The Mysterious World of Sherlock Holmes

by Bruce Wexler

  The Magnifying Glass

  Another enduring image of Holmes is that of him peering through a magnifying glass. Introduced to the character by Doyle, (“As he spoke, he whipped a tape measure and a large round magnifying glass from his pocket.”), the glass was first illustrated by D.H. Friston in the four drawings he produced for the famous Beeton’s Christmas Annual of 1887. Early Holmesian actor William Gillette, also used it as part of his stage business, and later interpreters of the role continued to use it. This key accoutrement is now ingrained in our collective image of the great detective.

  Two examples of Victorian magnifying glasses from the desk of the great detective. One has a turned rosewood handle and the other an ivory one.

  Holmes’s sword cane, a useful weapon on the mean streets of Victorian London.

  The “Strad”

  Violin playing was a popular pursuit in the Victorian era. But Holmes is not a man to take up a pastime lightly and as Watson says, he “plays the violin well.” He certainly takes his playing seriously enough to equip himself with a fine instrument. Holmes owns a Stradivarius, which would have been crafted by the great master during the late seventeenth/early eighteenth century in Cremona, Italy. Even in Holmes’s time, such an instrument would have been very valuable, but Sherlock maintains that he purchased it at a “great bargain.” As well as playing Mendelssohn’s Lieder, Holmes also enjoys the polyphonic motets of Orlando di Lasso (a famous Flemish composer and the subject of a monograph by Holmes), and the “Barcarolle” from The Tales of Hoffmann. In the course of the stories, Holmes’s violin playing becomes an intrinsic part of his persona. He expresses himself through music both during manic and depressive phases, and uses the “Strad’s” soothing strains to concentrate his mental powers.

  Holmes’s beloved Stradivarius, whose soothing strains concentrated his mental processes.

  The “Old Favorite” Revolver

  Watson mentions that he and Holmes are armed with revolvers or pistols in twenty-one Canon stories (he uses the terms interchangeably), and the stories themselves refer to guns, pistols, and revolvers over a hundred times. Despite this, the duo are only credited with actually using their weapons on five occasions:

  Both Holmes and Watson fire on the Andaman Islander in The Sign of Four.

  Holmes and Watson both fire at the Hound of the Baskervilles.

  Watson fires at the mastiff in the “Adventure of the Copper Beeches.”

  Watson pistol-whips would-be assassin Colonel Moran in the “Adventure of the Empty House.”

  Holmes pistol-whips Killer Evans in the “Adventure of Three Garridebs,” after Watson is shot and wounded.

  Holmes’s “Old Favourite” revolver is not specifically identified, but most authorities have opted for the Webley Mark III.

  Conan Doyle does not specify the manufacturer of either man’s gun. However, Watson’s description of Holmes’s eccentric indoor target practice in “The Musgrave Rictual” (tracing a patriotic “V.R.” on the walls of their apartment “in bullet-pocks”) gives us some clues. It seems likely that Holmes would have used a smaller bore target pistol for such a pursuit, such as the single-shot Webley Model 1880. For more serious case-work Holmes’s would have carried his “Old Favorite” revolver. This is described as using “Boxer Cartridges,” and having a “Hair-Trigger.” At this time, “Boxer” was a generic term given to a particular type of center-fire cartridge; the original having been invented by Colonel Boxer of the British Army around 1866. This vague description of his weapon is quite pertinent; Holmes is much more interested in the forensic study of ballistics, rather than in firearms themselves. As a well-known patriot, it is very likely that Holmes would have used an English-made revolver (rather than a European model), so a Webley Mark III might be a likely candidate for his firearm.

  Dr Watson’s service revolver was probably an Adams Model 1872 Mark III. This was standard issue in the British Army during the period of Watson’s military service.

  A civilian Beaumont Adams revolver, also owned by Dr Watson, is displayed in a case at the Sherlock Holmes Museum.

