superior and more enjoyable than many bigger budget efforts. Although the confusing array of odd accents in "Baskervilles" is a little distracting.
"THE HOUND OF THE BASKERVILLES" (2016);
BAKERLOO (2019);
Did you know that the beloved Thomas The Tank Engine line of toys had a Holmes inspired engine named Bakerloo? Well somebody noticed and added it to his series of slapdash Thomas parody videos. Somehow this channel has over ninety eight thousand subscribers. That's thirty times more than I have for posting silent movies. Some people have weird hobbies. I'm not jealous.
"BAKERLOO AS SHERLOCK HOLMES & THE CASE OF THE MISSING CARS" (2019);
ANIMATED SHERLOCK;
There have been a few animated versions of Holmes which given that with animation there are no real limits to what can be done, vary wildly in style and content.
MUTT & JEFF (1930);
Mutt & Jeff were popular cartoon characters from the 1900's to the 1960's starting first as a newspaper cartoon strip and later becoming a series of animated shorts and still later live action comedy shorts and eventually ending up as a comic book series. Although largely forgotten now they were hugely popular during their heyday and are referred to in a tossed off aside from Robert Redford in "The Sting". Mutt & Jeff were lazy, bumbling, down-at-heel, two bit hustlers whose get-rich-quick schemes never panned out. Mutt, the leader, was the tall gangly one and Jeff, the harried and slightly more sensible but easily pushed around sidekick was short and balding. In this cartoon Mutt is inevitably Holmes and Jeff is Watson as they pursue that master criminal The Phantom. Exactly what the Phantom's crimes are we don't know but he is obviously a master of disguise as at one point he turns into Charlie Chaplin and Aunt Jemimah, there is also a Keystone Kops reference and a twist ending. The cartoon is essentially silent so while there is music and sound effects the characters do not speak. It's in colour although there is also a B&W version.
"SLICK SLEUTHS" (1930);
MICHAEL EVANS (1980);
"Her Majesty's Royal Angie" (AKA "Angie Girl") was a Japanese animated series about a young girl who was the niece of Sherlock Holmes and who naturally solves crimes. Originally made in 1977 in the original Japanese run, Angie was the daughter of an aristocrat named Islington with no Holmes connection and was quite popular with young girls having a line of t-shirts, dolls and a soundtrack album. By 1980 the show was exported to Europe with versions in Italy, Spain, Holland and Germany which was not that hard to do since they merely had to record new voice overs. For the 1981 English version they renamed the character as the niece of Sherlock and added live-action opening and closing scenes where Holmes and Watson would sit around and banter before Holmes would introduce the episode. Holmes and Watson were played by an avuncular Michael Evans (The Young & The Restless) who looks nothing like Holmes, and Bernard Fox who had previously played Watson in the 1972 Stewart Granger version of "Hound Of The Baskervilles" and would later turn up as a well meaning Col. Blimp in blockbuster films "Titanic" and "The Mummy". The animation is a softer version of early 80's Japanese animation and is fairly dull as are the stories but they're fine for young kids, especially girls.
"ANGIE GIRL" (1980);
As an aside, giving Sherlock a niece begs the question of who her father or mother were. We know Sherlock has a brother Mycroft but he was older, reclusive and famously single. We now know that he was later given an off-canon sister in Elora but she is probably too young and assuming she marries her daughter would have a different last name so that leaves the two even more off-canon brothers; the younger Sigurtson (from the 1975 Gene Wilder film) and Thorpe (from the 2010 quickie steam punk film) and given that Thorpe was crippled years earlier and then killed off with no mention of ever being married the obvious candidate for Angie's father is thus Sigurdson Holmes. Mystery solved! Elementary my Dear Watson.
MICHAEL EVANS & BERNARD FOX IN OPENING SCENES FROM "ANGIE GIRL";
PETER O'TOOLE (1983);
Peter O'Toole is, like Christopher Lee, another actor who would seem to be an obvious choice to play Holmes and indeed he was originally supposed to play the lead in the 1977 "Murder By Decree" with Watson to be played by Lawrence Olivier who had already played Moriary in "The Seven Per Cent Solution". At least that was the plan. When O'Toole was approached by director Bob Clark he immediately said yes but warned Clark that he and Olivier were not on speaking terms and that Olivier would probably say no, which he eventually did. By the time Clark was ready to start filming neither O'Toole nor Olivier were available anyway so Clark quickly signed up Christopher Plummer and James Mason who turned in an excellent job. Olivier would go on to play Van Helsing in "Dracula" opposite another Holmes Frank Langella and O'Toole would have to wait for his chance to play Holmes in a 1983 animated series. The stories are of the canon and straight-forward enough while the animation is merely competent, for that matter so is O'Toole who sounds bored with the whole thing.
