In The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes, Billy Wilder gets access to a case that Doctor Watson did not want revealed. As you watch the film you can see why.
Should I be talking about Holmes as a real person? Well in a sense he's more real to his devoted fans than a lot of the real personalities of the Victorian/Edwardian era. Arthur Conan Doyle created a character that has a cult following to this day that is unmatched. In modern terms, the Star Trek phenomenon is the closest thing we have to it.
Of course Arthur Conan Doyle created a man whose private life was only hinted at and he concentrated on the cases with which Holmes always solved with matchless deductive reasoning and an eye for detail that Adrian Monk would envy.
Billy Wilder had a Holmes film in mind over a dozen years before this one came to fruition. At one time he wanted to cast Peter O'Toole as Holmes and Peter Sellers as the faithful chronicler Watson. That one went by the boards for a number of reasons.
Wilder for the only time in his directing career settled for less than box office draws in casting the film, mainly because people he wanted weren't available. Robert Stephens and Colin Blakely were a fine duo of Holmes and Watson, but no one ran to see the film because they were starring in it.
Holmes gets involved in this particular case when a woman is fished out of the Thames and deposited on his doorstep because she had his address upon her. She's looking for her missing husband and the trail takes Holmes and Watson to Inverness in Scotland.
There's quite a bit involved and it will become clear why Sherlock Holmes did not want this case publicized by friend, colleague, and house mate Doctor Watson.
The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes is not a bad film, it did fail to find an audience back then. Stephens is certainly no Basil Rathbone and Colin Blakely doesn't play Doctor Watson like the befuddled dunce Nigel Bruce was. His Watson is rather bumptious as most of Blakely's roles are. Watson in fact was neither and his medical training helped Holmes any number of times in literature.
Maybe Wilder should have held out for Peter O'Toole.
Should I be talking about Holmes as a real person? Well in a sense he's more real to his devoted fans than a lot of the real personalities of the Victorian/Edwardian era. Arthur Conan Doyle created a character that has a cult following to this day that is unmatched. In modern terms, the Star Trek phenomenon is the closest thing we have to it.
Of course Arthur Conan Doyle created a man whose private life was only hinted at and he concentrated on the cases with which Holmes always solved with matchless deductive reasoning and an eye for detail that Adrian Monk would envy.
Billy Wilder had a Holmes film in mind over a dozen years before this one came to fruition. At one time he wanted to cast Peter O'Toole as Holmes and Peter Sellers as the faithful chronicler Watson. That one went by the boards for a number of reasons.
Wilder for the only time in his directing career settled for less than box office draws in casting the film, mainly because people he wanted weren't available. Robert Stephens and Colin Blakely were a fine duo of Holmes and Watson, but no one ran to see the film because they were starring in it.
Holmes gets involved in this particular case when a woman is fished out of the Thames and deposited on his doorstep because she had his address upon her. She's looking for her missing husband and the trail takes Holmes and Watson to Inverness in Scotland.
There's quite a bit involved and it will become clear why Sherlock Holmes did not want this case publicized by friend, colleague, and house mate Doctor Watson.
The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes is not a bad film, it did fail to find an audience back then. Stephens is certainly no Basil Rathbone and Colin Blakely doesn't play Doctor Watson like the befuddled dunce Nigel Bruce was. His Watson is rather bumptious as most of Blakely's roles are. Watson in fact was neither and his medical training helped Holmes any number of times in literature.
Maybe Wilder should have held out for Peter O'Toole.