The Mysterious World of Sherlock Holmes
Page 14
Two very different actors played the role of the (adult) Holmes in the 1980s, Michael Caine and Sir Ian Richardson. Caine plays an actor playing Holmes in the fairly successful comedy of 1988, Without a Clue, with Ben Kingsley very well cast as Watson. By contrast, classically trained Shakespearian Ian Richardson takes a rather more serious stab at the role in the 1983 films The Sign of Four and The Hound of the Baskervilles. Interestingly, Richardson was to reappear in a Holmesian setting as Dr. Joseph Bell in 2000’s successful television series, The Murder Rooms.
Christopher Plummer as Holmes in the 1978 film Murder By Decree.
Director Steven Spielberg also launched a completely different take on the Holmes character in 1985; with his filmYoung Sherlock Holmes, starring Nicholas Row. As the tagline ran, “Before a Lifetime of Adventure, they had the Adventure of a Lifetime.” The film was spun-off into a television series.
But by far the most important contribution to the role of Holmes for this decade (and some would argue to date) was seen on the small screen, rather than at the movies, when Jeremy Brett (1933 to 1995) was cast as Sherlock in the Granada Television series. He went on to star in thirty-six stories and four feature-length television movies, playing against two excellent Watsons: David Burke until 1985, and the superlative Edward Hardwicke for the balance of the work. Brett’s florid and melodramatic Sherlock evoked very strong reactions, both positive and negative, but many consider his interpretation to be the ultimate Holmes. Dame Jean Conan Doyle described him as “The Holmes of my youth.” Brett was an Eton-educated English actor who had done a stint in Hollywood, appearing in My Fair Lady. As well as utterly contradicting some of the dreary early interpretations of Holmes, he was also able to bring his great intelligence to the role, to make Holmes interesting and relevant to modern audiences. Brett also left us an incisive estimation of Holmes’s personality: “He is complex. He loves music — he plays the violin very well — he enjoys a joke, he is vain, maybe a little conceited. He likes to be praised. He can be bitchy when he assesses other great detectives. On a difficult case he may build up a considerable tension within himself, which explodes in a genial bit of theatricality when the problem is solved.” It was Brett’s ambition to film the entire canon, but ill health intervened, and this was never realized.
The late Jeremy Brett as Granada Television’s enigmatic Holmes.
Brett with David Burke as Watson. Burke left the series after thirteen episodes. His portrayal of Watson is judged to be one of the closest to the original Conan Doyle character. Edward Hardwicke succeeded him in the role.
The 1990s and early 2000s saw a surprising dearth of big screen Sherlock movies. In 1985, seasoned film actor Edward Woodward starred as Holmes in a made-for-television film, The Hands of A Murderer, and this trend has continued. A Canadian production of The Hound of the Baskervilles was made for television in 2000, starring Matthew Frewer. The film boasted the dubious tagline, “Every Dog has its Day.” The BBC made a more serious adaptation of the book in 2002, starring Richard Roxburgh as Sherlock, and Ian Hart as an unusually sharp-witted and complex Watson. The BBC version was surprisingly successful, with a genuinely suspenseful and authentic atmosphere. It is probably the latest version of one of the most-filmed books of all time.
As well as relatively conventional adaptations of the Canon, there have also been some extraordinarily strange interpretations of Conan Doyle’s stories. In the 1970s, several strange anomalies reached the small screen. These included Larry Hagman in the truly bizarre television pilot, The Return of the World’s Greatest Detective. Playing an L.A. motorcycle cop who has a fall, and wakes up believing he is Sherlock Holmes, Hagman gives a very unusual performance. Unsurprisingly, the series was never made. In 1977, the BBC made a much more successful parody of The Hound of the Baskervilles, starring comedians Peter Cooke and Dudley Moore. As well as taking the part of Watson, Dudley Moore also makes a cameo appearance as Holmes’s mother. Rival British television channel ITV also launched a Holmes comedy, The Strange Case of the End of Civilisation as We Know It, starring Monty Python comedian John Cleese: this version bombed.
Of course, Conan Doyle himself left a legacy of Sherlockian stage plays, including the often-revived Speckled Band of 1910. Gillette’s play has also undergone numerous revivals over the years. Although many of these stage reincarnations of Holmes have been critically successful, the casting for some has been rather peculiar. Charlton Heston, for example, appeared as Holmes in a new stage play Crucifer of Blood in 1991, with Jeremy Brett as cast as Watson.
But Conan Doyle’s characters have also appeared in far more uncharted territory. The musical Holmes! received its first public performance in 1997. As well as the inevitable singing, the great detective finally finds love in this version. 1953 also saw a rather surreal incarnation of Holmes, in a ballet. The Great Detective was performed by the Sadler’s Wells Company, with Kenneth Macmillan taking the lead role.
As well as being intrinsic to popular English-language culture, Holmes has also appeared in many foreign-language dramatizations. French actor Georges Treville made twelve Holmes films for the French Éclair film company in 1912, while German actor Bruno Guttner appeared as Sherlock in a Nazi-filmed version of the Hound of the Baskervilles (1938). Radovan Lukavsky appeared as a big screen Czech Holmes in 1971.
But perhaps the most famous “foreign” Holmes ever is the Russian actor, Vasili Livanov. Livanov appeared on Russian television in several Holmesian dramas in the late 1970s and 1980s, and his representation of the great detective is said to have been a favorite of both the Queen and Margaret Thatcher. He has even been awarded an OBE for his Sherlockian achievement.