"HOUND OF THE BASKERVILLES";
LARRY MOSS (1984-85);
"Sherlock Hound" was a Japanese/Italian production featuring talking animals with Holmes as a Red Fox and Watson as Scottish Terrier with different voices for different countries with the English version by Larry Moss as Homes and Lewis Arquette as Watson. Moss is mostly known as an acting and voice coach with few cedits while Arquette having a long series of TV credits but is best known as the father of the Arquette acting family of Rosanna, Patricia and David, the latter who has played Holmes in a musical stageplay. The animation is a rather muted version of 80's Japanese anime but is superior to the "Angie Girl" series or the later Chinese "Sherlock Holmes & The Great Escape" cartoon feature (see below). The half hour episodes have more energy and action then either and make some refrences to canon story-lines and characters including Moriarty, Lestrade and Mrs Hudson and plot points from stories like "The Speckled Band" and "The Blue Carbunkle".
"SHERLOCK HOUND" (1984);
BASIL RATHBONE & BASIL THE MOUSE (1986);
"The Great Mouse Detective" was an animated Disney movie that features a London where talking animals exist unnoticed alongside the larger human society. Basil is a mouse detective who lives in a tiny hole at 221b Baker st who looks and acts like Sherlock, Watson (here called Dawson) is an unemployed doctor fresh off the boat looking for a place to live and a purpose in life. Holmes is hired to find a mouse toymaker who has been kidnapped by Ratigan, a master criminal who is forcing him to make a robot version of the Mouse Queen Victoria so he will be able to seize power in the Mouse Kingdom. Basil is played by Barrie Ingram (1932-2015), a British actor mostly known for stage and voice work although he also appeared in "Day Of The Jackal" and "Dr Who". Ratigan is played by the great Vincent Price in full scenery chewing mode and it's about time he showed up the Holmes universe. Pop singer Melissa Manchester also shows up to sing a song. Holmes himself is shown a couple times in shadow and heard as the voice of none other than the then late Basil Rathbone in a recycled sample from his earlier films. Apparently the filmmakers could not find an appropriate sample from Nigel Bruce though so his voice is done by Laurie Main (1922-2012) a voice actor best known as the narrator from the Disney "Winnie The Pooh" cartoons. Another canon character to turn up is Tobey the Dog, the hound that Holmes borrows a couple times and is also used by Basil. Oddly unlike the mice and rats Tobey does not however talk. This cartoon came at a time when Disney was trying to return to animated feature films after more than a decade of few releases and if not quite up to the lush standards of the classic Disney films of the 1940's is still a excellent film and watchable for kids and adults.
"THE GREAT MOUSE DETECTIVE" (1986);
JASON GRAY-STANFORD (1996);
"Sherlock Holmes In The 22nd Century" (1996) was only the second animated Holmes series after the Peter O'Toole series. This time with another frozen-Holmes-being-brought-back theme. The setting being a 22nd century space-age London with occasional trips to the Moon. Holmes is brought back to life by a female descendant of Lestrade, still a Scotland Yard inspector. Naturally Moriarty is also back, and cloned. As is Watson, as an android, and a latter day version of the Baker Street Irregulars. Many of the stories are loosely adapted from the Conan Doyle originals. Albeit very loosely; the Hound Of The Baskervilles as a robot and a hologram for example or Sebastian Moran with a ray gun that freezes it's victims solid. The animation is an odd combination of conventional animation on 3D sets. Unlike many cartoons the the voice actors are not well known with Holmes being played by one Jason Gray-Stanford who is merely adequate. Inevitably there is also a Japanese anime version as well.
