Sherlock Holmes

[Steven Russell]

There is an entertaining book called Ten Years Beyond Baker Street in which Holmes does battle with Fu Manchu. It's many years since I read it but I remember enjoying it greatly. I think the author was called Cay van Ash or something like that.

Best wishes,
Steve.

[TomTomKent]

I do believe that Dracular is in one of the Further Adventures, short novels currently being reprinted. There is also "the whitechappel horror" in the series, no prizes for guessing who that is about.

[kensei]

Hi Kensei,

I've got "Gotham by Gaslight" - quite good, I thought - and I read "Gentlemen of the Shade" in an anthology. Forget which. I haven't seen "Sherlock Holmes vs. Dracula" but I have read a novel called something like "The Adventure of the Sanguinary Count". Is this the one you're referring to?

Cheers
Hook (aka Eduardo).

Yes, that is the Homes-Dracula story. I think the "Adventure of the Sanguinary Count" line was its subtitle. And the anthology was just called "Ripper!", a collection of short stories by various authors edited by Gardner Dozois and Susan Casper, put out in 1988 for the centennial.

[TomTomKent]

The chess quote fits with Holmes being adept. He is a classic manipulator. He often abuses the trust Watson places in him.

[Captain Hook]

Captain,
Have not seen Blood of the Innocent but I have read "Gotham by Gaslight" in which Batman battles the Ripper, and a novel called "Sherlock Holmes vs. Dracula." There is also a short story entitled "Gentlemen of the Shade" by Harry Turtledove in which the Ripper is himself a vampire.

Hi Kensei,

I've got "Gotham by Gaslight" - quite good, I thought - and I read "Gentlemen of the Shade" in an anthology. Forget which. I haven't seen "Sherlock Holmes vs. Dracula" but I have read a novel called something like "The Adventure of the Sanguinary Count". Is this the one you're referring to?

Cheers
Hook (aka Eduardo).

[kensei]

Hi Kensei,


BTW, have you ever seen Blood of the Innocent - a four-issue comic book series in which Dracula battles Jack the Ripper? It came out many moons ago, but there was some talk recently about reviving it as a movie.

Cheers
Hook

Captain,
Have not seen Blood of the Innocent but I have read "Gotham by Gaslight" in which Batman battles the Ripper, and a novel called "Sherlock Holmes vs. Dracula." There is also a short story entitled "Gentlemen of the Shade" by Harry Turtledove in which the Ripper is himself a vampire.

[Captain Hook]

Have heard recently that the sequel to Robert Downey Jr's "Sherlock Holmes" is rapidly approaching.

Hi Kensei,

Yes, you can already see the trailer on the internet. I don't know what to say - Downey/Holmes appears in drag. Not a pretty sight, although it's obviously done as comedy.

The son of Fu Manchu working for British intelligence? We-ell. Nayland-Smith wasn't really like Sherlock Holmes but rather like like Bulldog Drummond or a pre-Bond Bond minus the women and the booze. He had some non-descript job which gave him some sway over Scotland Yard and all intelligence forces as he fought the infamous doctor and his yellow hordes throughout 12 volumes, most of which I still have somewhere.

BTW, have you ever seen Blood of the Innocent - a four-issue comic book series in which Dracula battles Jack the Ripper? It came out many moons ago, but there was some talk recently about reviving it as a movie.

Cheers
Hook

[kensei]

Have heard recently that the sequel to Robert Downey Jr's "Sherlock Holmes" is rapidly approaching. I must admit that I admire the man for having gone from serving time in jail for drug charges to sobering up and becoming both Iron Man and Sherlock Holmes. Way to go!

[kensei]

Perhaps Wilmer spread himself too thin. He also played Dennis Nayland-Smith in a couple of Fu Manchu movies with Christopher Lee, the Thinking Machine in The Rivals of Sherlock Holmes and Sherlock Holmes again in The Adventure of Sherlock Holmes's Smarter Brother - who was not Mycroft but - gasp! Gene Wilder. Actually this film had a good cast: Leo McKern as Moriarty, Marty Feldman as a police inspector and Madeline Kahn on something or other.

Cheers
Eduardo

The name Dennis Nayland Smith caught my eye. Did you know he was adapted as a character into a Marvel comic called "Master of Kung Fu" in which a Chinese martial arts master named Shang Chi (who is the son of Fu Manchu) works as an agent for British intelligence? I'm kind of a comic book geek, and also a martial arts one.

[Steven Russell]

This could have been a sly joke against himself on Holmes' part. It is inconceiveable that he would not have been a good chess player given his various qualities, interests, and abilities.

Best wishes,
Steve.

PS I think this thread was set up to discuss the Robert Downey jnr film. There is another thread called, from memory, "All things Conan Doyle and Holmes" which deals with - well, the clue's in the title.

[Robert]

In the Peter Cushing Hammer film of the Hound of the Baskervilles, Holmes is shown playing chess - this despite the fact that in The Retired Colourman, Holmes says something like "Always distrust a chess player, Watson - the mark of a scheming mind."

[Captain Hook]

Perhaps Wilmer spread himself too thin. He also played Dennis Nayland-Smith in a couple of Fu Manchu movies with Christopher Lee, the Thinking Machine in The Rivals of Sherlock Holmes and Sherlock Holmes again in The Adventure of Sherlock Holmes's Smarter Brother - who was not Mycroft but - gasp! Gene Wilder. Actually this film had a good cast: Leo McKern as Moriarty, Marty Feldman as a police inspector and Madeline Kahn on something or other.

Cheers
Eduardo

[bigjon]

My favourite adaption:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=004282khD1E

[Robert]

I think this is the definitive portrayal :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0igRKYQUfpg

[TomTomKent]

I think Cushing's series had Nigel Stock as Watson. Stock had been Wilmer's Watson, so he simply carried on where he left off. I don't recall Arthur Lowe in any Holmes production.

Probably because I have become confused and muddled two distinct projects: The spoof television movies from the seventies where John Cleese played a victorian Holmes in the modern world being one ("The fate of the world as we know it") and the slightly later Ian Richardson films (Baskervilles and Sign of the Four). Not to be mistaken for Richardson as one of the real life inspirations of Holmes in Murder Rooms.

More recently I did enjoy Max Headroom, erm I mean Matt Frewer in adaptions of Hound of the Baskervilles, Sign of the Four and possibly a couple of others.