Posted on 03/07/2018 11:53:04 AM PST by mairdie
I got hooked on Holmes with the 1954 Ronald Howard series and the 4pm Basil Rathbone movies. Read canon obsessively. Loved the intensity that Jeremy Brett brought to the show. So many actors made so many great interpretations.
I once thought that Basil Rathbone was the ultimate Holmes, but Jeremy Brett won me over. Plus, the Brett series was far truer to the original stories, sometimes word for word. Too bad his health was failing after the second season.
It is unfortunate that Paul Simon has retired. He is truly as worthy as Bob Dylan for the Nobel. JMHO.
It still breaks my heart to see how Brett changed over the whole series. I vaguely remember reading that he hadn’t originally wanted to play the character because he got so deep into the psyche of his character that he thought Holmes a bit too crazy for Brett’s own mental health. I LOVED it when Brett quoted canon. Wish they’d done more of the stories.
I fear I’m an old fuddy duddy. I love the early work of both men. I picked up Dylan’s Christmas album and blanched. But I could listen to those early albums over and over again.
Jeremy Brett was my absolute favorite. The show was true to the time period, too. I have BritBox on Amazon Prime and go back and watch every episode periodically.
H Marion Crawford is still the best Watson ever. “One-punch” Watson.
The new series with Benedict Cumberbatch (a lefty wackjob) is pretty good. Has the basis of Sherlock, Watson, and others applied to current day.
No TV/movie adaption comes close to reading the original stories. The wit, the irony, the sarcasm woven into the writings of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle cannot be approached by the film format. Why waste your time (a limited commodity, all things considered) with second-hand attempts?
Because there is an excitement to seeing the interpretation someone else makes of the images that we create in our own head. We applaud or castigate them, but it makes us think about our own creativity.
I ADORE canon. One of the expensive books I bought when I could just barely afford it was the Annotated SH. The writing is brilliant and incredibly difficult to imitate. I’ve only seen one or two fan writers who can capture Doyle’s voice.
And there’s an inherent difference in the way people process information. For some, reading is best. For some, listening. And, for others, the visual excites. You obviously lean toward reading. I find reading/viewing about equal and keep falling asleep to listening.
I was very disappointed in Tom Baker’s Holmes. But he is still The Doctor.
I don’t know about Tom Baker’s Holmes. When? Where?
OK, that's where we differ. It is exactly the fact that the images I make for myself when reading are generally not reflected adequately in the movie adaptions that I do not like (How dare they make it different from what I imagined! LOL)...
But I agree with you on Conan Doyle - The Complete Sherlock Holmes would be one of my top5 desert island choices...even though by now I've probably memorized it all ;)
I was still in grammar school when I started reading Holmes. Mother adored it and always encouraged it as good reading material for me. It’s stayed as one of my top books and I’d let a lot of my library go before I’d give up my Holmes shelf.
My favorite line, from The Three Garridebs after the suspect shot Watson and Watson says it’s a mere scratch: “”You are right,” he cried with an immense sigh of relief. “It is quite superficial.” His face set like flint as he glared at our prisoner, who was sitting up with a dazed face. “By the Lord, it is as well for you. If you had killed Watson, you would not have got out of this room alive.”
That’s my Holmes and Watson! And you’re right. They never put that on the screen the way I imagine it.
"Speaking of my old friend and biographer, I would take this opportunity to remark that if I burden myself with a companion in my various little inquiries it is not done out of sentiment or caprice, but it is that Watson has some remarkable characteristics of his own to which in his modesty he has given small attention amid his exaggerated estimates of my own performances. A confederate who foresees your conclusions and course of action is always dangerous, but one to whom each development comes as a perpetual surprise, and to whom the future is always a closed book, is indeed an ideal helpmate." - The Adventure of the Blanched Soldier
BOOM! That introductory part of the story (the introductions are always the best parts, IMO) will never cease to make me laugh out loud. Holmes in a nutshell.
I just plain love them both. What glorious characters. I went to a Baker Street group meeting once in White Plains where they had a canon quiz. The members were AMAZING at being able to quote chapter and verse. LOVED IT! And such exceptionally NICE people!
The David Hardwicke and early Edward Burke episodes are the best of the Jeremy Brett turns as Holmes. And probably the best episodes of any other series or movies ever made.
But I thought the series with Douglas Wilmer and Nigel Stock in the mid-60’s was uniformly excellent. The Speckled Band, Charles Augustus Milverton, The Ilustrious Client, and The Disappearance of Lady Francis Carfox are stories I return to again and again. And that is not even half a truly fine run of episodes.
I liked Peter Cushing as Holmes as well when he picked up where Wilmer left off. But the production and writing overall took a hit, despite being recorded in color, and the surviving episodes from that series are comparitively disappointing. The standout from that series is The Blue Carbuncle, which I’d put up against Brett’s, as great as it is.
If you’re like me and enjoy watching how others portray Holmes, there is a series out of the old Soviet Union made in the late 70’s through early 80’s that I am sure spurred Granada to do their series with Brett. Uneven but always entertaining, it suffers from dark and muddy film prints that suffered in their translation to video. The Adventure of the Empty House is probably the best of that series.
>>series out of the old Soviet Union
Can you give me any more hints that would let me track it down. I love Holmes in every variation (except the female Watson show) and would love to see what they did with it.
Thanks for the very interesting analysis.
Vasily Livanov played Holmes in the Lenfilm series The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Watson. I picked up my set (Region 1 with English subtitles) through Amazon. The series has 11 episodes. The music is well done and the fanfare to the series memorable.
Queen Elizabeth II reportedly loved the series when she saw it. Eventually, statues of the actors in their roles were placed at the British Embassy in Moscow and Livanov received an award from the UK for his portrayal of Holmes in 2006. (From Wikipedia)
I’m having trouble finding the series on Amazon. I’m finding movies, not an 11 episode series. Would you possibly have a link? I’m definitely interested in getting it.
Mary
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