Sherlock Holmes and the Leading Lady

Am a huge fan of Sherlock Holmes and get a lot of enjoyment out of Arthur Conan Doyle's stories. Also love Basil Rathbone's and especially Jeremy Brett's interpretations to death. So would naturally see any Sherlock Holmes adaptation that comes my way, regardless of its reception.

Furthermore, interest in seeing early films based on Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes stories and wanting to see as many adaptations of any Sherlock Holmes stories as possible sparked my interest in seeing 'Sherlock Holmes and the Leading Lady', especially with such an interesting idea for a story and Christopher Lee makes anything worthwhile.

There are better Sherlock Holmes-related films/adaptations certainly than 'Sherlock Holmes and the Leading Lady', the best of the Jeremy Brett adaptations and films of Basil Rathone fit under this category. It's not one of the worst either, it is better than all the Matt Frewer films (particularly 'The Sign of Four') and also much better than the abominable Peter Cook 'The Hound of the Baskervilles'.

'Sherlock Holmes and the Leading Lady' is pretty decent and is the better Christopher Lee/Patrick MacNee Sherlock Holmes adaptation, the other being 'Incident at Victoria Falls'. The always dependable, even legendary, Christopher Lee, is excellent as Holmes, regardless of any reservations about him being too old. Patrick MacNee is both bumbling and loyal, without being too much of a buffoon or an idiot. The chemistry between them really lifts the proceedings, lots of fun and charm in it.

Generally the cast fare well, didn't think luminous Morgan Fairchild fared that badly or out of place. Actually thought that applied much more to the utterly bizarre turn of Engelbert Humperdinck.

The mystery is intriguing, and much easier to follow than 'Incident at Victoria Falls', and there are a few exciting moments and an ending that is at least comprehensible. There are moments of thought-provoking dialogue. It is very nicely filmed with evocative and handsome production design.

However, some of the pace is long-winded with some aimless stretches. Would have liked more deduction.

The music feels and sounds like it belonged somewhere else entirely, it certainly didn't fit here, while the script tends to be stodgy and banal, with quite a number of howlers.

All in all, decent. 6/10 Bethany Cox

Some readers seem to think Morgan Fairchild was wrong as Irene Adler ( Norton) but I think she was just right. Irene is an American and she is supposed to be a looker and a flamboyant actress. Morgan has those qualities in spades. Despite age differences ( which may have existed in the original story too), I think Lee and Fairchild have a chemistry. The rest of the plot was also not bad. MacNee is a little too goofy as Watson. I prefer the more dignified portrayals of John Mills, David Burke, Edward Hardwicke and even Colin Blakely. MacNee is too much in the Nigel Bruce mold. I wish that more "Golden Years" stories about Holmes had been made. As it is we must content ourselves with this one and "Victoria Falls". The mix of real characters with the fictional was very "Ragtime". Lee was outstanding as Holmes

In their very late 60s, Christopher Lee and Patrick McNee made a couple made for TV Sherlock Holmes stories. Each was about 3 hours and both were stories not written by Arthur Conan Doyle. Instead, they are supposed to be stories of cases which occurred later in life...presumably after Watson stopped chronicling his adventures.

Of the two, "Sherlock Holmes and the Leading Lady" is actually based in part on one of the Conan Doyle stories. It brings back Irene Adler from "A Scandal in Bohemia" and she is the only woman that ever impressed Holmes...and he referred to her as THE woman in later tales...and with great admiration.

When the story begins, an Austrian inventor is going to sell his remote control detonating device to the British government. But some enemy agents steal the blueprints and soon the creator himself is found dead. Holmes and Watson are called in to try to locate the blueprints and capture the murderers.

Despite Irene Adler leaving Holmes a letter saying she was leaving Europe never to return in the original story, it seems her husband has died and she has returned to the stage to sing opera. She is happy to see Holmes and seems to see the possibility of romance. The asexual Holmes, while happy to see her, has no such notions and sees her as a way to get one step closer to the killer. What's next? See the film.

I think some Conan Doyle purists might enjoy seeing Ms. Adler again, as "The Scandal in Bohemia" is one of his best and most memorable stories....and a great character. Unfortunately, Morgan Fairchild is not a great choice, as it's VERY obvious she is not actually singing but very poorly lip synching. I don't know how much is her blame or the directors...but the first number she sings is pretty bad...with her mouth not exactly following the lyrics and her body not moving as if she is singing. She also is way too young for the part considering it is supposed to occur many years after the first story.

So is the film any good apart from this? It's decent...but like the next Holmes made for TV movie, "Incident at Victoria Falls", it's way overlong and the pacing is at times glacial. Shaving an hour or so off the film might have helped. Still, it think for many it's still well worth seeing...even if no one will apparently ever equal the quality and accuracy of the Jeremy Brett Sherlock Holmes stories made for Grenada TV.

