Review of Private Life of Sherlock Holmes, The

Introduction

Robert Stephens stars in this magnificent Billy Wilder/ IAL Diamond tweak of the Sherlock Holmes canon. A convoluted confection of midgets, monks and a monster (Loch Ness variety) that Arthur Conan Doyle would have been proud of. Although the script has its tongue firmly in its cheek, it is more of a romp than an out and out comedy, especially with its low-key ending.

Holmes comes to the aid of a mysterious Belgian woman Gabrielle Valladon (Genevieve Page) searching for her missing engineer husband and finds himself investigating sightings of the Monster at Loch Ness.

The cast list is littered with wonderful British character actors (and just plain characters). Colin Blakely is the indomitable Dr Watson, Irene Handl turns up as Mrs Hudson. Christopher Lee features as Sherlock`s Machiavellian brother Mycroft, and old faces like Stanley Holloway and Michael Balfour crop up in bit parts.

Video

Photographed in milky color by DeLuxe by the great Christopher Challis BSC, the movie is presented in its original 2.35:1. Although it is not a great age, the image quality isn`t quite what one might expect with some wear and tear evident. Colours tend to be muted.

Audio

Made in 1970, the film comes with a sadly plain vanilla Mono soundtrack (reproduced in Dolby Digital 2.0) that doesn`t do justice to the score by Miklos Rozsa.

Features

Another bare-bones release from MGM. Subtitles are available (in five languages including English, as are the soundtracks), but other than that there are no extras - no deleted scenes or interviews as seen on the R1 release. Worryingly, as with other recent MGM releases, the disc does not even include scene selection menus.

Conclusion

One of Billy Wilder`s stranger movies, giving us his take on Sherlock Holmes. One of Wilder`s own personal favourites, the film could have been so much better had MGM suits not enraged the director by insisting that two of the proposed four storylines be dropped. As it is, it is a triumph of classy writing, classy directing and magnificent craftwork - not least Alexander Trauner`s art direction. Coming in at 120 minutes and on television outings frequently hacked to pieces, this is an opportunity to see the film at its best. If you have the money and the inclination, why not pick up all the Billy Wilder movies and find out why I`d class him as one of the top five directors in movie history.