Movie Versions of Sherlock Holmes

The two recent Sherlock Holmes movies, with Robert Downey, Jr., do not satisfy many Holmes afficiandos. As enjoyable one finds these films, the Holmes persona seems reduced to a few tics, and his genius overshadowed by the special effects. And Guy Ritchie.

When Holmes is boxing, he's hit flush in the face and the image of his face and body absorbing the blow resembles a similar shot of Brad Pitt's Irish gypsy getting plunked in Snatch (2000).

Further, Downey’s Holmes must compete against a few worthy competitors from British television. First and foremost is actor Jeremy Brett’s portrayal from 1984-1996 in (32) episodes: his is the standard by which all other Holmeses are judged. Rightly so.  There’s no parody apparent in any of Brett's Holmes’ foibles: leading Watson on while judging clues, toying with Inspector Lestrade, matched against arch rival Professor Moriority, or his drug use.

So strong is viewer loyalty to Jeremy Brett that any other Holmres to come along cannot even be looked at or given a chance. One such rival has appeared recently in Sherlock (2011-2013), starring Benedict Cumberbatch (Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy & The Hobbit) and Martin Freeman (The Hobbit) as Watson.

While I don’t think Cumberbatch is better than Brett, the new series that takes Holmes into the present day is done more creatively than any previous venture, including the Brett episodes. In fact, this series has the superoir Holmes-Moriority rivalry, if not the best Moriorty, played by Andrew Scott.

He is called ‘Jim’ and often communicates to Holmes by text message, as well as having the propensity to go incognito and show up in unexpected places or having insidious relationships (he dates a woman from the police forensics lab). Also, Rupert Graves plays the most even-handed depiction of Inspector Lestrade that I have seen yet.

The analogue to Jeremy Brett’s televised Holmes is Basil Rathbone’s movie version.  Rathbone became the standard for the role, having acted in 14 movies as Holmes between 1939 and 1946, with Nigel Bruce playing a bumbling, elderly Watson. The first is The Hound of the Baskervilles, which takes place in the 1890s, the same Victorian setting as Conan Doyle’s novels; however, the remaining 13 films are presented in modern times, many of them serving as anti-German propaganda during World War II: Sherlock Holmes and the Voice of Terror and Sherlock Holmes and the Secret Weapon (both in 1942).

Most of the Rathbone series are B productions and often were less than 80 minutes long (Terror by Night, the next-to-last, is only 60 minutes). Rathbone’s characterization of Holmes is shallow because the films rush to create and solve the mystery. We get what I would call the “cliché Holmes": he plays the violin, smokes a curved pipe, frustrates his landlady Mrs. Hudson, and dons the occasional disguise. Only once do I remember a reference to his drug use, a veiled reference, when he suggests to Morarity that being bled out would be an excruciating way to die, and Moriarity responds: “The needle to the last, eh, Holmes?”

He competes against Professor Moriarity in The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, Secret Weapon, and The Woman in Green. Three different actors played Moriarity: George Zucco, Lionel Atwill, and Henry Daniell respectively.

Naturally, Rathbone was typecast as Holmes and the role practically subsumied his great career. He had received two Academy Award nominations for Best Supporting Actor in the 1930s. His best roles, though, may have been in The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938) and The Mark of Zorro (1940), where he displayed great ability at sword play against Errol Flynn and Tyrone Power respectively. Through the 1950s, he appeared primarily on television in shows like Kraft Theater; John Ford used him in The Last Hurrah (1958) and Roger Corman in Tales of Terror (1963).

There wasn’t another movie Holmes until 1959, The Hound of the Baskervilles, with Peter Cushing. Cushing plays the role wonderfully, but like Rathbone, he will become typed as an actor, playing Van Helsing in innumerable Dracula movies. He made these with Christopher Lee, who happens to play Henry Baskerville, the subject of the curse.  This was also the first color film of a Holmes movie, done for Hammer studios, which tried to amplify the horror elements of the plot.

Then came A Study in Terror (1965) with John Neville (The Adventures of Baron Munchausen) as Holmes. What will become a familiar path for Holmes movies, the story is taken not from Arthur Conan Doyle’s stories but from a real life murder mystery from the late Victorian era: Jack the Ripper. It is surprisingly good, and also stars Judi Dench, William Shatner, and Robert Morley (as Holmes stuffy brother, Mycroft).

In 1979, Murder by Decree, takes up the Ripper story with Christopher Plummer in the stalker’s cap, aided by James Mason’s Dr. Watson. This version of the murders traces the Ripper back to the Royal family, one of the favorite recent theories dealing with the case. Holmes is stopped from tracking down and bringing the royal culprit to justice: how would the monarchy survive such a scandal? It also represents the late 1970's suspicion of officials who fix the system to protect the wealthy and powerful.  Interestingly, Inspector Lestrade in both Study in Terror and Murder by Decree is played by Frank Finlay (Iago in 1965's Othello).

Between Sherlock’s investigations of Jack the Ripper, two very different films appeared: The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes (1970) and The Seven-Per-Cent Solution (1976). The latter uses Holmes' addiction to cocaine as the pivotal plot point, but also has Nicol Williamson and Robert Duval (Holmes and Watson) track down Lawrence Olivier (Moriarity). Holmes' addiction is handled when he visits a psychiatrist played by Alan Arkin (Sigmund Freud).

Private Life stars Robert Stephens, then husband of Maggie Smith. With Billy Wilder directing, we get a seriously sardonic look at Holmes, less stringent than Rathbone’s representation of the character, maybe a little melancholic. Christopher Lee turns up as the uptight Mycroft, an agent for the British Home Office, who tries to steer Sherlock from the case, featuring sightings of the Loch Ness monster, which is really a submarine.

Private Life did not find a large audience but has gained substantial critical recognition since. Besides Stephens well-played Holmes, the film critiques the late Victorian Age’s stuffiness and self-satisfaction. The spy-play suggests the deeper machinations of imperialism ready to pull Europe apart in the next decade and signal the end of Britain’s empire.

In fact, my only problem with the Jeremy Brett Holmes series is the deference paid to the British government and monarchy of the 19th century. Holmes’ superb intellectual skills seem to lack the critical capacity to see through the Anglo-Saxonism (social Darwinism) of that time. Not that I want to change the detective into something he’s not. Maybe this is why I prefer the new Sherlock series.  Its lack of deference if not outright hostility to authority is refreshing.  This may be why my two preferred movies are The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes and Murder by Decree.