"SHERLOCK HOLMES IN THE 22ND CENTURY";
MICHEAL YORK (2010);
"Tom & Jerry Meet Sherlock Holmes" certainly delivers what it promises; It has Tom & Jerry and Homes & Watson and Moriarty too, so there. Jerry is Sherlock's pet/servant and Tom is the pet/servant to Red, a beautiful music hall singer who hires Holmes forcing cat and mouse to work together. As in their cartoons Tom & Jerry don't really talk although other animals (which include an appearance by the beloved Droopy Dog as a London Bobby) do. The voice of Holmes is played by veteran Micheal York ("Cabaret", "Logan's Run", "Austin Powers", "Murder On The Orient Express") and Watson by John Rhys Davies ("Raiders Of The Lost Arc", "Lord Of The Rings") with Moriarty played by Malcolm McDowell ("Cat People", "A Clockwork Orange") because of course he is, actually surprised it took this long to cast him. Red is played by folk/country singer Grey DeLisle also known as voice actress for various Simpsons characters and Daphne from Scooby Doo. They're all fine given the not exactly on-canon materiel. The animation is a bigger budget version of the original Tom & Jerry cartoons.
TOM & JERRY MEET SHERLOCK HOLMES;
JOHNNY DEPP (2018);
"Sherlock Gnomes" was a sequel to a 2011 film "Gnomeo & Juliet" which portrayed a world in which the ubiquitous garden gnomes are real-life creatures who become animated when humans aren't watching. Sherlock Gmones is a gnomish detective who protects the gnomes from being destroyed by the evil Moriarty, who is the mascot for a food brand. Holmes is played by Johnny Depp who has probably wanted to play Holmes since "From Hell" (2011) if not "Sleepy Hollow" (1999). He's a fine actor and wisely avoids the affectations which have made him a punchline in recent years, probably due to the fact that he's of course not on camera. The long suffering Watson was reportedly supposed to be played by comic actor Tim Curry ("Rocky Horror Picture Show", "Police Squad", "Clue") who would have been a good choice but he had to drop out due to illness (he died soon thereafter) and was replaced by Chiwetel Ejiofor ("12 Years A Slave") making him the first black Watson, albeit only as a voice actor. Both do a decent job here and the animation is excellent, at times downright life-like. The Moriarty character, as played by British comedian Jamie Demetrious, is hugely annoying in every way and the Irene Adler character is played by Mary J Blige (also the first black Adler) presumably so she can do a pointless musical number. There are plenty of inside jokes plus so many Elton John references I was expecting him to put in an appearance yet oddly he doesn't. Perhaps they should have cast him as Moriarty. James McAvoy, Micheal Caine, Maggie Smith and Ozzy Osborne (!) also show up. The whole thing is actually not bad and fine for kids and adults. No word on a sequel yet.
JOHNNY DEPP AS SHERLOCK GNOMES;
ROBBIE DAYMOND (2018);
The same year as the Depp film came out this more obscure film also arrived. "Sherlock Holmes & The Great Escape" is a Chinese made animated feature film in which the characters are various types of animals like dogs, cats, monkeys etc. Holmes is of course some sort of hound who captures a Robin Hood-like cat burglar who then escapes from prison forcing Holmes to reluctantly go after him again. The animation is done in a low-key anime style which is far less loud and busy than the Japanese or Korean styles and more suitable for younger kids but probably too slow paced for older tweens. The voice actor playing Holmes (at least for the English language version) is Robbie Daymond who has also voiced Spiderman and he is as bland as everything else here. The voice actor for the original Chinese version is Ken Kai-Cheong Wong and there will be a number of other languages dubbed as well.
"SHERLOCK HOLMES & THE GREAT ESCAPE" (2018);
PETER CAPALDI (1994);
The "All New Alexei Sale Show" a British comedy TV show is not normally where you would go to find a decent Holmes impression but in this skit with Peter Capaldi as Holmes and Sale as an easily impressed Watson. Capaldi takes his role surprisingly serious and does a better job than Peter Cook or Will Farrell. Whether this silliness would have worked if stretched for over an hour is another matter.
"THE ALL NEW ALEXEI SALE SHOW";
DAVID MITCHELL (2010); "That Michell & Webb Look" was a Britich sketch comedy show running from 2006 to 2010 starring David Mitchell and Robert Webb during which they played Holmes & Watson a couple times including this sketch of a now old Holmes & Watson with Holmes (Mitchell) dealing with Alzheimers. This starts out as slapstick parody but soon turns into a genuinely moving and even devestating emotional finale. This sketch was in fact the final of the series finale.
