Sherlock Holmes

[caz]

I also seem to recall the Jeremy played on extra dancer in "My Fair Lady,"...

Hi Gman,

He was Freddy!

And he had often walked on her street before, but the pavement had always stayed beneath his feet before...

Bliss.

Love,

Caz
X

[Steven Russell]

Dear all,
There was much I disliked about the Ritchie film but, having been expecting to hate it, I actually came away from the cinema pleasantly surprised. I especially liked the way Watson was given a sense of humour and I felt that the scenes where Holmes and Watson bickered showed some good insight into their relationship - a deep friendship with a hint of co-dependancy and a hefty helping of mutual irritation.

I agree that Matt Frewer was miscast but felt he did the best he could; he managed the quirkiness pretty well.

Rupert Everett did well but in my opinion was let down by the plot - the eventual solution has to be the next step up from that old school essay stalwart: "And then I woke up".

On screen, Brett and Rathbone stand head and shoulders above the rest but I would urge all Holmes fans to try the BBC audio recordings featuring Clive Merrison (SH) and Michael Williams (JHW). I know I've mentioned these before but they really are worth a listen. They recorded the entire canon (the ony actors ever to do so) and remained pretty faithful to Doyle throughout.

Best wishes,

Steve.

[belinda]

Yep! I saw this version of "Hound." It was a British production, meaning much of the indoors screen was filmed on video...before they finally went to film on all of their production.

I also seem to recall the Jeremy played on extra dancer in "My Fair Lady," and for your ladies out there, he played "Dracula" on the West Coast "broadway" play.

I knew somebody else had to have seen it He was good as Holmes.


The film version of that play with Frank Langella in it is my favourite version of Dracula
I can imagine Jeremy Brett as Dracula.I wish I could have seen that

[Graham]

Hi Supe,

yes, this was discussed some time back - I said it's "ongoing" because I don't think anyone's come up with a plausible scenario. C Martin Dakin came up with the same 3 possibilities as Benj. Clark, but to me they don't really add up. Can't remember who came up with it, but someone suggested that Stapleton/Rodger should've hired a helper to live on the Moor and use the Hound to bump off Sir Charles and Sir Henry. Once accomplished, the helper could disappear to leave Rodger to appear on the scene and claim what he felt was his.

And yes, Tom, how DID Sir Hugo cop his lot in 1647 if it wasn't a hound from hell? And were there reports of any of his descendants prior to Sir Charles being licked to death by a phantom hound?

But does it really matter, any of this? Nah, 'course not!

Graham

[BillyE]

A few words from me about the films featuring Sherlock Holmes.

My personal favorite is the Jeremy Brett production. I loved him as Holmes. Even when he was sick, and they started to stray from the canon.

Call me crazy, but I've never seen the Basil Rathbone/Nigel Bruce movies, nor have I seen the Peter Cushing Holmes films.

Tom Wescott, I have the same collection of Christopher Lee/Patrick MacNee playing our favorite detective team, along with the Peter Ustinov 1988 documentary featuring the FBI profilers. The documentary was the main reason I picked up the collection. Got it for $15 at a Target, and it even came in a tin case. Not a bad deal.

In a strange bit of casting, Matt Frewer (of Max Headroom fame) played Holmes in four movies: "The Hound of the Baskervilles", "The Royal Scandal" (a version of "Scandal in Bohemia"), "The Sign of Four", and interestingly enough "The Case of the Whitechapel Vampire." I've seen parts of two of them, and they're not horrible, but Frewer is probably not as good a Holmes as Basil Rathbone.

As for the Robert Downey Jr./Jude Law movie goes I'm not interested. I love Downey. He's a great actor, but the stuff the filmmakers are trying to pull of in this movie just doesn't interest me. And all they had to do was say "Directed by Guy Ritchie" and I was done.

[Tom_Wescott]

The TRUE Baskerville mystery must be what really did rip out Sir Hugo Baskerville's throat in 1647 if not a giant dog?

I just watched the Sherlock Holmes Archive Collection, which had some decent stuff, but most of it is shorts. It's always good seeing Boris Karloff and Evelyn Ankers, though.

I also watched the Matt Frewer Hound of the Baskervilles. Why the hell did they cast him?

Last night I watched Peter Cushing's 'Hound' from the BBC series of the 1960's and it was very good. As you can tell I've purchased a LOT of Holmes DVD's lately.

Yours truly,

Tom Wescott

[Supe]

Graham,

Seems to me we discussed this several years ago, but in any case it was examined in depth, by Benjamin Clark, as long ago as 1948 in The Baker Street Journal (Vol. III, No. 3, July 1948).

