Sherlock Holmes

There are two things to recommend this film. First of all, it is in marvelous condition for something made in 1916. Secondly, we get to see the famous William Gilette, who played the great detective over 1000 times on the stage. This version is the stage version, sans most of the dialogue. The story is a bit confusing at first, but it involves a young woman whose sister had an affair with royalty. She has letters that would prove embarrassing to a prince. Holmes has been hired to get those letters (like in "A Scandal in Bohemia"). There are a man and his wife, the Larabees, who also want to get their hands on those letters in order to turn a profit. Enter Moriarity, Holmes' arch rival. There are a series of ridiculous plots that don't work because people are stupid. The young woman is clueless. She also becomes a love interest for Holmes. This is out of bounds in the canon. One thing lacking is that Holmes is uninteresting and dull. He is coy and sad. His overconfidence is his greatest trait and he has none of that here. Still, as a period piece, it is fun.

OMG, do I love this classic movie.

At long last, the great William Gillette is more than a footnote and a photo, but the man who MADE Sherlock Holmes alive for so many before us! The curved Meerschaum pipe is at last remembered for what it was... A stage relived item so as not to maim the voice of the REAL Sherlock Holmes. And the famous Sherlock robe we have seen in Sidney Paget illustrations in the Canon that was created by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle in his 56 treasures.

For over 1400 performances on stage, this Connecticut Yankee brought the British detective as actor William Gillette... not to mention, the radio play he once did, and many actors had wonderful careers bringing Sherlock onto the stage for at least 100 years.

It's hard to conceive after watching this recording of historic magnitude, that Gillette got boos from London audiences but Gillette stood through this before speaking to them. This amazing moment was brought to the British public by an English reviewer who said that this same British public owed Gillette an apology, and he said it all n his review. Imagine! A Brit praised this Connecticut Yankee this way. Good for him.

The DVD brings to marvelous excellence William Gillette's astounding performance. I had expected the usual almost cartoonish physicality, but I was so wrong. Gillette makes me understand why he was as revered actor and performer. One reviewer brought up that he was almost doing the later performance of Jeremy Brett, and having seen it now, I cannot disagree.

The astonishing work of this movie has marveled me into a luxurious gift into the long past that never ages. I feel blessed to having seen this incredible actor's most celebrated performance to know that the true Sherlock Holmes is alive forever!

To the guide of Gillette Castle in Connecticut gave me terribly wrong information that THE William Gillette never performed this movie even with an enlarged photo of the man in this performance I now own with all of my Sherlock performances on video, and for that I feel I am blessed forever.

Please watch this fabulous film and see for yourselves all that I have said is true. Basil, Arthur Wontner, Eille Norwood and Jeremy Brett owe everything to William Gillette as well as they and the Conan Doyle Canon.

It's all here on this gift to all of you Sherlock Holmes fans.

As a theater major in college, I had heard of William Gillette (1853-1937) and his stage performances of Sherlock Holmes. Between 1899 when the play, adapted from a few of the stories by Gillette himself, first opened and the making of this film in 1916, Gillette had portrayed Holmes over 1300 times! Arthur Conan Doyle had given him his blessing seeing him as physically right for the part. At the time Doyle thought he was done with the character (Doyle didn't reintroduce Holmes until 1903) and cared little for whatever changes Gillette might make. Gillette was remarkably faithful to the stories and to the Holmes persona except for the business of having him fall in love at the end. In fact it was Gillette who popularized the Meerschaum pipe and the Deerstalker hat now forever associated with the character.

The film was shot in Chicago for the Essanay company, famous for silent film stars Broncho Billy Anderson and Charlie Chaplin, and was one of their few feature length films. Shortly after 1916 the company folded and the movie was sold in 1919 to a French studio who turned it into a 4 part serial without having to cut any footage. Crime serials like Louis Feuillade's FANTOMAS and LES VAMPIRES were popular in France and the fact that this was a play divided into acts and scenes, made it easy to adapt. It's a good thing too for without the French, we wouldn't have SHERLOCK HOLMES today. Its rediscovery and current restoration techniques have given us back not only a classic of early cinema but a rare opportunity to see a 19th century actor at work.

The bulk of the play comes from A SCANDAL IN BOHEMIA with excerpts of THE FINAL PROBLEM and a little of A STUDY IN SCARLET thrown in at the end. In fact after watching about 10 minutes of this, I realized that the plot was the same as the 1922 John Barrymore version which uses Gillette's play. Surprisingly, this version is nearly as accomplished as the later one in its staging and camerawork although the Barrymore version boasts some location shooting and a stronger all around cast. Enough cannot be said about the restoration job done by The San Francisco Silent Film Festival and La Cinematheque Francais. The movie looks astonishingly good with crisp images and subtle color tints. The music score is also noteworthy (no pun intended). I did find the Moriarty in this version to be a little buffoonish but a lot of that is the play and few people can look and be as villainous as Gustav von Seyfertitz in the Barrymore version.