"OLD HOLMES";
WILL FARRELL (2018);
"Holmes & Watson" was the first big-budget comedy Holmes parody since the largely forgotten 1970's "The Adventures Of Sherlock Holmes' Younger Brother" (1975, with Gene Wilder) and "The Hound Of The Baskervilles" (1978 with Peter Cook) starring Will Farrell as Holmes and John C Reilly as Watson. The two had already paired up successfully in "Talladega Nights" and "Anchorman 2" and the film got plenty of publicity but like previous Holmes parodies it also got very bad reviews and poor sales. There are a few mild laughs to be had here (including a couple of scenes that parody the slo-mo fight scenes from the Downey jr films) but the film also relies of the tropes common to 21st modern comedies; gross-out humour, out of place pop-culture references, bad accents, lots of yelling, run-on jokes that drag out their punchlines beyond the point of annoyance and more yelling. Here Holmes and Watson are bumbling oafs and are given romantic foils while Lestrade is sensible and harried. There are several plot twists involving Moriarty, ably played by a leering Ralph Fiennes who is however given little to do. Also in the cast were some other legitimately good names; Kelly MacDonald ("Trainspotting" & "No Country For Old Men") as a young Mrs Hudson, Hugh Laurie ("House") as Mycroft, Rebecca Hall ("Frost/Nixon" & "Iron Man 3") and Steve Coogan, most of whom try harder then the film deserves. The film's big budget doesn't show in the slapdash script but it does at least look good with some fine sets. On balance the film is better than the much despised 1978 Peter Cook version but notably inferior to the only so-so 1975 Gene Wilder version. The film made most "Worst Films Of The Year" list and should stop anymore Holmes parodies for several years. We can only hope.
WILL FARRELL AS HOLMES:
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Fan-Fiction Adaptations;
Once it became possible for amateurs to make cheap knockoffs of their own and post them on youtube it was inevitable that Sherlock Holmes would become a subject. The character is both widely popular as well as not requiring much in the way of special effects or costumes unlike, say, James Bond or Batman. The stories can be shot using only a limited number of sets and characters who are also usually not required to do any histrionic acting. It is obviously not fair to compare these amateur micro-budget, non-profit productions, usually done by teenagers, with those of professional studios with proper budgets, crews and professional casts who charge audiences money. It is only fair to treat professionals more seriously and potentially harshly for their product. However a look at some of the amateur productions on the web is illustrative of just what can be done by rank amateurs with the relatively new technology and a little imagination.
NATHAN CARTER;
This series has vaguely updated adaptations of classic Holmes stories clearly influenced by the Cumberpatch and Harris series. Done by one Nathan Carter, a British teen who stars as Holmes who also (as the credits helpfully point out) writes, directs, edits, produces and apparently does pretty much everything else. The shows are half hour long some of which is taken up by skillful use of stock footage and montages and a lot of standing around talking. Carter also reuses the theme from "Elementary" as well as snippits of music from the Jeremy Brett series and "Downton Abbey". Since most of the cast are clearly teens pretending to be adults rather than the previous sort of "Young Sherlock Holmes" films the audience gets the odd sight of an "Inspector" who has more in common with Encyclopedia Brown but we can let that pass. The Watson here was apparently too jarringly young even for this project as he disappears in one of the episodes never to be heard of again. I am never entirely comfortable with modernizing Doyle's stories and characters but it was the right choice in this case since there is no way a group of teens on a micro-budget could have done a plausible recreation of Victorian costumes and sets. One episode amusingly features an unknowing cameo from "Downton's" Michelle Dockery as a murder victim (as a series of flashback photos) which gives Carter the chance to add her name to the cast of his amateur troupe. I imagine he enjoyed that immensely. Other photo cameos include Daniel Dae Kim ("Lost") and Jaden Smith ("Karate Kid") as Kim's son, which is just odd. The acting and editing is a little stiff at times and the micro-budget sometimes shows it's limits (such as in the obvious use of somebody's basement larder to double as a prison cell) and some of the dialogue exchanges were clearly filmed while cast members were not in the same time or place. However the whole thing is well put together and respectful and is a sign of what talented and ambitious amateurs can do with the sort of technology which can be had much more easily than would been the case even a decade ago. We can no doubt expect to see more of this sort of thing in the future, probably even from Master Carter, whether or not he ends up getting a job in film or TV. He also done Dr Who remake episodes as well.
