Dismissed by David Pirie as "ugly and banal" this rollicking Compton-Tekli yarn in Eastman Colour punctuated by bawdy ballads by Georgia Brown brought to the screen an "apocryphal meeting of two eminent Victorians"; as Raymond Durgnat drolly put it.
The gleefully gory stabbings that punctuate this tale show all the handmarks of Herman Cohen, who true to form gathered together some of Britain's finest (Robert Morley plays Mycroft, Frank Finlay is Lestrade and this must the only film to feature both Babs Windsor and Judi Dench).
In the title role John Neville is a master of disguise, mean with a swordstick, actually says "Elementary, dear Watson!" (a line he never actually spoke in print), while the ferocity of the murders and presence of Peter Carsten and Charles Regnier in the cast shows that German money was involved.
The gleefully gory stabbings that punctuate this tale show all the handmarks of Herman Cohen, who true to form gathered together some of Britain's finest (Robert Morley plays Mycroft, Frank Finlay is Lestrade and this must the only film to feature both Babs Windsor and Judi Dench).
In the title role John Neville is a master of disguise, mean with a swordstick, actually says "Elementary, dear Watson!" (a line he never actually spoke in print), while the ferocity of the murders and presence of Peter Carsten and Charles Regnier in the cast shows that German money was involved.