Sherlock Holmes: Incident at Victoria Falls

There's no doubt that, given the cast, this could have been a rousing good Sherlock Holmes film. Unfortunately, the producers decided to go for the mini-series. Bad move! The film we have left drags in moments, the story is overly convoluted with plot elements going nowhere, the pacing lags.

Still, Lee and MacNee make an excellent Holmes-Watson duo, and most of the acting is really good for a television project of this kind. The mystery elements, when we finally get them, are on a par with that of better Holmes material - although they often feel somewhat borrowed from Christie-Poirot films. The denouement is satisfying in a quirky way, as it involves playing fast and loose with history.

Enjoyable for a viewing - the second half is probably the superior, but that's a matter of taste.

Incident at Victoria Falls brings Christopher Lee already shows a slight sign of depletion, even so made an usual Sherlock performance, allied by the funny Dr. John Watson (Patrick Macnee), the screenplay is acceptable, although overlong between comings and goings, also has another element to enhance the plot, attach famous character on the story as the former US's President Theodore Roosevelt (Claude Akins) and also the legendary Marconi (Stephen Gurney), Sherlock has a mission to bring to England the huge diamond "Star of Africa" trying misleading the security and try out avoid the upcoming robbery, sadly it happens before Holmes put his bold plan on action, now the duo have try found out among dozen suspects the criminal mastermind, on a fabulous landscape at Victoria Falls, where one by one has been killed under suspicious circumstances, despite the picture is overlong had a rush conclusion, it's sounds odd, due had enough time to savour a best ending, average production!!!

Resume:

First watch: 2019 / How many: 1 / Source: DVD / Rating: 6.5

This was taken from a mini-series, wouldn't have watched had I known that. Holmes goes to the dark continent under orders from Her Majesty's Government to guard a very valuable stone which unfortunately comes up missing. Holmes and Watson must unravel this puzzling mystery while avoiding the actions on the local constabulary headed by an unbelievably pompous, inept jackass of an inspector. Lee played the part of the aging sleuth well in a bit of a different outing for the Brit crime buster. Too many gaps in the story and an ending which even Holmes couldn't figure out. Bypass unless you can see the whole production I would say.

SHERLOCK HOLMES: INCIDENT AT VICTORIA FALLS is the sequel to the previous 3-hour TV series SHERLOCK HOLMES AND THE LEADING LADY, bringing Christopher Lee and Patrick Macnee back as Holmes and Watson and pairing Frank Agrama and Harry Alan Towers as producers. Despite being shot on location in Africa, this is slightly stodgy stuff, weighed down by a slow paced and occasionally uninteresting script.

The main problem I have with these productions lies with the American scriptwriter, Bob Shayne. His characterisation of Holmes and Watson never rise above the level of a pastiche; Holmes does virtually no deductive reasoning here, and could have been replaced by any other fictional history (Marple or Poirot, for instance). Lee is wonderful, and Macnee is great comedy value, but that's all you get.

The plot of this miniseries is complicated beyond belief and mired down with irrelevant, extraneous characters. Shayne's unwelcome obsession with mixing real-life people into his story continues with Theodore Roosevelt (!) playing an important role. Despite the presence of such luminaries as Richard Todd, Joss Ackland, Jenny Seagrove, and Claude Akins, this is a disappointment. I can't help but imagine what INCIDENT AT VICTORIA FALLS would have been like had it been written by somebody who really knew their stuff.

1910. At the behest of King Edward VII Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson set off for Cape Town. The Star of Africa, the largest diamond in the world, is being shipped to England and Holmes is to ensure that it reaches the King safely. In South Africa Holmes discovers that not only is a plan afoot to steal the diamond but the perpetrators are willing to resort to murder to achieve their ends.

An original Sherlock Holmes story, i.e. Not adapted from a book or short story by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, and it's a mixed bag. On the positive side we have Christopher Lee whose portrayal of Sherlock Holmes is fantastic, giving him a great sense of intelligence and gravitas. The scenery and cinematography are great too, making you feel you really are in Africa in 1910. And yes, some of the scenes were actually filmed at Victoria Falls!

The plot is reasonably interesting though this is where the problems start to come. The film clocks in at over three hours due to the myriad of sub-plots filling up the time. Some of these are needed for the main plot but some are just padding or could have been less elaborate.

The fact that the writer throws in characters like President Roosevelt and Lillie Langtry, shows just how padded some of the sub-plots are. Those particular characters didn't have to be somebody famous but the writers did it just to create a sub-plot out of their fame and for a bit of a wow factor. (Incidentally, Lillie Langtry was 57 years old in 1910 and is 30-something in the movie, so the writer didn't do their research very well).

Overall it's interesting enough to be watchable but with a more focused plot and a decent degree of editing it could have been great.