An Opinion on Film and Television Adaptations from 1900 to Today An Independent Study by Tara Allen W 2014

A Study in Sherlock Holmes Adaptations

For my indepedent study this term I looked at film and television adapations of the Sherlock Holmes stories by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. I was curious to see how the sto-ries were adapted based on factors such as the time they were produced in, who produced them, and the actors who played Holmes, which all in turn affect how faithful or unfaithful the final product is to the original canon.

I watched 18 different adaptations and some were undoubt-edly better than others. It is difficult when comparing these adaptations to say that one is better than another because they may be better for different reasons, have different positive qualities; one adaptation may have something that another one lacks entirely and vise versa. With that said, that is what I attempt to do with this book. This book ranks the adaptations I watched from my least to most favorite. This ranking system is loosly based on an adaptation’s faithful-ness to the canon, the time period they were produced, and the overall apperance and presentation of Holmes himself. I recognize that I am attracted to certain qualities in Holmes adaptations and just because I do not particularly like an adaptation does not mean that another Sherlockian will feel the same.

This series is undoubted my least favorite of all. Not only was the series cheaply done but it was also quickly produced and it showed. Howard’s Holmes was all wrong; he was nice, funny, joked, and laughed. This however was what the director was going for as he wanted to present Holmes in this way with the idea that he would be less serious and stern as the preceding adaptations. Apart from Holmes himself, all of the episodes were original stories that often times didn’t quite make sense or have any depth to them, they were not your average Holmes cases. The only redeeming quality about Howard was that he was in his early thirties, the proper age of Holmes when he starts his career.

Ronald Howard Series1954

Ronald Howard as Holmes and Howard Marion Crawford as Watson. Image from ilverinahaystack.files.wordpress.com

Elementary2011-2014

Lucy Liu and Jonny Lee Miller as Joan Wat-son and Holmes. Image from nytimes.com

This series was the least Sherlock Holmes-like adaptation of all. I did not like it for the following reasons: Watson was a woman named Joan, Holmes burns his violin, it is set in New York, Holmes shows way too much over the top emotion and is vengeful, Moriarty is not only a woman but also Irene Adler, and finally because no stories from the canon were adapted into the episodes. This adaptation was too far removed from Conan Doyle’s original stories and clear-ly attempted to recreate their own character while still using the name Sherlock Holmes.

The Seven-Per-Cent Solution 1975

Robert Duvall and Nicol Williams as Watson and Holmes. Image from wired.com

This film was one of my least favorites mostly because during the en-tire film I was not sure whether was supposed to be serious or funny. The producers were clearly highlighting some of Holmes’s less admi-rable qualities like his drug addiction and his need to always be clever and right. However, they did these two things in a way that were completely unserious and adding Freud’s character into the mix only added to the confusing. The film was obviously going for a different take on Holmes and gives the viewers an alternative to his fake death at the Reichenbach Falls and Moriarty’s character overall, but why this alternate situation has to occur at all does not make sense to me. Williams’ Holmes is also off for me as he was eccentric, sporadic and frankly annoying.

Clive Brook Series1929-1932

The major downfall of these films is that Clive Brooks portrays Holmes as a hero and a lover. I disagree with this portrayal as I see him as neither of those things. Portraying him in this way affects his thoughts and actions, making him an entirely dif-ferent character. There are a number of other major character flaws (Doctor Watson, Irene Adler, and Moriarty, Billy Wiggins) in Brook’s films. However, that’s not the only canonical flaw. The films also employ a lot of violence and action that appear to only be there for the audience and ticket sales.

Clive Brook as Holmes. Image from claroscureaux.tumblr.com

Sherlock Holmes Baffled 1900

To my surprise, this short film is actually not my least favorite. This is primarily due to the fact that we don’t actually get to see or understand the character of Holmes very well considering the “film” is 30 seconds long. Obviously because of it’s length it is missing a lot elements that Holmes’ stories generally have, we can however presume that the setting of the film is 221B Baker St. Whether it is exactly true to the canon is hard to say, but re-gardless it is important as being the first of hundreds of Sherlock Holmes films to follow.