NATHAN CARTER AS HOLMES;
JACOB HOLLBACK;
The Hollbacks, Jacob and John, are two British brothers in their late teens or early twenties who tried their hands at an adaptation of "The Speckled Band" in 2009 with a two part follow-up the next year in "The Final Problem" and "The Empty House". The stories are on-canon and in fact essentially keep to the scripts from the Jeremy Brett series, sometimes down to imitating individual shots, albeit reducing the stories to a half hour. Unlike most of these type of projects they do not modernize the stories but instead try to keep to a Victorian setting, which can be a challenge, especially with costumes which never look quite right. These one is actually fairly slickly done, given the inherent budget limitations. However for their first outing John (who directs) makes over-use of a cheesy green screen which is a distraction and conjures up memories of zero budget cable access shows of the 1980's. Fortunately by the time of the next two episodes there is thankfully less green screen and more actual outdoor sets. Holmes is played by Jacob who, taking into account his age, actually does look like Holmes and acts competently enough. Stolid Watson is played by John who also plays a leering Moriarty. A Hollback sister is employed in "The Speckled Band" and there is little other cast to speak of. By the time of the second and third episodes the direction is less stiff and better use is made of music and stock footage along with better credit design. The first episode is fairly clumsy but by the second and (thus far) final episodes the brothers seem to have hit their stride. This series is probably the best of it's type. (2022 Update; As of this update these videos seem to have been deleted from Youtube which is kind of a shame).
SAMUEL TADY;
The Tady Brothers are two more British teen brothers who have made at least one Holmes adaptation in 2014 with more promised and apparently finished but not yet posted. Again like the Hollback brothers they try to keep to a Victorian setting. Like the similar Nathan Carter versions, they make use of music from the Guy Ritchie and Jeremy Brett versions as well as copping the opening credits from the Brett series. The brothers do literally everything here and are apparently the entire crew as the credits helpfully, and somewhat amusingly, point out. They also employ another brother and sister as extras. The story is an on-canon version of "The Dying Detective" which has previously been shot in the Jeremy Brett series. This is actually an unfortunate choice since the story has no action to speak of but this may have been by design since it also requires only a few sets, mostly indoors, and a tiny cast, but it also makes it talky and gloomy looking. Holmes is played by Samuel Tady and Watson by Andrew. They try to hide their sibling resemblance by hiding Watson behind a mustache and hat with limited success. They are obviously too young for the parts which is a bit of a distraction, albeit an unavoidable one. The restrictions of the story mean that Samuel (Holmes) literally spends almost the entire play in bed looking miserable while Andrew (Watson) spends his time moping around. Nathan Carter and Jacob Hollback had more presence in their versions although Carter's supporting players were weaker. This may be partly due to the restrictions on the Holmes character in this story but I doubt it. This leaves the actual acting to the villainous Culberton Smith played by an actor who bears a remarkable resemblance to Eddie Redmayne and is appropriately smug. There is also a perpetually upset Mrs Hudson and a gun-toting Lestrade. The playlet is only a half hour long which means that the story is so truncated that Culbertson Smith's motives are glossed over from the original story and a shootout is added to the end which would ordinarily be annoying but is actually not wildly inappropriate to this story. Overall this is rather well done but inferior to the Nathan Carter and Hollback versions which make better use of outdoor sets and stock footage for more variety, this version does have two scenes of Watson supposedly in a carriage and another in a train car which are obviously fake but still look less cheesy than the green screen used by the Hollbacks. Ultimately however the story is still slower, talky and more claustrophobic than the more lively Carter and Hollback versions. The closing credits (which copy those from the Brett series) are well done however.
SAMUEL TADY AS HOLMES;
THOMAS LYNSKEY;
This 2012 version (this time American) once again attempts to use a Victorian setting, however with less attention to detail as the outfits are cheap leisure suits, and modern electric lights are frequently easily visible along with a modern pump-action shot gun and felt-tip marker. Holmes also seems to live in a cheap college dorm with noticeable holes in the drywall. Perhaps Americans are just inherently less comfortable and less able to do costume dramas and use historical settings, (except possibly for Westerns) they also have less such settings to make use of. On the other hand where other fan-fiction adaptations are happy to make do with shortened versions of on-canon stories, usually cribbed from the Jeremy Brett series, Lynskey actually went through the trouble to write an actual script for a new story. "A Murder In Five Acts" has Holmes chasing after Jack The Ripper. This story line has already been done in "A Study In Terror" and "Murder By Decree" (not to mention "From Hell") but Lynskey, who stars and also wrote and directed, didn't simply copy one of those stories but came up with a new conspiracy theory which includes actual figures from other Ripper conspiracies like James Maybrick and Joseph Tumblety. At only a half hour he doesn't get much time to flesh-out his story but he doesn't do a bad job here. There is even some good dialogue by-play. Lynskey is also a better actor than the other teen Sherlocks although not a better director than Carter or Hollback. He does at least avoid any cheesy green screens, presumably because he doesn't own one. Lynskey also looks like a passable young Sherlock. Watson is played by Robert Bagdon and Lestrade by Nick Sellers who are competent enough by the standards of these things and Jack Ripper by Jacob Swing who is slightly better. They are appear to be slightly older than the Hollbacks and definitely older than Nathan Carter or the Tady Bros which may explain a few things. Lynskey also has another similar film in a version of the Titanic sinking which is actually not bad and shot in black and white which he really should have considered for this project as well.
