Sherlock Holmes: Incident at Victoria Falls

Am a huge fan of Sherlock Holmes and get a lot of enjoyment out of Arthur Conan Doyle's stories. Also love Basil Rathbone's and especially Jeremy Brett's interpretations to death. So would naturally see any Sherlock Holmes adaptation that comes my way, regardless of its reception.

Furthermore, interest in seeing early films based on Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes stories and wanting to see as many adaptations of any Sherlock Holmes stories as possible sparked my interest in seeing 'Sherlock Holmes: Incident at Victoria Falls', especially with such an interesting idea for a story.

There are better Sherlock Holmes-related films/adaptations certainly than 'Sherlock Holmes: Incident at Victoria Falls', the best of the Jeremy Brett adaptations and films of Basil Rathone fit under this category. It's not one of the worst either, it is better than all the Matt Frewer films (particularly 'The Sign of Four') and also much better than the abominable Peter Cook 'The Hound of the Baskervilles'.

'Sherlock Holmes: Incident at Victoria Falls' is not terrible certainly. The always dependable, even legendary, Christopher Lee, is excellent as Holmes, regardless of any reservations about him being too old. Patrick MacNee is both bumbling and loyal, without being too much of a buffoon or an idiot. The chemistry between them really lifts the proceedings, lots of fun and charm in it. The rest of the cast are fine, Claude Akins in particular enjoys himself as Roosevelt (yes you saw it).

Parts of the mystery are intriguing and there are a few exciting set pieces. Some of the dialogue is fun and thought-provoking. It is very nicely filmed with evocative and handsome production design.

However, 'Sherlock Holmes: Incident at Victoria Falls' does suffer from a very stodgy pace, highly indicative of the story struggling to sustain the long length of the adaptation (judging by the execution of the story it felt too long and too padded) and a far too over complicated story. The ending is one of the most convoluted and head-scratching for any Sherlock Holmes adaptation.

Too much of it feels like it goes nowhere, with some overlong scenes or shots, and too aimless, and too many elements came over as underdeveloped and vague. The music sounds like it was scored and like it belonged somewhere else altogether, it was so out of kilter with everything else. The direction is pedestrian and too many of the characters add nothing, serving more of an excuse to play fast and loose with history.

In summary, worth a one time watch but underwhelming. 5/10 Bethany Cox

Like many fans on Sherlock, I will watch just about any interpretation over some 75 years that the character has been in cinema. This is a plot loosely based on the original story. The material is elevated by Mr Lee's performance. His wry take on Holmes made it enjoyable for me.

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.

On the eve of his retirement to bee keeping heaven, Sherlock Holmes is summoned to the palace, where King Edward requests one last mission for the super sleuth, to travel to Sth Africa and protect the Star of Africa diamond from those who would claim it as their own. The film is hardly of Doyle quality but what it lacks in authenticity it makes up for in a Sunday afternoon mystery kind of way. At 3 hours long every situation is used to the max and the film has some good set pieces. Christopher Lee is not the ideal Holmes, he's a little too nice, he even has tome to flirt with women…..Bah Partick Macnee as Watson is out of the bumbling Nigel Bruce school of Watson's and is quite likable. The film doesn't take itself too seriously however and is played for laughs on many occasions.

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!!!

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