This Flicker Alley package is truly an embarrassment of riches. Not only are there 2 complete versions of the film (English & French) but there is an extra disc which talks about the restoration (very informative) and there are interviews with Conan Doyle and William Gillette. There are also two very surreal shorts involving Holmes plus one with a canine sleuth as well. If you are a silent film enthusiast than this release is an absolute necessity. Sherlock Homes aficionados will also enjoy it for its historical value while students of theater history should see it and study it as the chance to view genuine 19th century performance technique first hand (rather than from a recreation of the period) is invaluable. The DVDs are stunning but they even also throw in a Blu-Ray for those of you who insist on having the latest technology.

There have been over 50 movies and TV series of the famous British detective Sherlock Holmes since novelist Arthur Conan Doyle introduced him to print in 1887. Of all the Holmes films produced, the one that was maddeningly lost and most prized was Essanay Studio's 1916 production with actor William Gillette, who made the detective famous on the stage. He was the Sherlock Holmes everyone is familiar with, molding the detective with the appearance and personality during the 1,300 performances he gave on the American and English stages before mesmerizing audiences. All film depictions of Holmes are based on the Gillette persona he lent to his detective, a portrayal heartedly approved by Doyle.

So when the movie was discovered in Paris' Cinematheque Francaise archives in 2014 after a film canister had been mislabeled for decades, the cinematic community went bananas. At the May 2015 San Francisco Silent Film Festival, after the 1916 print was meticulously restored, lines formed outside the theater patiently waiting to see the United States premier of the newly-discovered movie. Movie aficionados knew this was Gillette's only appearance on film; this was his only acting of the detective preserved which greatly influenced future acting generations on the mien and presence of Sherlock its originator Doyle endorsed.

"Sherlock Holmes," originally released in May 1916, is a combination of four Doyle stories, which the 1899 stage play was based. Seen on the screen for the first time was Sherlock wearing his famous deerstalker hat, introduced by Gillette when he played him on the stage. Also seen was the curved-stem calabash pipe clinched between the detective's lips, a choice Gillette made when he noticed the straight-stem pipe impeded his voice projection and pronunciations. Gillette is also credited in giving Holmes the line directed at Dr. Watson, "Oh, this is elementary, my dear fellow."

Before the movie production, Doyle gave Gillette permission to do anything he wanted with the Sherlock Holmes' franchise, so trusting was the author to the actor's knowledge and temperment of the detective. Gillette went ahead and introduced to the screen the role of the Dr. Watson character, played by Edward Fielding. In addition, Holmes' arch-villain, Professor Moriarty, is given more stage presence in the film than Doyle wrote about him in his novels.

Gillette continued to have a lucrative acting career after the film release of "Sherlock Holmes,' but alas, not in cinema. He was one of those rare actors in his day who made a fortune in his profession, affording him the luxury of building his dream home, the Gillette Castle in East Haddam, Connecticut. He was especially passionate about his three-mile miniature railroad surrounding his estate. The state of Connecticut bought his property six years after his death and created the Gillette Castle State Park. A four-year $11 million renovation of the castle, museum and performance stage, completed in 2002, is one the top three state tourist attractions.

Gillette, who died at age 83, is buried with his family in Farmington, CT's Riverside Cemetery.

8.5 out of 10 I had the privilege of seeing this at the Castro Theater in 2015 for the public world re-release at the Silent Film Festival there. I had no idea what to expect since the film had been lost for nearly 100 years, and I have never been a huge Holmes fan (but I don't dislike the character at all). As we know, silent films can sometimes move at a snoring pace, so I kept my expectations low.

This film really surprised me with its Mystery Comics/early Noir kind of feel- splitting the film into "to be Continued...!" type of segments, since it was originally a serial. I imagine it can be enjoyed watched in 3 separate parts as well (it wasn't meant to be a 2-hour sit-down affair).

The pace is great overall, only a little sluggish at first with the introductory part of the plot (a letter scandal or sorts?) being very outdated. After the first part of that serial you will feel right at home (or Holmes!) with all the booby traps and laughs. William Gillette absolutely steals the show every time he's on screen and it is no wonder that he was adored for his portrayal of the character at the time of release.

I won't give away any of the gags or trickery, but they are top-notch and this film has Chaplin-inspired hoodwinking all over the place. If you enjoyed Chaplin's Essanay work like "Police" or his work on "The Adventurer" then this will be right up your alley.

Going deeper, this film also provides a fascinating insight into the development of the modern "Super Hero." Sherlock Holmes was in many ways the world first superhero, his intellect being the primary superpower. It's kinda neat to think of how this protagonist archetype has developed over the last 100 years! A fine gem to be preserved for future generations :)