  Watson’s weapon is described rather more specifically as being an “old service revolver.” He would have received it during his years in Afghanistan. In his time of service, it was customary to keep an army-issued weapon on discharge from active duty. We can deduce from Watson’s years of enlistment (1879 to 1880), that his gun was most probably the Adams 1872 Mark III center-fire revolver. The Adams was standard issue equipment in the British army between 1878 and 1880, and was never sold commercially. Based on the earlier Beaumont-Adams percussion revolver (which was widely used during the Civil War), the later gun was both breech loading and double action, using center-fire ammunition that had now become more widely available. As a .45 caliber, it had excellent stopping power, and six-shot capability.

  A Bulldog revolver concealed in a prayer book, as used by Rev. Williamson in “The Solitary Cyclist.”

  The Legion D’Honneur awarded to Holmes for services rendered to the French Government.

  A fragment of the wall with a bloody fingerprint from the case of “The Norwood Builder.”

  Watson also describes how he later acquires a Webley revolver, possibly a Mark II Civilian Pocket Model, and this may well hint to Holmes’s gun being from the same armory.

  Holmes reads a book about bee keeping in preparation for his retirement on the South Downs in the County of Sussex.

  A letter dated October 8, 1888. Holmes writes to Watson from Baker Street. Watson is on Dartmoor, making preliminary enquiries in the case of The Hound of the Baskervilles.

  Sherlock Holmes Pub

  Situated at number 10–11 Northumberland Street, Westminster, London, and known in Holmes’s times as The Northumberland Arms, this where Holmes tracked down Francis Hay Moulton in “The Noble Batchelor.”

  Old Scotland Yard is just across the other side of Northumberland Avenue, and the Turkish Baths that Holmes and Watson frequented were beside the hotel in Craven Passage. The disused entrance forms part of the wall of the bank. With Charing Cross Station just around the corner, it is not hard to imagine Holmes and Watson hurrying through the foggy streets of London to catch a train to the location of another baffling case. To this day, the pub is filled with artifacts relating to Holmes and his cases. These include the Hound of the Baskerville’s stuffed head and there is also a replica of the Holmes/Watson sitting room and study. Diners in the restaurant are able to view this through a large glass partition.

  The Inn sign has two aspects, one shows Holmes reading a note, clad in his dressing gown; the other shows him in his deerstalker, examining a clue with his magnifying glass. In both versions, he is smoking furiously.

  In the bottom panes of the front windows, the likenesses of Holmesian characters are etched into the glass. Originally, there were six, but only four survive. Shown here are the depictions of Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson.

  The exterior of the pub on a warm summer’s day. One wonders whether Holmes and Watson would have approved of al fresco dining in shirtsleeves.

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  Sherlock Holmes on Stage, Screen, and Radio

  One of the most brilliant aspects of Conan Doyle’s writing style is his ability to conjure crystal clear images of his characters and plot action. It is truly “cinematic.” Extraordinarily, partly through Conan Doyle’s brilliant writing, and partly through Sidney’s Paget’s glamorous evocation of the great detective, Sherlock became a star before the movies were even invented. He has now become the most-often portrayed fictional character; more than seventy-five actors have taken the role of Holmes in at least 211 movies, since the first Sherlock Holmes peep machine show back in 1911. Holmes’s popularity has also resulted in The Hound of the Baskervilles being filmed more often than any other work of fiction.

  An extract from Paget’s famous illustration of The Hound of the Baskervilles. The book has been filmed more times than any other work of fiction.

 
During his lifetime, Conan Doyle himself was fully aware of the stage potential of his character, and brought him to the London stage on several occasions, particularly when his funds were low. But the actor to receive his strongest personal endorsement in the role was the American, William Gillette. Gillette was quite an extraordinary character himself: brought up as a Yankee aristocrat in Nook Farm, Connecticut, he was the childhood friend of Mark Twain. In later life, he built the extraordinary 24-room Gillette Castle, which was featured in National Geographic’s Guide to America’s Great Houses. Although Gillette was often described as a taciturn and difficult character off-stage, he was nevertheless the friend to many powerful and creative people, and struck up a deep rapport with Conan Doyle himself.

  American actor William Gillette. For many, he was Sherlock Holmes. He also formed a deep rapport with Conan Doyle.