THOMAS LYNSKEY AT HOLMES;
GEORGE SANDE;
Another American version, with two episodes so far. It's supposed to have a Victorian setting but they're so slapdash that modern electric lights, appliances and wall sockets are clearly visible. One outdoor scene even has a garbage dumpster in the background. On the plus side, like the Lynskey episode they do have a script of it's own. They go for laughs and actually have some witty dialogue and one silly scene with Holmes trying to communicate to Watson via sign language which I actually laughed out loud at. Another climatic shootout is stupid in an Inspector Clouseau way. These are rather funny while the inside jokes (a murder victim is named Arthur Doyle and a suspect named James Earl Ray) are not. Sande, who also wrote these, plays a droll (if gawky) Holmes with Watson (Mitchell Gleiter) as nebbishy straightman. Sande looks too nerdy to be a proper Holmes and the cast are younger than either Lynskey or the Hollback Bros so Moriarty and another villain (both of whom are played by director Isaac Tackman) have no presence. Tackman has little sense of style here and at only 14 minutes these are too short to do very much but I suspect with some more thought they might be able to make a workable light comedic young Sherlock. They also reuse the theme from the Downey Jr films. Note one of the videos (the funnier one) has apparenty been deleted.
GEORGE SANDE;
GORDON TELLING;
By comparison here is another fan-created video remake, this time from America circa 2010. Directed by one Nathaniel Jamison-Root who was reportedly a Vermont University student studying English rather than film and who seems to have done this as a one-off hobby rather than as part of an ongoing film project as the others did. There is however a trailer on Youtube although you will have to find the actual film elsewhere as Root's Youtube channel hasn't seen any action for over a decade. This adaptation is an update of the Conan Doyle story "Charles Agustus Milverton", which is an odd choice since it's Holmes' dreariest case but since Root was an English rather than a film student he must have more interested in the dialogue which stays true to Doyle's rather than anything inherently film-able. The direction is at the level of a home movie, it's poorly lit, the sound somewhat muffled and the acting is strictly highschool play level. I don't know anything about Gordon Telling (as Holmes) or the rest of the cast but they clearly weren't real actors. I understand the need to use a modern setting but what appears to be rural Vermont in late Fall looks pretty drab especially compared to Carter's lavish use of London stock footage to add to the setting and incidentally kill time. The use of music is less skillful as well, basically alternating between blaring classical music and snippits from an old Santo & Johnny album. Actually that's the best part.
GORDON TELLING AS HOLMES;
BRENNAN THOMPSON;
OK; If you are going to produce one of these things, even taking into account zero budget and general amateurishness, you really need to give some thought to writing a script, direction, costumes, props, sets, and blocking-out action sequences. Especially in the latter case if you are going to be having no less than three fight scenes, a sword fight (with oversize plastic swords) and a shootout in less than fifteen minutes. Also a few rehearsals would be a good idea so your cast (which consists of a half-dozen British teens and a few parents) can remember their lines and not keep looking at the freaking camera. Actually the kid playing Holmes seems pretty confident on camera and is presumably in charge of this silliness since he's also literally the only one who stays in character and knows his lines. I know that this is just a few kids goofing around but they just made me sit through this. Besides after seeing how some minor but enjoyable works can be done by a bunch of kids I'm not trying to discourage anyone. Just check out some of the others listed here. On the other hand if you had given 15 year old me and my friends a camera there's a good chance we would have come up with something only slightly less silly. Albeit with less plastic sword fights.