Unknown actors are a theif and Holmes. Image from en.wikipedia.org

The Speckled Band 1931

I had quite a few qualms with this series. First of all, I did not enjoy Raymond Massey as Holmes. He portrayed him as nice, likeable, and almost elegant, qualities I never associate with Holmes. Second of all, 221B was converted into a detective agency with a staff of women. The director argued that he did this in order to make the film more modern, however, as no other elements of the story were modern, in fact the film follow the original story from the canon ex-tremely well, this choice did not make sense to me. Finally, because Holmes has a whole team working for him and they record his cases, Watson’s original purpose gets lost and their relationship is hard to make sense of.

Athole Steward and Raymond Massey as Watons and Holmes. Image from cabootee.angelfire.com

It is hard to judge Tom Baker’s performance as Holmes in this film being as it was The Hound of the Baskerville therefore he was hardly in it. Overall this was a perfectly fine adaptation of this stories, however, in the scenes including Tom Baker it was hard to remember I was watching a Holmes film because he portrayed Holmes in a manner I had never seen before. Baker’s Holmes was funny, quirky, nice, and silly, the exact opposite of how I normally see Holmes. It is hard for me to understand why Holmes was portrayed in this way when the rest of the film is so true to the canon.

The Hound of the Baskervilles 1982

Tom Baker as Holmes. Image from garth.typepad.com

Guy Ritchie Films2009-2011

Robert Downey Jr. as Holmes. Image from hans-zimmer.ch

This adaptation did its best to combine the Victorian Era with modern day but unfortunately it did not work so well. The two films starring Robert Downey Jr. were action and adventure filled to an extent that was way over the top to the point of dra-matic and unbelieveable. The films did not resemble stories from the canon but did however use characters from the canon such as Mary Morstan, Moriarty, Mrs. Hudson, and Irene Adler. These films were clearly the Hollywoodized version of Sher-lock Holmes, which for me took out an element of authenticity and admiration that were both present in the canon. In general Holmes did not appear to be a master detective but instead just a guy who was a little smarter than everyone else.

The Golden Years1991

Patrick Macnee and Christopher Lee as Watson and Holmes. Image from an-tiscribe.files.wordpress.com

This series was obviously attempting to show us what Holmes’s life would be like when he was older and starting to lose his reputation as a consulting detective. I think overall it was an interesting concept but there were two main issues I had with these films. First, Holmes’s relationship with Irene Adler was very odd since she was cast about 30 years younger than him. This didn’t make sense or fit with the canon and at one point she even asks him to marry her, which was very uncharacteristic of her. Second, the pace of these films was painfully slow, half of the material could have easily been cut out. The films were rather boring because of this and I found myself just wanting to know how the mystery was going to be solved.

Matt Frewer Series2000-2002

Kenneth Welsh and Matt Frewer as antiscribe.files.wordpress.com

Matt Frewer starred in three made for TV movies, two stories from the canon and one an original screenplay. Frewer was not originally cast as Holmes and it is easy to see why. First of all, he is not British, has blonde hair, and very lighthearted and whimsical, these are not the qualities of Sherlock Holmes. Sure, the studio dressed him up in a deerstalker, Inverness coat, and calabash pipe, but those things do not just automatically make one Sherlock Holmes. Frewer either didn’t understand the character or he didn’t care about changing him and making him his own. Either way his performance wasn’t spectacular. Other than Frewer the films were fine, nothing memo-rable as either good or bad.

Douglas Wilmer Series1965

This series began by following the canon closely, however, as the series continued more of the stories were originals as the producers did not have the rights to very many canonical stories. The episodes that do follow the canon however follow it to a tee and even take dialogue directly from the canon. Besides its unfaithfulness to the canon towards its end I did not particularly enjoy Douglas Wilmer who played Holmes. He did not fit the typical profile of Holmes althought he did act like him.

