Best & Worst Sherlock Holmes: Masterpiece Mystery! Sherlock: The Great Game

From Wiki:

Stage

"The actor most associated with Holmes on stage was William Gillette, who wrote, directed, and starred in a popular play about Holmes from 1899 (filmed in 1916), while the stories were still being published. His version of Holmes, dressed in deerstalker hat and Inverness cape and smoking a large curved calabash pipe, contributed much to the popular image of the character. There are occasional hints of the deerstalker hat in Paget's original illustrations for The Strand, but it is by no means a regular accoutrement. Doyle's text is even vaguer, referring only to a travelling cap with earflaps in the passages with the relevant illustrations. He is also described as smoking several different types of pipes, varying them with his mood.

The calabash pipe is associated with Sherlock Holmes only because such a large pipe is easy for spectators at a play to see and because it's easy to hold in the mouth while doing other things. The air chamber in the pipe has a cooling and mellowing effect on the smoke. Holmes preferred harsh and strong tobaccos and would therefore eschew such pipes.

A number of plays, two musicals -- Baker Street, and Sherlock Holmes: The Musical -- and a ballet have been written around Holmes.

Composer Jon Deak wrote a work for solo double bass based on The Hound of the Baskervilles, complete with narration and sound effects to mimic radio plays of the 1920s.[1]"


You can see here that as in Dracula, a stage play had a role in shaping the iconic elements of the story.

 

"Sherlock Holmes ? and by extension his constant companion Dr. Watson ? are the second most frequently filmed fictional characters with almost 200 film appearances to date. Only Count Dracula (239 movies) has beaten this record.

The first known film featuring Holmes is Sherlock Holmes Baffled, a one-reel film running less than a minute, made by the American Mutoscope and Biograph Company in 1900. Many similar films were made in the early years of the twentieth century, most notably the 13 one- and two-reel films produced by the Danish Nordisk Film Company between 1908 and 1911. The only non-lost film is Sherlock Holmes i Bondefangerkløer, produced in 1910. Holmes was originally played by Viggo Larsen. Other actors who played Holmes in those films were Otto Lagoni, Einar Zangenberg, Lauritz Olsen and Alwin Neuss. In 1911 the American Biograph company produced a series of 11 short comedies based on the Holmes character with Mack Sennett (later of Keystone Cops fame) in the title role."

 

"The next significant cycle of Holmes films were produced by the Stoll Films company in Britain. Between 1921 and 1923 they produced a total of 47 two-reelers, all featuring noted West End actor Eille Norwood in the lead with Hubert Willis as Watson."

[image=http://lovecraftismissing.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/11/Norwood-150x150.jpg]

Lost and Found

"This 1922 version starred John Barrymore as Holmes and Roland Young as Dr. Watson. Believed lost for decades, much of the film resurfaced in the mid-1970s and was restored by the George Eastman House. Furthermore, the movie features future MGM star William Powell in his first-ever screen appearance, playing the part of Foreman Wells."

[image=http://img.timeinc.net/time/daily/2009/0902/barrymore_sherlock.jpg]

The irony here is that Powell seems much better casting than Barrymore.

 

"In 1931 Raymond Massey played Sherlock Holmes in his screen debut, The Speckled Band."

[image=http://www.sofacinema.co.uk/guardian/images/products/3/37213-large.jpg]

The problem there is no English accent.

 

What's that one line from Men In Tights? "Unlike some Robin Hoods, I can speak with an English accent."

I guess it applies to Holmes portrayals as well.

 

Massey is tall, thin, slightly stooping, and dark. But he's a Canadian. Other than the accent, good casting.

 

Basil Rathbone as Holmes

[image=http://hrsbstaff.ednet.ns.ca/moronesj/google%20earth%20tutuorial/google.tutorial_files/slide0001_image002.jpg]

"Rathbone's career as Holmes began with The Hound of the Baskervilles and The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, both made by 20th Century Fox and released in 1939 ? the first Holmes films to be set in Victorian, rather than contemporary, times. These were followed by a series of 12 films (and a cameo appearance in the 1943 comedy Crazy House) produced by Universal from 1942 to 1946, set in the present and frequently pitting Holmes against Nazi agents. Although only the first of Rathbone's films was based directly on material by Conan Doyle, e.g. The Spider Woman (1944) was an amalgam of two stories, many fans feel that his portrayal most faithfully captures the Holmes of the original stories, due in part to his resemblance to Sidney Paget's original Strand illustrations. The Adventures also gives Rathbone a chance to show his range ? in one scene he plays a disguised music hall actor, doing a very creditable version of "I Do Like To Be Beside The Seaside"!

As well as his film performances, Rathbone has played Holmes in 219 radio performances, on television and on the stage. One of these, a record of The Red-Headed League, was sampled 19 years after his death to provide the voice of Holmes for the 1986 Disney animated film, The Great Mouse Detective."

 

Rathbone is exceptional. He's always Sherlock Holmes in my mind. Physically, vocally... I'm not so sure he's a total embodiment of Doyle's character (I haven't seen Brett, at any rate), but he certainly embodies the sort of... legend of Sherlock Holmes. A bit like what Connery is to James Bond, I think. Rathbone and Bruce are always a delight to watch.

