Directed by Billy Wilder
Written by Billy Wilder and I.A.L. Diamond based on characters created by Arthur Conan Doyle
1970/US
IMDb page
First viewing/Amazon Prime rental
Holmes: Criminals are as unpredictable as head colds. You never know when you’re going to catch one.
This movie doesn’t quite have that prime Wilder zing but it is entertaining.
The story is set in Victorian England and Scotland. As the movie begins, we learn that it will concern cases solved by Sherlock Holmes (Robert Stephens) that have been sealed for 50 years and were never published by Dr. Watson (Colin Blakely). We then segue into flashback for almost the whole film. We learn of Holmes’s cocaine addiction.
The first story, which I wouldn’t call a mystery, concerns a Russian ballerina who wants Holmes to father her child. The second involves the case of Gabrielle Valladon (Genevieve Page). She is saved from drowning and taken to 221B Baker Street by a cabbie. At first, she seems to be suffering from total amnesia.
But Holmes’s deductions begin to establish her identify and awaken her memories. She is searching for her missing husband, a mining engineer. The investigation takes Holmes, Gabrielle, and Watson to Scotland where Watson spots the Loch Ness monster. With Christopher Lee as Mycroft Holmes.
This movie had been intended as a big-budget road show production complete with intermission. Financial problems at the studio scaled the project back to a standard release time and subjected the finished film to over an hour of cuts. So it’s understandable that some of Wilder’s finesse might have ended up on the cutting room floor. Then again a Victorian period piece doesn’t quite fit in with Wilder’s wise-guy urban style. I must say the movie kept my interest throughout and presents a different more vulnerable Holmes than previous adaptations.
I think this is a much better film than you give credit for. Yes a little odd for a Billy Wilder film as was his underrated “The Spirit of St. Louis” (1958), but it’s still a film by a master. The humor and slightly twisted romance is there plus a rare lyricism for Wilder, with the great addition Miklos Rozsa’s fine score. This was a very personal film for Wilder but was terribly cut by the studio. It must have been quite a blow for him. Someday someone find the missing footage and will be recognized as the masterpiece it is. This is also a personal film for me-i love it!
I might have waited too long to see it. Sherlock Holmes falls in love! That was the most interesting part for me. Robert Stephens did that so subtly and well.
I think it’s just a wonderful film even in its cut version. Colin Blakely is a delightful Watson and who wouldn’t fall in love with the beautiful Genevieve Page. I’m ordering the blu ray today!