Clark suggested three possibilities, none very good:
1) Claim the inheritance in an elaborate disguise;
2) Hire a stand-in to claim it with Baskerville's documents;
3) Return to South America and claim the inheritance there through the British legation. This might be difficult, though, since Baskerville had fled South America after he had "purloined a considerable sum of public money,' likely under the name Baskerville. That effort, though, might just have been worth a try somewhere like Australia.

Withal, my advice is simply kick-back, enjoy and practice a certain amount of suspension of disbelief.

Don.

[Graham]

Here's an ongoing mystery regarding The Hound Of The Baskervilles:

Holmes showed that Stapleton of Merripit House was actually one Rodger Baskerville, who had lived in South America but who had returned to England to claim the Baskerville fortune by resurrecting the old family legend and putting the wind up Sir Charles Bakserville with a real hound all decked out with phosphorus, etc. The real hound did what it was obtained to do, and Sir Charles duly pegged it in mysterious circumstances. But his fortune went to Sir Henry Baskerville, his nephew, who'd spent most of his life in Canada. Curses - foiled again! So Stapleton/Rodger had to buy another tin of Pal for his mutt and do the old family legend bit all over again. But he reckoned without Holmes, etc., etc., and Sir Henry survived.

Now then - what if Stapleton had succeeded in frightening Sir Henry to death? How on earth could he have claimed the family fortune as successor to Sir Charles? How could he claim the estate without arousing suspicion? Would he just say, "Hey, I ain't Stapleton after all, I'm Rodger Baskerville so give me the £750000 and Baskerville Hall right now!" If he did, he'd have probably ended up in the nearest loony-bin.

I'd have thought that Stapleton/Rodger's best course of action would have been through the courts, but of course (a) he was already wanted under the name of Vandeleur for nasty goings-on at a private school he owned; and (b) there wouldn't have been the basis for this wonderful story.

If anyone can come up with a plausible solution to this, I'm listening!

Graham

[Kaspar]

Brett was the definative Holmes! He nailed the character from the first episode and the latter episodes lacked when his health started to deterioate.
The set pieces the casting and honorable adherence to Conan Doyle's original works means that this series about Holmes will never be surpassed.

[Gman992]

It's true and I can prove it. I have it on tape.It was made after he left Doctor Who about 1984.

It was on Youtube but I have the first bit which I could probably re upload

Archaic I think you're right about it being a girl thing with Jeremy Brett

Yep! I saw this version of "Hound." It was a British production, meaning much of the indoors screen was filmed on video...before they finally went to film on all of their production.

I also seem to recall the Jeremy played on extra dancer in "My Fair Lady," and for your ladies out there, he played "Dracula" on the West Coast "broadway" play.

[Tom_Wescott]

I recently purchased a Sherlock Holmes collection that was very cheap and consisted of two long movies from 1991 starring Christopher Lee as Holmes and Patrick Macnee as Watson. As much as I admire Lee, he's no Holmes, and the films were quite boring. However, there's a bonus disc in the collection that is the 1888 Secret Identity of Jack the Ripper, with Peter Ustinov, so the collection might be worth some of you getting it just for this.

Yours truly,

Tom Wescott

P.S. I love early Brett as Holmes, but the final series was almost unbearable to watch, and all but one of the movies were horrible.

[Gman992]

Ditto!!


Jeremy Brett was the BEST SH...he played him down to SH's drug use, mood swings, arrogance, and even though, SH was a cerebral character, Brett had just a little bit of an edge who was quite capable of going medievel on someone...

And both David/Edward played great Doctor Watson...even though they were classic, I just cringe ever time I see David Bruce incompent boob performance.


has anyone seen the Ruppert Everett version of Holmes?

How about Michael's Caine performance of a faux Holmes in Without a Clue? Hysterical!

[belinda]

He played a murderer in one about a haunted car,Jeremy Brett that is

Thriller

http://www.amazon.com/Thriller-Complete-Season-Robert-Powell/dp/B000A0GXN8/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=dvd&qid=1272289590&sr=1-1

Very Good I love these I have the whole set.Jeremy Brett was in at least two

[Celesta]

I'm not sure, Belinda. It was shown on our Public Broadcasting and he was a young man with a very somber look. I'll find out who he is.

I just found Tom Baker, Belinda. You are quite correct. It was a 1982 BBC production of The Hound of the Baskervilles, and Tom played Holmes.

[belinda]

Celesta were those the Episodes of Brian Clemens Thriller he was in?

Has anybody else seen or heard of the Tom Baker version? It really was very good.