I’ve been a fan of Sherlock Holmes since I was a kid. Like most kids in the early sixties I got my first exposure through the movies/TV. Specifically, from seeing Hammer Films’ version of The Hound of the Baskervilles featuring the late great Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee. That would have been on an old Black and White TV one winter afternoon in 1963. I was hooked.
Later on I would become acquainted with Basil Rathbone’s classic portrayal and later still Jeremy Bretts’ masterful rendition. My love affair with the character even embraces Benedict Cumberbatch’s tech driven, contemporary re-boot.
Naturally along this path I began to read the stories themselves, beginning with The Adventure of the Speckled Band. I was hooked twice over. So smitten was I that I even tried to apply Sherlockian deduction irl. With, need I say, mixed results.
My infatuation was so pronounced that one Christmas I received an LP stage recording of the Broadway musical Baker Street. Holmes, Watson and Professor Moriarty, all singing, all dancing. Judging by the musical numbers it must have been a pretty good show.
So as you might imagine, I considered myself pretty well schooled on things Holmesian.
One the advantages of being an aging fanboy geek in the epoch of the internet is that you can easily discover all the things you didn’t know and, thanks to Youtube, et al, see the things you might never have seen. Things that would have otherwise remained obscure, tantalizing references in musty fan publications.
For example. Did you know that the first appearance of Sherlock Holmes on US television was in 1949?
That’s right. Holmes made his debut in the pioneer days of TV in an adaptation of The Adventure of the Speckled Band on the anthology series Your Show Time. This back when it was still conceivable to produce an effective and satisfying drama in just under 30 minutes.
I won’t try to gull you by claiming it’s a lost masterpiece. It isn’t but it does have certain pleasures for any boomer film and TV buff. Chiefly that Holmes is portrayed by Alan Napier, familiar to generations of TV watchers as Alfred the Butler in the mid 60’s Batman series. There are apparently unintended moments of hilarity that would later become known as camp. Particularly when Napier lights up a calabash pipe the size of an ear trumpet. That aside, the production was pretty pedestrian, with Napier making for an austere and humorless Holmes saddle with a Watson who is a direct knock off of Nigel Bruce’s bumbling pantomime with none of the goofy charm.
Still the show has value as a cultural artifact. Its sponsor was Lucky Strike cigarettes and sharp eyed followers of the AMC series Mad Men, set in the early 60’s, will discover that the plot point of Don Draper coming up with the “It’s Toasted” slogan is an anachronism, since it was being used at the time this program was filmed. Likewise the program’s Host/Narrator, Hollywood stalwart Arthur Shields, whose career spanned highlights such as How Green Was My Valley and The Quiet Man to B films like Daughter of Doctor Jekyll, appears to smoke constantly while onscreen. I say appears because if one looks closely, he seems to be puffing rather than inhaling. This suggests that he was fulfilling a contractual obligation rather than indulging a personal vice.
Of far more value as entertainment is the second appearance of Holmes on US TV in 1954 in the syndicated series Sherlock Holmes produced by American Producer Sheldon Reynolds but filmed in France. This produced some amusing results as supporting roles were often filled by french actors who struggled to affect British accents. In an interesting departure, the series is set in the early days of Holmes’ career and presents him as a younger and more conventional man than in other portrayals. It certainly doesn’t hurt that Sherlock is played by Ronald Howard, son of the great British actor and fallen ant-fascist Leslie Howard. He makes for a rather winning, if not strictly canonical, Holmes
While it maintains a humorous relationship between Holmes and Watson, the series discards the buffoonish caricature of the latter in favor of a bluff, regular fellow interpretation that emphasizes his role as a man of action. It has rather high production values for television at that time and makes use of creative camera work to heighten atmosphere. It also has a fair ration of corn but as it’s British corn, it goes down with greater ease than it might have otherwise.
Another attraction are early appearances by actors at the beginning of their careers, such as Michael Gough, who, in an odd coincidence, later became well known for playing Alfred the Butler in the Batman films spawned by Tim Burton. Also for appearing as Arthur Holmwood in Hammer Films’ Horror of Dracula.
All in all, good fun for a minimum investment of time. Once again the episodes run for less than 30 minutes a piece.
As you may have gathered, I’m a long time film fan who cut his teeth on Universal horror films and publications like Famous Monsters of Filmland. I was a fan before being a fan was cool. I hope you enjoyed this little archeological excursion into the past as much as I’ve enjoyed bringing it to you.