  Other actors of the period may claim to be the first to portray Holmes; the English actor Charles Brookfield co-wrote and performed Under the Clock at the London’s Royal Court Theatre in 1893, but Gillette became the role, and was certainly Conan Doyle’s choice for his brilliant detective. Conan Doyle wrote Gillette’s original play, Sherlock Holmes – A Drama in Four Acts, but Gillette is known to have adapted it extensively until it became his own. The play first opened in New York City in 1899, to rave reviews. Gillette brought it to England in 1901. He was to give over 1,300 stage performances of the role between 1899 and 1932, and revived it for radio in 1935. Interestingly, on Gillette’s 1903 tour of England, the young Charlie Chaplin took the role of Billy.

  Gillette built Gillette Castle, a twenty-four-room mansion in East Haddam, Connecticut. He funded the house with income derived from playing Holmes.

  Illustrator Frederic Dorr Steele used Gillette as his model for Holmes.

  For many people, William Gillette was Holmes, fiction made flesh. He single-handedly created the public image of the great detective, with his calabash, deerstalker, cape, and magnifying glass, and is even credited with coining the seminal phrase, “Elementary, my dear Watson,” which never actually appears in the Canon. Gillette was also Frederic Dorr Steele’s model for his illustrations of the great detective. For many people who saw Gillette on stage, he appeared to be the embodiment of Holmes in appearance, mannerism, and intensity, the only possible actor in the role. Helen Hayes was one of many famous contemporaries who declared “William Gillette is the only real Sherlock Holmes for me.” Eminent Sherlockian Vincent Starrett confirmed that he appeared to be “the living embodiment of Sherlock Holmes.” But most astonishingly, Arthur Conan Doyle himself told Gillette “you make the hero of anemic printed page a very limp object as compared with the glamour of your own personality which you infuse into his stage presentment.”

  Gillette certainly became permanently identified with the character of Holmes, but unlike several later incumbents, he did not object to this. Indeed, it was the cornerstone of his professional reputation and his huge popularity. Ironically, Gillette also wrote a Sherlockian drama of his own, a strange one-act parody entitled The Painful Predicament of Sherlock Holmes, in which the great detective does not speak. Despite Holmes’s silence, the play was well received.

  Predictably, Gillette’s one and only movie was the silent Sherlock Holmes, filmed in 1916, although, surprisingly, he was not the first actor to bring Sherlock to the screen. An unknown actor had appeared in a silent picture of 1903, Sherlock Holmes Baffled, and Maurice Costello had appeared in 1905’s Adventures of Sherlock Holmes. But Gillette was the first actor to portray Sherlock on the radio, in 1930. In those early, golden, years of radio, when it was the most widely accessible medium, several other famous actors also took up the role, including Basil Rathbone, Orson Welles, Sir Cedric Hardwicke, Arthur Wontner, and Sir John Gielgud.

  A movie poster for John Barrymore’s 1922 version of Gillette’s play.

  On screen, the role changed hands several times in the early years of the twentieth century. Several of these actors are relatively unknown today (including Harry Benham and James Bragington), but working in the early 1920s, Eille Norwood became the first actor since Gillette to be considered a “definitive” Holmes. Between 1921 and 1923 he starred as the great detective in forty-seven silent movies, each of which lasted an average of twenty minutes. They were closely based on Conan Doyle’s original stories, and the great author himself praised Norwood’s interpretation of the role, “His wonderful impersonation of Holmes has amazed me.”

  John Barrymore also appeared as Holmes in 1922, in a film version of Gillette’s play. On stage, Dennis Neilsen-Terry portrayed the great detective in Conan Doyle’s one-act play The Crown Diamond. But the work was not a roaring success; it ran for only three months and was never revived. Conan Doyle cannibalized elements of its plot in the “Adventure of the Mazarin Stone.”

  Actor Ellie Norwood played Holmes on screen between 1921 and 1923, starring in 47 silent movies.

  When the talkies arrived in the 1930s, a new generation of actors hit the big screen. Arthur Wontner became the first talking Holmes, and in 1931, Robert Rendell played the great detective in the first talking version of The Hound of the Baskervilles. Raymond Massey also took the part in this era.

