The Sherlock Holmes Collection (2003)

Lord Peter Wimsy is afoot!

I had thought that, in the wake of Jeremy Brett's brilliant performances as the Dedeucer of Baker Street, nobody would have the cheek to do Holmes again for at least a decade. I had hadn't taken into consideration the quirky Matt Frewer. Fans of Max Headroom will remember him, of course, as will those who've seen his riveting performance as the "Trashcan Man" in "The Stand". He's done the voice of Lord Panic in various Disney productions involving Hercules, and has had roles in a number of off-beat films (including an appropriately deranged Jobe in Lawnmower Man 2).

Probably the only way to succeed in Brett's wake, I suppose, is to do things he didn't. The current collection of 90-minute TV films, produced during 2001-2003, is an interesting demonstration of various ways of doing just that. Interesting, but not necessarily satisfying.

It's part of being literate in the English-speaking world, it seems to me, that one knows Shakespeare, Whitman, and Frost, and is at least acquainted with Doyle, Hopkins (Gerard, not Anthony), and Millay. I therefore put the reader on notice that I'm not going to go over things they ought to know already, particularly plots. That said, we're going to have a few general remarks, a review of the contents, and some final general remarks.

It should be noted that this 4-film collection is the victim of some of the worst packaging I've ever seen. There is no hint on the box nor on the discs as to whom we should expect to see on the screen. The dates of the productions are given only on the discs, and in such small print that even young eyes will likely need reading glasses to pick them out. The picture on the box has something to do with the contents, but that isn't immediately apparent. The DVDs themselves are a bit of a mess, but we'll get into that later.

Matt Frewer's performance will be a sticking point for a good many viewers, although he certainly looks like Holmes. But in performance there are times when it's difficult to tell whether he's doing Holmes or Peter Wimsey. He comes across as a supercilious dilettante, especially in the first-filmed of the 4 stories in this collection. Hindsight tells me that we should have been prepared for this after Brett. One of his greatest strengths is the almost unpredictable quirkiness of his performances. There's no doubt that Doyle meant Holmes to be a certifiable eccentric, and Brett showed us how. Frewer goes further, giving us a Holmes as batty (and as cunning) as Wimsy (or perhaps the Mad Hatter). Give it a little time; it'll grow on you.

Nowadays it's de rigeur to observe in reviews that non-English actors have lousy English accents - as some reviewers on other sites have done regarding Frewer. Piffle. This is usually merely a case of the reviewer wanting something to say and picking an easy target. In point of fact, there are many more English accents than there are American accents (even if one counts Canada). The "bad accent" remark probably has its origin in the believe that "English accent" is something only BBC presenters have.

In terms of the rest of the cast, they range from adequate to quite good. In the latter category is Kenneth Welsh as John Watson. He plays the role steadfastly and with good humor, and is one of the best Watsons on film. Michael Perron appears in 2 of the films as Scotland Yard's Athelney Jones. He certainly looks the part, and plays it with broad enthusiasm ... would that he was given the role of Doyle's Jones instead of some comic strip caricature who goes to hugely unreasonable lengths to ignore and denigrate Homes. The "real" Jones' half-hearted hostility would have been enough.

There are 4 titles in this collection: "The Hound of the Baskervilles", "The Sign of Four", "The Royal Scandal", and "The Whitechapel Vampire": 2 botched reproductions, 1 awkward mixture, and 1 pastiche of whole cloth. Considered only as pieces of theater, and if one doesn't accept the inherent superiority of the Doyle canon as written, these 4 efforts aren't all that bad, and are entertaining enough. (Of course, I got this set for only $7 or $8, so I can afford to be tolerant.)

The first film is The Hound of the Baskervilles. It starts out well enough, and adheres reasonably to the original. No Sherlock Holmes goes whole into the film can, but for quite a while here it appears that no major plot disaster is going to occur. About the worst case is that little details tend to disappear - after all, they only have 90 minutes. But eventually it all goes to pot. When Watson ventures out on the moor, he doesn't find Holmes in his secret lair. There is later no dinner at the Stapleton's house, and Stapleton's wife-"sister" never gets thrust into a locked room - we get as far on former line as a gathering outside the house. The hound then appears and attacks Henry Baskerville, at which Holmes dashes in but fails to get off a shot in the confusion. Stapleton runs off into the moor, chased by the hound, and they get sucked into the quicksand together. Not a very impressive hound, that. It has plenty of panache, but as to dimensions it's really just an ordinary German shepherd. Needless to say, Doyle's development and climax are much better. So are the Brett and Rathbone versions.