 

Much like Four Dot put it, I love Rathbone's Holmes the way I love Connery's Bond - noticeably different from the literary counterpart, but equally interesting.

That said, Nigel Bruce is lucky he's already dead.

 

Where the movies are concerned, most people see Rathbone in their mind's eye.

 

Yes, but I just can't get past the utter unfaithfulness to the source material. Jeremy Brett still wins as far as I'm concerned, because the stories were the actual stories and therefore better. Also, I rather hate the way Nigel Bruce turns Watson into pure comic relief; Holmes wouldn't keep Watson around for a second, if he was really that dumb. Watson is supposed to be a solid, likable friend, bright enough in his own way, if nowhere near Holmes' level. Bruce just set the template for Watson as a bumbling idiot, which is a desecration of the character.

 

"Radio
See also: List of BBC Radio Sherlock Holmes Dramatisations

One famous radio appearance starred Orson Welles as Sherlock Holmes in an adaptation of one of William Gillette's plays. This was broadcast in September 1938 as part of the "Mercury Theater on the Air" series on CBS Radio.

Throughout the early 1940s on American Radio, Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce performed as Holmes and Watson, respectively, in several series of canonical and original Sherlock Holmes stories on the The New Adventures of Sherlock Holmes radio show. These broadcasts were loosely based on Doyle's cases. When Rathbone finally departed the role before the 1947 season, Tom Conway played Sherlock Holmes opposite Nigel Bruce for one season. After a change of networks, there were two more pairings: John Stanley as Holmes and Alfred Shirley as Watson in 1947-1948 and John Stanley and Ian Martin in 1948-1949.

John Gielgud played Holmes for BBC radio in the 1950s, with Ralph Richardson as Watson. Gielgud's brother, Val Gielgud, appeared in one of the episodes, perhaps inevitably, as Mycroft Holmes. As this series was co-produced by the American Broadcasting Company, known American actors also appeared, such as Orson Welles as Professor Moriarty in The Adventure of the Final Problem.

Carleton Hobbs portrayed Holmes in a series of BBC radio broadcasts that ran from 1952 to 1969, with Norman Shelley playing Watson. Many of these were broadcast on Children's Hour. Of the many actors who have portrayed Holmes and Watson for the BBC, the Hobbs and Shelley duo is the longest running.

There have been many other radio adaptations (over 750 in English), including a more recent BBC Radio 4 run featuring Clive Merrison as Holmes and Michael Williams as Watson. Together, the two actors completed radio adaptations of every story in the canon between 1989 and 1998. The Further Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, a new series consisting of original stories written exclusively by Bert Coules was then commissioned, but following Williams' death from cancer in 2001, he was replaced by Andrew Sachs. The episodes of The Further Adventures were based on throwaway references in Doyle's short stories and novels. The complete canonical run is available on CD and audio tape. Four of the five original stories transmitted in 2002 are also available on audio cassette and CD, and four of the five original stories transmitted in 2004 are available on CD.

Starting in 1998, U.S. radio producer Jim French was given permission from the Conan Doyle estate to produce new, original Sherlock Holmes stories for radio in North America. These are presented within the Imagination Theater program on radio stations and XM satellite radio. The new stories are also broadcast under the banner The Further Adventures of Sherlock Holmes. John Gilbert played Holmes until 2000, and subsequently by John Patrick Lowrie. Watson is played in all shows by Lawrence Albert. Scripts are by Jim French, M. J. Elliott, Matthew Booth, John Hall, Gareth Tilley, J R Campbell and Lawrence Albert. In 2005, with adaptations written by M. J. Elliott, French and his company began a new series based on Conan Doyle's original tales called "The Classic Adventures of Sherlock Holmes." Many episodes are available on CD as well as downloadable from the Imagination Theater website.

In 2010, Strobie Studios in Riverside, Iowa began releasing new original adventures titled "The Watson Files". The premise: "A hundred years after Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson had their many adventures in London, their grandchildren, Spencer Holmes and Jack Watson, experienced their own adventures. As his grandfather did, Jack Watson often kept notes about these adventures and has decided to share them with the world. These are his stories..." These shows starred Michael Helgens and Greg Kilberger as Spencer and Jack with additional voices provided by Steve Rimpici, Craig Dahlen, Vickie Strosahl and Stacie Frede. New episodes are still being released and are available for free download."


I would love to hear both Welles and Gielgud.

 

The Merrison/Williams ones are just incredible and, as said, they do all the canonical stories, so a lot of fairly obscure ones. The version of The Yellow Face is just jaw droppingly great radio.

 

Where are they available?

 

I got them on CD from my local library a few years back.

 

The Russian Version

 

On PBS: Masterpiece Mystery! Sherlock: The Great Game NEW

Masterpiece Mystery!Episode: Sherlock: The Great Game (NEW)

Sherlock must solve confusing and dangerous puzzles that are laid out for him.


9:00 - 10:30 PM PBS

Benedict C. is a very good Sherlock, though I don't know if he's the best; I will say Martin Freeman is the best Watson I've ever seen.