It is worth remembering that even apocryphal Holmesian “entertainments” owe their existence to Conan Doyle’s characters, and the fascination that they continue to exert. It is extraordinary that the literary ensemble he created back in the 1880s remains so instantly recognizable. Incredible, too, that Conan Doyle’s undisputed contribution to so many cultural forms is enjoyed by millions who will never open one of his published works.
Russian actor Vasili Livanov was a favorite of the Queen in his characterization of Holmes for Russian television.
The Canon in Alphabetical order, with its Classic Abbreviations
Early Sherlockian Jay Finley Christ devised the familiar four-letter abbreviation for all sixty works of the Sherlock Holmes Canon. Finley Christ was the author of several important Holmesian works, including An Irregular Guide to Sherlock Holmes of Baker Street (1947), and The Fiction of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (1959).
The Adventure of the Abbey Grange ABBE
The Adventure of the Beryl Coronet BERY
The Adventure of Peter Black BLAC
The Adventure of the Blanched Soldier BLAN
The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle BLUE
The Boscombe Valley Mystery BOSC
The Adventure of the Bruce-Partington Plans BRUC
The Adventure of the Cardboard Box CARD
The Adventure of Charles Augustus Milverton CHAS
The Adventure of the Copper Beeches COPP
The Adventure of the Creeping Man CREE
The Adventure of the Crooked Man CROO
The Adventure of the Dancing Men DANC
The Adventure of the Devil’s Foot DEVI
The Adventure of the Dying Detective DYIN
The Adventure of the Empty House EMPT
The Adventure of the Engineer’s Thumb ENGR
The Adventure of the Final Problem FINA
The Adventure of the Five Orange Pips FIVE
The Adventure of the Gloria Scott GLOR
The Adventure of the Golden Pince-nez GOLD
The Greek Interpreter GREE
The Hound of the Baskervilles HOUN
A Case of Identity IDEN
The Adventure of the Illustrious Client ILLU
The Disappearance of Lady Frances Carfax LADY
His Last Bow LAST
The Adventure of the Lion’s Mane LION
The Adventure of the Mazarin Stone MAZA
The Adventure of the Missing Three-Quarter MISS
The Adventure of the Musgrave Ritual MUSG
The Naval Treaty NAVA
The Adventure of the Noble Bachelor NOBL
The Adventure of the Norwood Builder NORW
The Adventure of the Priory School PRIO
The Adventure of the Red Circle REDC
The Red-Headed League REDH
The Reigate Squires REIG
The Resident Patient RESI
The Adventure of the Retired Colourman RETI
A Scandal in Bohemia SCAN
The Adventure of the Second Stain SECO
The Adventure of Shoscombe Old Place SHOS
The Sign of the Four SIGN
Silver Blaze SILV
The Adventure of the Six Napoleons SIXN
The Adventure of the Solitary Cyclist SOLI
The Adventure of the Speckled Band SPEC
The Stockbroker’s Clerk STOC
A Study in Scarlet STUD
The Adventure of the Sussex Vampire SUSS
The Problem of Thor Bridge THOR
The Adventure of the Three Gables 3GAB
The Adventure of the Three Garridebs 3GAR
The Adventure of the Three Students 3STU
The Man with the Twisted Lip TWIS
The Valley of Fear VALL
The Adventure of the Veiled Lodger VEIL
The Adventure of Wisteria Lodge WIST
The Yellow Face YELL
Arthur Conan Doyle’s Ten Favorite Canon Stories Over the years, several famous lists of favorite Sherlock Holmes stories have been published. Arthur Conan Doyle published his list of his twelve stories in 1927 in the Strand.
1. The Adventure of the Speckled Band
2. The Red-Headed League
3. The Adventure of the Dancing Men
4. The Adventure of the Final Problem
5. A Scandal in Bohemia
6. The Adventure of the Empty House
7. The Five Orange Pips
8. The Adventure of the Second Stain
9. The Adventure of the Devil’s Foot
10. The Adventure of the Priory School
11. The Adventure of the Musgrave Ritual
12. The Adventure of the Reigate Squires
In 1959, the in-house magazine of the Baker Street Irregulars, The Baker Street Journal, published their list of ten favorite Canon stories.
1. The Adventure of the Speckled Band
2. The Red-Headed League
3. The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle
4. The Adventure of Silver Blaze
5. A Scandal in Bohemia
6. The Adventure of the Musgrave Ritual
7. The Adventure of the Bruce-Partington Plans
8. The Adventure of the Six Napoleons
9. The Adventure of the Dancing Men
10. The Adventure of the Empty House
Acknowledgments
John Aidiniantz, Assistant Curator, The Sherlock Holmes Museum, 221B Baker Street,
London (www.sherlock-holmes.co.uk)
The British Film Institute
Brian W. Pugh, Curator of the Conan Doyle (Crowborough) Establishment
John Endicott, Curator, The Kent Police Museum (www.Kent-police-museum.co.uk)
Christie’s, London
Mister Antony Inverness Capes (www.misterantony.com)
The Royal Commission on the Ancient & Historical Monuments of Scotland
Bjarne Nielsen, Sherlock Holmes Museet, Denmark
Michael J.T. Lee, The Traditional Games Company Ltd.
Troy Taylor, The American Ghost Society
University of California San Francisco, School of Medicine