COMPLIMENTARY, MR. HOLMES!

Modernising Sherlock Holmes never seems a good idea although in the past a few film-makers have attempted it without coming completely unstuck. There was a film with Raymond Massey where Holmes had a modern (for the Thirties) office and, of course, the Universal Pictures series of B-movies starring Basil Rathbone set Holmes and Watson down in the dark days of World War Two and provides some first class entertainment for everybody except the most rigid purists. So, modernising is not, in reality, quite as bad as it seems at first. The news that the BBC were producing a new series which relocated Holmes in the London of 2010 did seem a bit worrying but with writers like Steven Moffat and Mark Gattis on hand all has turned out well...very well indeed. The first series consists of three feature length films (more promised for the future) with the first being based on Conan Doyle's A Study in Scarlet - with a new back story but keeping John Watson's return from Afghanistan (how little things have changed), Holmes and Watson's first meeting, taking the rooms in Baker Street and Mrs.Hudson and Lestrade and the new title A Study in Pink. The second ventured into Sax Rohmer territory but had nods to both The Sign of Four and the Rathbone SPIDER WOMAN. The last of the three episodes pays homage to several Doyle stories including The Bruce Partington Plans and The Five Orange Pips and in a wonderfully creepy scene to Rondo Hatton's Creeper in PEARL OF DEATH. The casting is faultless with Benedict Cumberbatch as Holmes, Martin Freeman as Dr.Watson , Rupert Graves as Lestrade, Mark Gattiss as Mycroft and Una Stubbs as Mrs,Hudson. Each modernisation is carefully thought out from Dr.Watson being a blogger to Holmes "This is a three nicotine patch problem!" and just incase you are wondering, yes, James Moriarty turns up and.....oh well, just buy the DVD (as an extra you get the 60 minute unaired pilot film)....trust me, I'm a blogger.

THE SPECKLED BAND (1931)

Except for the sacrilege of giving Sherlock Holmes at least three secretaries and a computerised office this is a pretty traditional Holmes tale which, allowing for the dramatic embellishments called for by the script, sticks pretty close to the original Arthur Conan Doyle short story. Massey is a rather good Sherlock and certainly gives the impression of actually working at mentally solving the crime. Although the print of the film viewed was pretty awful with obvious leaps in the action where scenes and dialogue are missing the film has some nice visual touches with excellent sets. With the exception of Massey the acting in just what you would expect from an English film of the early sound years, although Lynn Harding does a fair stab at rivalling Tod Slaughter as a melodramatic villain - six years later Harding would play another Holmes villain in SILVER BLAZE, a rather duller outing for the great detective which was distinguished only by the presence of Arthur Wontner whose Holmes bears a remarkable similarity to the original Sidney Paget Strand Magazine illustrations. Rating **