Douglas Wilmer as Holmes. Image from bbc.co.uk

Ian Richardson Films1983

Ian Richardson as Holmes. Image from britmovie.co.uk

Richardson’s Holmes was admirable and one of the better ones. Knowing that he studied the canon furiously and became a walk-ing Sherlock Holmes encyclopaedia was important for me and undoubted helped his performance. Richardson was the perfect amount of quiet, contemplative, and excited. His Watson on the other hand, who was played by Donald Churchill, was just awful. He was angry, rude, and rough so it was were hard to believe that this quiet but brilliant Holmes would be friends with him.

Peter Cushing Series1968

Peter Cushing as Holmes. Image from www.planet-wissen.de

Cushing had the perfect Sherlock Holmes profile, wore the deerstalker and Inverness coat, smoked a calabash pipe, and made smart witty deductions. However, even though he had these redeeming qualities, this series lacked the excitement and thrill that is often associate with Holmes and he cases. For me this is a major factor because it changed the pace and over-all quality of the series in a slightly negative way.

The first two films of this series were the only two I enjoyed but I enjoyed them so much that this series is one of my favor-ites. The first two films were set in the Victorian Era, based on stories from the canon, and had Holmes in his proper deerstalk-er and tweed coat. The next 11 films on the other hand took Holmes and Watson into the future, the 1940s to be exact, were filled with war propaganda, and were mostly all original screen-plays. Regardless of those factors, overall Rathbone was the perfect Holmes; he had the most perfect silhouette, voice, and demeanor, it was as if he walked right out of Conan Doyle’s sto-ries. Watson, on the other hand, was the exact opposite Conan Doyle’s creation and he brought the series down with his daft jokes and silly behavior.

Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce as Holmes and Watson. Image from toutlecine.com

Basil Rathbone Series1939-1946

Stoll Film Series 1921-1932

Eille Normood as Holmes. Image from thebioscope.net

My main motivation for liking this series is because of Eille Norwood who played Holmes. He really stepped up his Holmes and tried to become him. He did this by learning to play the violin, shaving his hairline, and studying the canon. Being a silent film it was more difficult for me to get into and enjoy so Norwood’s overall performance was absolutely important for my appreciation of the series.

Arthur Wontner Series1931-1937

Arthur Wontner’s films were some of my favorites. I enjoyed them so much because of Wontner’s performance, their faithfulness to the canon, and because the relationship between Holmes and Watson is much more established than any other adaptation until now, although it’s still not exactly spot on. My major issue with these films however is that no one believes Holmes that Moriarty exists, not even Watson. As the viewer and as someone who has read the can-on, it is difficult to understand why the director made the decision to do this, especially when the rest of the storylines in these films follow the canon so closely.

Arthur Wontner as Holmes. Image from lileks.com

Granada Series 1984-1994

For the most part I enjoyed this series. The producer’s goal was to adapt as many original stories from the canon as possible into 50 minute long episodes. Most stories were adapted well and followed the canon closely, which I appericated. Jeremy Brett who played Holmes, like Basil Rathbone before him, looked and acted as if he walked right out of Conan Doyle’s stories. The relationship between Holmes and Watson is clearly seen and it makes sense that the two are friends and that they have a functional friendship. With time the series decreased in authenticity for two reason. Firstly, it was, so the directors say and it makes sense to me, hard to find stories from the canon to adapt into good episodes that made sense on screen. Sec-ondly, Brett’s mental and physical health were deteriorating, making it harder for him to fill the role of Holmes as he had before.

Jeremy Brett and Edward Hardwicke as Holmes and Watson. Image from fanpop.com

Although this series is a modern day adaptation therefore very different from the canon it is without a doubt my favorite. The show is done in such a clever way and the writers obviously tried to keep concepts and characters from the canon embed-ded in their episodes. The dynamic between Benedict Cumber-batch who plays Holmes and Martin Freeman who plays Wat-son works very well and their relationship, me to, is the most true to canon. Cumberbatch does a spectacular performance as Holmes and presents him not only as smart and cunning but also as rude and arrogant. While this isn’t exactly consistent with canon, it works for this modern day adaptation.

Sherlock2010-2013

Benedict Cumberbatch Martin Freeman & as Watson and Holmes. Image from larkable.com