WATCHING THE DETECTIVES

This is a sample of one of the slideshows I created for the San Francisco Silent Film

Festival. I used their fonts and created a new

template that was be easier for inserting the

photos and text.

The text and images were provided by each

film’s researcher/author.

WATCHING THE DETECTIVES

American actor William Gillette coined the phrase “elementary, my dear

fellow,” in an 1899 play about Sherlock Holmes. His interpretation created the template for subsequent portrayals

of the character. A 1916 film of Gillette as Holmes is considered lost.

1916’s Sherlock Holmes with William Gillette in the lead (right) confronting archenemy Moriarty (Ernest Maupain), as Billy (Burford Hampden) looks on

WATCHING THE DETECTIVES

Douglas Fairbanks played a drug-addled

detective named Coke Ennyday in The Mystery of the Leaping Fish (1916).

It is a delirious two-reeler sending up Sherlock Holmes’s interest in narcotics.

Douglas Fairbanks (center) as Coke Ennyday, with Tom Wilson (left) and an unidentified actor

in The Mystery of the Leaping Fish 1916

WATCHING THE DETECTIVES

Philo Vance, an upper-class sleuth created

by writer Willard Wright, made his first movie appearance in 1929’s The

Canary Murder Case. William Powell played the detective and

Louise Brooks played the “canary” showgirl.

Louise Brooks as the doomed “canary” in The Canary Murder Case 1929

WATCHING THE DETECTIVES

Raymond Chandler, creator of Philip Marlowe, once praised the creator of

Sam Spade: “[Dashiell] Hammett gave murder back to the kind of people that

commit it for reasons, not just to provide a corpse.”

Left: Humphrey Bogart as Sam Spade with Peter Lorre inThe Maltese Falcon 1941 Right: Bogart as Philip Marlowe with

Dorothy Malone in The Big Sleep 1944

WATCHING THE DETECTIVES

Daffy Duck donned Sherlock Holmes’s deerstalker cap in 1956’s Deduce You

Say, a Looney Tunes parody directed by Chuck Jones. Dorlock Holmes and Porky

Pig as Watkins match wits with the Shropshire Slasher.

Watkins and Dorlock Holmes on the trail of the Shropshire Slasher in Deduce You Say 1956

WATCHING THE DETECTIVES

Jeremy Brett redefined Sherlock Holmes for a

new generation. He appeared in 41 episodes

of a lavish British TV series, which was the

first attempt to adapt Conan Doyle’s original stories faithfully.

Publicity shot of Jeremy Brett in The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes 1984

Buster Keaton: Special Effects WizardBUSTER KEATON: SPECIAL EFFECTS WIZARD

For Sherlock Jr., Buster Keaton and photographer Elgin Lessley improved

the optical effects they had used in The Play House (1921), for which multiple exposures created the illusion of an

orchestra made up entirely of Keatons.

Three Buster Keatons make music in The Play House 1921

WATCHING THE DETECTIVES

Sherlock Jr. Slide Show byRichard Hildreth

WATCHING THE DETECTIVES

Intermission music by The Ragtime Skedaddlers