The second is The Sign of Four. This, too, has a promising start and runs reasonably true to the original until action begins at the waterfront. By this time we have of course already recognized that the "Athelney Jones" in this operation isn't anyone Doyle would recognize, but on the whole the development of things thus far is OK. When the action reaches the docks and Toby and the Irregulars have found what they were supposed to find, the plot disintegrates into cheap melodrama. There is no thrilling boat chase down the Thames; instead we get a much less satisfying sword fight between Holmes and Small, with Tonga puffing darts about - for which Holmes has gotten chemists at Scotland Yard to cook up an antidote (the Yard must have gotten some 21st-Century men to put on that one). And in the end, when Doyle is licking his not inconsiderable wounds, he receives a massive stab to the back: Mary Morstan - instead of marrying Watson - goes off with the surviving Sholto brother!

Fear not, it gets worse.

The third film is The Royal Scandal, which is actually a melding of "A Scandal in Bohemia" and "The Bruce Partington Plans" which does no particular favor to either. While some elements of the original plots remain, the resulting mish-mash converts 2 classically designed stories into an overly elaborated pastiche. Irene Adler, whom Holmes forever after referred to as "The Woman", becomes in this version a high-class blackmailer. In the film - not the original - he admires her because she had bested him on an other occasion (involving a sizeable theft). The photograph in question, instead of a relatively innocent formal photo of the King of Bohemia and Irene Adler, is made into a clandestine snapshot of a far more scandalous nature. Holmes is determined to obtain this for his client, now the Crown Prince of Germany, while his brother Mycroft wants to get it for his own purposes.

Holmes does his bit with the preacher disguise at Ms. Adler's house, in the end to no avail. As if Ms. Adler's character were not already sufficiently besmirched, her picture and negative found their way into the possession of Mycroft, who sees to it that the Germans receive copies that merely look like the originals - so, unlike "The King of Bohemia", she is unable to make the noble gesture of revealing her own marriage and promising never to use the photo. We may, I suppose, enjoy the joke on the Germans, inasmuch as the Crown Prince is presumably the future Wilhelm II (and is played that way), who is at the very least a right arrogant b*tch. And Holmes' name gets a bit of blackening by the fact that the film shows him stealing a photo of Irene Adler from her home, rather (as in the story) receiving it from the hands of the King of Bohemia as a reward.

We have now reached the nadir of these productions. Any producer who can trash the good name of Irene Adler and even throw a little soot Holmes' way has certainly got the Tabloid Touch. And it was a clumsy job, with muddled motivations and rampant silliness all around.

We now come to an unexpected little gem: The Whitechapel Vampire. This is very slightly related to a 1924 Doyle story, "The Sussex Vampire" and it has an even slighter connection to "The Last Vampyre". But in fact it's a pure pastiche. And it's not a bad one at all.

The plot concerns a co-ed Anglican hermitage in the post-Ripper (1892) Whitechapel district. The story, which Conan Doyle didn't write, contains elements which he would probably never have included. Although Doyle was, late in life, connected with all sorts of superstitious nonsense such as s�ances and other modes of communicating with dead people - who are, by definition, not communicative - in his Holmes stories, he (through Holmes) insisted in uncompromising rationality. This Whitechapel story, however, has more the feel of an X-File.

The monastery in question is located in an area populated by a good number of bats, including a "vampire" variety. Studying these bats is a Doctor Chagas, on whom the director tries (and fails) to cast suspicion of guilt. Members of the monastery are being killed by someone claiming to be a "demon" called "Desmodo", who leaves behind "vampire" puncture wounds in their necks. It's immediately apparent to Holmes that there is no mark left by a lower mandible, which is suspicious.

The story is full of effective creepiness, supported by an atmospheric musical score. Holmes investigates in the sure and certain confidence that the culprit is a human being - which, of course, it is. His investigations are impeded by Inspector Athelney-Jones, but of course a cardboard character can't be much more than a nuisance.