In 1991 and 1992, 2 long Sherlock Holmes pastiches appeared as TV miniseries. With Christopher Lee as Holmes and Patrick Macnee as Watson, we should have very high expectations of these presentations. For the most part, these were fulfilled to a large extent. Both men were associated with other Sherlockian endeavors. Lee had earlier (1970) played Sherlock's brother Mycroft ("The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes") and (1962) Sherlock ("Sherlock Holmes and the Deadly Necklace") ... and played Henry Baskerville opposite the late Peter Cushing as Holmes in Hammer Studio's fine "Hound of the Baskervilles" in 1959..

(Cushing in turn played Holmes also in 1984's Masks of Death and in a UK TV series in 1965-68.) Macnee had previously played Watson in 1976 ("Sherlock Holmes in New York") and went on to play Holmes himself in a 1993 TV movie ("The Hound of London").

What is amazing here is how few times these men have played Sherlockian rôles. Lee gave some of the best portrayals of the Great Detective committed to film – on a par with Rathbone although not so fine as Brett. Macnee was a fine, assertive Watson – much less wimpy than the rôle handed to Nigel Bruce and very much the equal of Edward Hardwicke. We may be grateful that Lee didn't affect the unSherlockian deerstalker. (And Cushing, again, is really incisive as Holmes.) The "Leading Lady" of the title is none other than The Woman, Irene Adler. Here the film stumbles. First of all, the rôle is given to Morgan Fairchild – not exactly a bad choice, but not entirely a felicitous one, either. Although Fairchild pretty much walks the walk and talks the talk, in the end it's simply not possible to believe that Sherlock would ever have called her "The Woman". More than this, the film's producers obviously have no idea that in the early 1890s (the film takes place in 1910), Sherlock spent some months in Montenegro, during which time he lived with Adler and fathered on her a son – the later great reclusive detective Nero Wolfe (please note the "er-o" of Sherlock and the "ol-e" of Holmes). We see no sign of this aspect of their relationship.

The film takes place in and around Wien (Vienna) – after an introduction in London. The plot involves a device developed by an Austrian scientist – one that will explode bombs remotely. He has both a prototype and the plans. Of course, everybody is after this new toy: the Austro-Hungarian government, the Russians, the Germans, and some Serbian terrorists who want to blow up Emperor Franz-Josef. Obviously the latter bunch don't succeed (old FJ died in his bed in 1916), but in retrospect it's too bad they didn't.

The inventor rather stupidly imagines that the British can be trusted not to make improper use of his creation and offers it to them. Holmes and Watson travel to Wien to collect the detonator. The remainder of the film (almost 3 hours total) involves disguises, double dealing, racing and chasing, and a good deal of confusion. In the process the prototype and the plans become separated. The film's director keeps things moving and keeps Holmes guessing. The various characters are colorful and, for the most part, effectively portrayed. The Emperor, alas, is portrayed as far too affable, whereas the man was stiff, formal, and distant.

The only member of the cast who is well known, aside from those already mentioned, is Engelbert Humperdinck – not the excellent 19th-Century composer, but the rather less excellent stage performer (the connection being that the latter took the former's name as a stage name). Humperdinck invests his character (Eberhard Böhm) with a fine Old World feeling and fits in well with the general high tenor of the cast.

Probably the best joke in the film is the appearance of Elliot Ness, on his first post-training assignment for what would later become the FBI. The best part of the joke is that Ness was born in 1903 and would then have been 7 years old. Somebody (a) didn't do his/her homework or (b) is pulling our legs rather vigorously.

On the whole, while this film can't be regarded as an absolutely top-notch Holmes pastiche – certainly not the quality of "Private Life" or "Seven Per-Cent Solution" – it's entertaining and worth watching. Don't be put off by the occasional banality of the script. On more than one occasion I found myself saying the utterly predictable next line before the character who was supposed to say it. To the film's credit, not once to I recall Holmes saying that "the game is afoot". Lee was, however, saddled with the occasional "elementary".

Sherlock Holmes and the Leading Lady was an enjoyable movie, and I thought it was well made. I haven't seen many Sherlock Holmes productions and I'm not really familiar with the specifics of the original stories or the history of the character, so I can't say how well this movie stands up as a Sherlock Holmes production. However, considered by itself as an individual movie it's definitely worth viewing.

I'm not generally a fan of movies produced for television, but Sherlock Holmes and the Leading Lady didn't suffer from the problems common to most TV productions. Sets and costumes were numerous and elaborate, and the sound was full, unlike many TV productions with flat sound that is clearly from a set. The plot was well laid out and easily followed, unlike the second production in this series (Incident at Victoria Falls), which I think is a bit convoluted and confusing. One small warning-- this movie was apparently originally broadcast in segments as a small mini-series, and the total run-time is about 3 hours. You'll need to set aside some time if you plan to watch it all in one go.

Patrick Macnee was fun as Watson, and Christopher Lee plays a convincing Holmes. Morgan Fairchild seemed to be a good fit as the Leading Lady, though there were a couple singing scenes with poor lip-syncing, which might be partially her fault but could also be attributed to the editor and director. The cast is quite large for a television production, with lots of secondary and minor characters, and good performances throughout the movie.

Overall, Sherlock Holmes and the Leading Lady is a nice period piece and I enjoyed watching it.