NICK CAROLLO;
On the other hand this one was apparently done by some British university students who are only marginally more talented than the previous teens. It's credited to three directors although it's hard to see what they could possibly have done. They certainly didn't bother with even a perfunctory script. I know it's supposed to be a joke but the funniest part was discovering Sherlock Holmes eats Coco Puffs for breakfast. I really hope these weren't film or theatre students. This seems like the sort of thing they thought was kinda funny while mildly high. The next day? Not so much. (Note as of 2022 this one has also been deleted)
The previous fan fiction versions, were done by amateur casts and crews in their teens and early twenties. Whatever their failings the best of these, basically the Nathan Carter, Thomas Lynskey and Hollback Bros versions, have some genuine charm, cleverness and even a sense of style. Those that don't work out still deserve a little slack due to the ages and limited resources of those involved. But how do we assess the results when grown adults try their hands at this? And fail completely? Which brings us to....
JEAN ROBBEN (2009);
This Belgian curiosity is a short film done using some odd low budget green screen and rotoscope style effects which conjure up memories of the Ralph Bakshi version of "Lord Of The Rings" for a story that once again invokes Jack The Ripper" with a twist ending. This Holmes looks nothing like his usual self and doesn't really have to do anything but stand there and talk. This one would be annoying if it were any longer but is interesting as a short.
"LA NUIT TOMBE SUR BAKER STREET" (2009);
KEVIN GLASER (2011);
Another attempt to update Holmes to the 21st century was "George Anton's Sherlock Holmes". That's right; he gets his name before Holmes or Doyle. There are only a few film-makers who would dare put their name before a classic work of fiction. There's "Francis Ford Coppala's Dracula", "Andy Warhol's Frankenstein", "Cecil B DeMile's Ten Commandements", "Walt Disney's Scrooge" and now we have George Anton. Of course one of these names is not like the others. Those other guys had, you know, talent. Not to mention name recognition. This low-budget vanity project answers the question; "What if "Room" director and talent-free ego-maniac Tommy Wissau decided to make a crime flick?" Glad you asked. This is absurdly misguided from start to finish. The acting is laughably inept, the script slow-moving, confused, silly and tasteless and there are some truly bizarre musical choices which apparently come from Anton's eagerness to make use of public domain tracks. Accordingly he tosses in upbeat Jazz and Ragtime numbers from the 1920's which clash glaringly with the actual scenes they are in and with the modernized film as a whole but which would be at happily at home in a Betty Boop cartoon.
The film does have plenty of George Anton though as he directed, produced, shot, and edited along with handling props, music and credits, all of which the credits helpfully point out. He probably did the catering too. Done for "Anton Pictures" (of course) which has a spinning earth logo ambitiously swiped from Universal Pictures. Somewhat surprisingly unlike Anthony Mann, Thomas Lynskey, Nathan Carter or the Hollback or Tady Bros, Anton did manage to resist the urge to cast himself in the film which is kind of a shame really since that would have been just perfect. Instead we get a stolidly wooden Kevin Glaser as Holmes. He is actually not as jarringly inept as most of the cast including Charles Simon as quite possibly the dumbest Watson yet, and that's really saying something. A sleepwalking Daniel Rios plays the least intimidating Moriarty ever, although for some reason he gets mentioned twice in the credits. Given the low budget a few of the cast also do double duty as extras including Glaser and Rios just to further confuse things. The best scene is the opening in which a group of disreputable looking men gather in a darkened conference room to be yelled at by their awkwardly over-the-top boss. Only then do we find out that this group of seedy looking mobsters are actually high-ranking police officers. None of the cops in this town seem to have uniforms, nor is there an apparent police station. The commander gives them a comically scenery-chewing rant about a serial killer on the loose while gesturing to a map which is simply a large-scale map of the entire United States apparently borrowed from a grade school class. So far the film seems like an SCTV parody of "Criminal Minds". Unfortunately the commander character then disappears and the rest of the movie is merely dull and pointless not to mention tasteless with some sex-murders thrown in. The credits claim the plot is borrowed from "The Woman In Green" although I found it too boring and silly to pay attention to. There is also a "Charles Agustus Milverton" subplot as well. Anton has also tried his hand at "Dracula", because of course he has.
"GEORGE ANTON'S SHERLOCK HOLMES" 2011;
One note in fairness; while the film itself is devoid of any redeeming features whatsoever, the closing credits are actually quite good. Done by Anton himself (naturally) in the style of a comic book (similar to Stephen King's "Creepshow") they are also used through out the film to cover over scene changes. A little over-used actually, but they are well made nonetheless so while Anton has no future as a film-maker he could have one as graphic designer of film and ad credits.