The subtext of the mystery is of course superstition. Indeed, a "mystery" was originally a superstition so outrageous nobody even bothers to contrive an explanation. In this case, Holmes must realize that members of a religious order, having already bought into any number of superstitions, would find it easy to buy into another set of them - such as those surrounding so-called "vampires". Of course nowadays there are people who have bought into this sort of silliness to the extent that they imagine they are vampires themselves - without of course being too careful about definitions.

The producers of this film don't do the viewer any favor by introducing a few touches of the "miraculous" into the story, thus muddying the otherwise straightforward confrontation of superstition and rationality. The most overt of these involves a cross carried by one of the nuns. Attacked by a person she believes to be a vampire, she pulls it out in defense. It repels the attacker in a flash of light or perhaps static. This hokey device stems from Bram Stoker's enhancement of folklore regarding vampires and crucifixes. That would be less stupid if the attacker had been a real vampire, but he was just a guy in getup. In any event, this and other strange bits don't faze Holmes: he knows that the technical term for "miracle" is "coincidence".

In the end, reason triumphs over superstition: the Whitechapel "vampire" is unmasked by Holmes and arrested by Jones. The investigation leading up to this is engrossing and interesting, and the guilty party is believably motivated. At least we get no more nonsense with flashing crosses.

As a general observation, production ... or, rather reproduction ... values vary considerably. At times the picture is clear and has good color. At other times it goes all pale and grainy. Not just a little, but a lot. The sound has some variability to it as well. Considering the shoddiness of the packaging, this all fails to be surprising, but it sure is irritating.

On the whole, this is fairly entertaining and worth a small price. Frewer's take on Holmes grew on me as time went on. Welsh's Dr. Watson is admirable and rock-solid. Many other, smaller roles are well-played. This is well worth watching, especially as against dismally stupid "reality" shows and bloodily predictable copy shows.
March 4, 2007

A Great Collection of Sherlock Stories

These four great stories of Holmes and Dr. Watson are some of the best. The one that is closest to the book is The Hound of The Baskervilles. The Sign of the Four is not the same as the book, and The Royal Scandal is a combination of A Scandal in Bohemia and The Bruce Pelllington Plans. Even though they are not that close to the original stories, I really enjoyed these films and would recommend them. July 5, 2006

NEAT ITEM!

Super seller who delivers a quality product in record time. Many thanks! AAAA++++ July 4, 2005

Great, funny, and all out Holmes ! ! ! ! !

Matt Frewer is a great addition to the line of actors who have played this iconic sleuth. He and Mr. Welsh are very entertaining in their portrayals of Holmes and Watson. And had it not been for this line of tv movies, I might not have ever been tempted to make more of my passing interest in Sherlock Holmes, picked up a novel, and poured through it. It is more than a year later and I have since read every novella and all four novels in the "canon."

Plus have gone on to read Nicholas Meyer's take on Holmes in his three novels, am currently reading The Exploits of Sherlock Holmes, co-written by Conan Doyle's kin. And have also seen many of Jeremy Brett's appearences in the hour length dramas based closer to Doyle's works.

All in all this brings to life a way for the whole family to enjoy the legend of Sherlock Holmes, and has brought it to a multigenerational exceptance, much like Smallville did for another great hero, Superman... November 3, 2004

A fun take on the Sherlock Holmes stories

Purists who study Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's work will no doubt be dismayed by these four films, and Matt Frewer's portrayal of the world's greatest detective will probably have them running off screaming into the night, but to the average joe these are fun films to watch and serve as a good introduction for young people into the fascinating world of Sherlock Holmes. Frewer's more comedic, eccentric Holmes can be distracting at times, but it eventually grew on me, and his performance does improve as the series goes on. Kenneth Welsh fills the shoes of Doctor Watson quite comfortably and always turns in a solid performance. The production values are always first rate in these films, making them a joy to look at. The best story of the bunch is probably "The Sign of Four", which draws to an action-packed climax. My only complaint of this collection is that "The Royal Scandal" is broken up on discs one and two. I don't understand why the company just didn't put the entire movie on the second disc instead of breaking up the story the way they did. All in all, a small complaint. August 30, 2004

More reviews at Amazon.com ...