  In the 1940s, however, the character of Sherlock was completely dominated by one actor: Basil Rathbone (1892 to 1967). Rathbone had been a war hero in the First World War, and was awarded the British Military Cross. He moved to Hollywood to further his acting career, and was cast as Holmes in 1939. He made fifteen Holmes movies over the next seven years, with Nigel Bruce cast as his Watson, and broadcast 242 Holmes radio dramas.

  John Barrymore in a still from the silent movie version of Gillette’s play.

  Two color movie posters depicting the 1940’s screen Holmes, Basil Rathbone. In Sherlock Holmes in Washington, Rathbone appears as Holmes, and Nigel Bruce is cast as a rather elderly Dr. Watson. The pair find themselves in Washington, helping to save the United States from Nazi spies. The Voice of Terror poster shows that the allure of women is starting to feature in the marketing of Holmes.

  A monochrome movie poster for The Hound of The Baskervilles. A real Conan Doyle story.

  But, like Conan Doyle, Rathbone became gradually bored with the character and felt typecast as Holmes. He even conceived a strong personal dislike for the great detective, asserting that “there was nothing lovable about Holmes… his perpetual seeming assumption of infallibility; his interminable success; (could he not fail just once and prove himself a human being like the rest of us!).” Rathbone quit the role in 1946, and returned to the stage work he loved. However, like Conan Doyle, he missed the financial rewards that Holmes had brought him, and decided to make one final reappeared in the character. Rathbone revived Holmes in a play written by his wife, Ouida, but the production was a complete flop and ran for only three performances.

  So great was Rathbone’s imprint on the role of Holmes that no other movie studio or movie actor would touch it for years, until Peter Cushing was cast in the 1959 remake of The Hound of the Baskervilles. The film was produced by English movie studio Hammer Films. Cushing (1913 to 1994) was English, but had arrived in Hollywood in 1939, and landed parts in several films. These included A Chump At Oxford in which he starred with Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy. Cushing served in Britain’s Entertainment National Services Association during the war, and then decided to pursue a film career in Britain. Although Cushing also became famous for appearing in various Hammer horror movies, he reappeared as Holmes in 1984 (at the age of 74), in Sherlock Holmes and the Masks of Death.

  If every decade has its iconic “Holmes,” then Christopher Lee is the Holmes of the 1960s. Having appeared as Henry Baskerville in Hammer’s Hound of the Baskervilles, Lee was cast as Holmes himself in the first color Holmes movie, Sherlock Holmes and the Deadly Necklace (1962). His gaunt and brooding Sherlock was compelling. Born in 1922, Lee was a graduate of Rank Studio’s Charm School, and was particularly famous for his role as Dracula in several Hammer horror mov
ies. He later revived his part in the Holmes “franchise,” playing Watson in Sherlock Holmes and the Leading Lady (1990), and The Incident at Victoria Falls (1991). He was also cast as a much-too-thin Mycroft Holmes in the 1970 movie, The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes.

  A still featuring Rathbone and Bruce. Their attire is fairly consistent with the Paget illustrations.

  If every decade has its iconic “Holmes,” then Christopher Lee is the Holmes of the 1960s.

  Peter Cushing starred as Holmes in the 1959 remake of The Hound of the Baskervilles, alongside Andre Morell as Dr. Watson.

  But Lee was not the only Holmes of the ’60s. John Neville took the role in 1965’s A Study in Terror. As well as being the second color Holmes movie, Terror was also the first film to show Holmes tackling Jack the Ripper, in highly apocryphal style.

  A plethora of actors took the big screen role of Holmes in the 1970s, with varying degrees of success. Robert Stephens plays the character in Billy Wilder’s highly acclaimed 1970 movie, The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes. George C. Scott was also reasonably successful in the movie version of the Broadway play They Might be Giants in 1971. Nicol Williamson’s performance as Sherlock was also perfectly respectable in 1975’s Seven Percent Solution, but Roger Moore’s 1976 appearance as the great detective in Sherlock Holmes in New York confirms that he is a much more successful 007.