Period piece thrillers!

[etenguy]

Im a fanatic movie guy and one of my favorite genres is the period piece thriller. My favorites:

From Hell
The Raven (recent one)
Gothic
Crimson Peak
The Other
The Illusionist
Bram Stokers Dracula
Angel Heart

I think these are all mini masterpieces-please let me know your favorites.

Also, I recently saw A Study in Terror and loved it. Whats the best Sherlock Holmes movie?

I wouldn't have chosen From Hell - but that may be a Johnny Depp bias.

For period films, I think the Elephant Man is difficult to beat, though not a thriller. But for TV series, one I really enjoyed was Penny Dreadful (I think that's what is was called) which collected all the grotesques of Victorian Britain into a single show.

You will note a theme of poor memory for titles coming through my posts in this thread.

[Herlock Sholmes]

I will have to watch again - it may be a muddled brain has mis-remembered. There is one scene in a garden/park that will clinch it for me. Good excuse to revisit.

Yeah, that definitely sounds like Mr Holmes with Ian Mckellen.

https://youtu.be/0G1lIBgk4PA

Ring any bells?

[Wickerman]

I wouldn't have chosen From Hell - but that may be a Johnny Depp bias.

Absolutely agree, that had to be one of the worse casting choices in recent memory.

One of the Hughes brothers came on Casebook when they were putting the plot together, I told him at the time, not Johnny Depp for goodness sakes, Abberline didn't wear earings!

[Abby Normal]

hi Abby,

A Study In Terror is a great movie. Others that I’d recommend are:

The Private Life Of Sherlock Holmes - This is a Billy Wilder movie starring Robert Stephens as Holmes. It was originally 3+ hours long but was cut down. You can now get it on Blu-ray with a lot of the bits that were left out. It’s a great film with some great humour in it.

Murder By Decree - Which you’ve probably already seen Abby. It stars Christopher Plummer as Holmes and James Mason as Watson and is a working of the Stephen Knight theory with the names changed. Sir William Gull becomes Sir Thomas Spivey for example. Well worth a watch if you haven’t already.

The Hound Of The Baskervilles - A classic and the best version of the story imo. Starting Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce.

The Hound Of The Baskervilles - I’d also recommend the 1959 Hammer version starring Peter Cushing as Holmes and Andre Morell as Watson. Christopher Lee plays a rather stern Sir Henry Baskerville. It’s in technicolour. I love it.

The Seven Percent Solution - This is worth a watch too imo. It stars Nicol Williamson as a Holmes trying to rid himself of his drug habit. Watson and Mycroft trick him into going to Austria where he thinks he’ll find Professor Moriarty but they just want him to see Sigmund Freud.

One final recommendation to you and anyone that hasn’t seen it Abby is a tv series available on dvd called Murder Rooms: The Dark Beginnings Of Sherlock Holmes. It stars Ian Richardson as Dr Joseph Bell who was Doyle’s inspiration for Holmes. There was a pilot episode then three further ones. Absolutely brilliant. Bell takes the Holmes role whilst Doyle assists him (like Watson.) Dr Neil Cream even makes an appearance in the pilot episode and he ends up killing Doyle’s first girlfriend. Go for it if you haven’t already Abby. Richardson also played Holmes twice and was very good imo.

If you watch any of these and you like them then great. If you don’t like them then someone must have hacked my account to recommend them.

Hs
watched the hammer hound last night. Great flick and I’m adding it to my list. Love those old hammer movies and this was up there with the best IMHO. Thumbs way up.

[Abby Normal]

Absolutely agree, that had to be one of the worse casting choices in recent memory.

One of the Hughes brothers came on Casebook when they were putting the plot together, I told him at the time, not Johnny Depp for goodness sakes, Abberline didn't wear earings!

You guys are nuts. From hell is a mini masterpiece and depps best performance IMHO. I mean cmon guys great flick! Great acting, love the focus on the women, cinematography is amazing, score, Ian holm! And the best part...sad ending lol! And besides depp dies so that should make you happy! ; )

[etenguy]

Yeah, that definitely sounds like Mr Holmes with Ian Mckellen.

https://youtu.be/0G1lIBgk4PA

Ring any bells?

Yes, it's this one.

[etenguy]

You guys are nuts. From hell is a mini masterpiece and depps best performance IMHO. I mean cmon guys great flick! Great acting, love the focus on the women, cinematography is amazing, score, Ian holm! And the best part...sad ending lol! And besides depp dies so that should make you happy! ; )

I don't wish any harm on Johnny Depp - just thought he was not the best casting choice for this film. Didn't think Robbie Coltrane was a good choice either. I have enjoyed both in other roles. But, whoever they chose - I did not enjoy the premise or execution of the film.

[Sam Flynn]

I don't wish any harm on Johnny Depp - just thought he was not the best casting choice for this film. Didn't think Robbie Coltrane was a good choice either.

It might have been better with Coltrane as Abberline, but only if they hadn't written Abberline as a brooding James Dean type with an opium habit.

[Wickerman]

You guys are nuts. From hell is a mini masterpiece and depps best performance IMHO. I mean cmon guys great flick! Great acting, love the focus on the women, cinematography is amazing, score, Ian holm! And the best part...sad ending lol! And besides depp dies so that should make you happy! ; )

Sorry Abby, there's only one human being qualified to portray Abberline on the face of this planet, and that is Michael Cain!
He is Abberline incarnate (trying to restrain my bias here )

[Sam Flynn]

^^^
Yes, Frederick George Abberline, the well-known alcoholic cockney

[Herlock Sholmes]

Hs
watched the hammer hound last night. Great flick and I’m adding it to my list. Love those old hammer movies and this was up there with the best IMHO. Thumbs way up.

Glad you enjoyed it Abby.

[Herlock Sholmes]

Yes, it's this one.

Case solved

[Herlock Sholmes]

^^^
Yes, Frederick George Abberline, the well-known alcoholic cockney

The well known alcoholic, drug using cockney.

Though I do have time for Depp as person after hearing from a tour guide of the money he gave to Great Ormandy Street Hospital after they saved his daughters life (I think)

He does a fair few of these too.

https://youtu.be/UmdDjwNywa8

[Svensson]

Trying to stick up for Depp as an actor; He did cut his teeth with various Tim Burton projects in which he was was very able to deliver Burton's vision of his characters. He does excel in Comedies though where his dry delivery is priceless. His master-piece, without a doubt was Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas where he got Hunt Thompson to a T. However, apart from that he never really managed to properly break out of his pigeon-hole so I would agree that he was mis-cast for his role in From Hell. I would have loved to see someone like the late (an without a doubt Great) Phillip Seymour Hoffman, especially since we heard about his live-long struggles with Opiods. If the Cockney accent would have been an issue for him, then I believe Gary Oldman's would have been quite good

[Sam Flynn]

Whether it was Depp or Oldman, both excellent actors, I think the problem lies in the (writer's? director's?) decision to make Abberline a handsome, dapper young male, when we know that, in 1888, he was a middle-aged, mutton-chop-whiskered man of decidedly average appearance.