TOM NEWMAN (2021);
This production is from the New Zealand Broadcasting School so not exactly a fan-made effort as they have access to reasonably proper (albeit low budget) gear and have some training. Another attempt at "Charles Augustus Milverton" is once again ill-advised as it's one of Holmes' least interesting stories where nothing much happens and Holmes fails. People I beg you; Stop trying to make this dreary story work. I know it's the easiest to film but it's still boring. Once again the choice to have the cast dress as hung over slackers who have apparently all slept-in was undoubtedly easier and cheaper than trying to recreate a Victorian setting but it's a distraction and I don't think we needed a grunge Watson. At any rate Holmes here is acceptably cocksure, the production is reasonably competent under the circumstances and the story faithfully follows the original and it allows for the possibility of a sequel.
"THE MURDER OF CHARLES AUGUSTUS MILVERTON" (2021);
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HOLMES IN RUSSIA;
As we've seen Sherlock Holmes is an international character and has been played from the start by British and American actors as well as French (Georges Treville), Hungarian (Karoly Bauman), German (Hans Albers, Hugo Flink, Alwin Neuss, Bruno Guttner), Danish (Viggo Larson, Otto Lagoni, Einar Zangenberg), Italian (Nando Gazzolo), South African (Basil Rathbone) Canadians (Raymond Massey, Christopher Plummer, Matt Frewer and Anthony Mann) and even Chinese (Li Pingqian) along with modernized versions in Japan. But one country the character has shown up the most is Russia.
VASSILY LIVANOV;
Holmes not only thrived in Nazi Germany but also in the Soviet Union. The Russians have always liked Holmes and in the 1980's they made a reasonably faithful series starring Vassily Livanov as Holmes and Vitali Solomin as Watson. Litvanov is a solid enough Holmes while Solomin, who bears an uncanny resemblance to Nigel Stock from the 1960's British TV series, makes for an uncommonly young Watson. Both remain popular in Russia and got rave reviews from non-Russian Holmesians notwithstanding the low budgets. I assume these were mostly filmed in St. Petersburg which would have enough Victorian buildings, but they simply don't look like London and they are often visibly rundown and weather-beaten with peeling plaster and fading paint. I'm also pretty sure that the windswept moors of "The Hound Of The Baskervilles" shouldn't look like an abandoned rock quarry in Minsk.
VASSILY LIVANOV AS SHERLOCK TRAILER (1979);
MAKSIM MATEEV;
There have actually been a lot of Russian Sherlocks over the years, a veritable Russian's doll's worth, and I'm not even going to pretend I've kept track, especially as I don't speak Russian. However 2021 brought a high profile effort that brought favorable attention from a new generation of Holmes fans. Unlike the Japanese versions "Sherlock; The Russian Chronicles" (AKA "Sherlock In Russia") does not take it's inspiration from the modernized Cumberpatch and Miller versions but instead more the Downey jr versions, the John Cusak Edgar Allen Poe movie "The Raven" or the Johnny Depp Ripper movie "From Hell". It's properly Victorian but with modern sensibilities of violence, sex and intensity similar to a series like "Ripper Street" and "Copper". Unlike the previous Russian Sherlocks which pretended to be set in London this one has Holmes traveling to Russia in pursuit of Jack The Ripper once again. Played by Maksim Mateev, this Sherlock is young and virile if scruffy and unkempt. Watson and the rest of the usual Holmes are left behind. So far I've only seen the first episode but it looks great with fine sets and camera work.
"SHERLOCK; THE RUSSIAN CHRONICLES" TRAILER (2021);
ALEXEI KOLTAN;
The Russians also produced a series of Holmes cartoons which while somewhat crude and straying far from the canon are more imaginative and amusing than the earlier Holmes toons. One Alexei Koltan does the voices not only of Holmes but also Watson and Lestrade which must be some sort of record.
SHERLOCK HOLMES AND THE LITTLE BLACK MEN";
Some guy has done an exhaustive research on the various Russian Sherlocks which can be read here online. Most of the film clip links offered however are broken. There are a number of Russian Holmes series on Youtube which look great but are not in English. More recently there was a version from Brazil that looks interesting from what little I've seen.
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