Sherlock Holmes und das Halsband des Todes

Sherlock Holmes and the Deadly Necklace is a fine vehicle for Christopher Lee investigating weird murders in foggy London , packing an exciting deal of outstanding surprises with great lots of fun . After an intriguingly mysterious opening in a typically foggy London , the Great Detective Holmes (Christopher Lee) and Doctor Watson (Thorley Walters) are bogged down in a surprising and intriguing adventure by attempting to solve the case of the robbing of Cleopatra's necklace, found by archaeologists in Egypt . Sherlock finds plot and counter-plot , a real challenge for Holmes 's razor intellect , but his uncanny insights and deep observations are put to a test . Holmes helped by his colleague Doctor Watson discover a twisted plot and soon uncover that the nasty professor Moriarty is behind it all.

Passable Sherlock Holmes but neither excellent , nor notable , but acceptable , including evocative settings , thrills , plot twists , suspense , unanswered mysteries , secret undergrounds and an outstanding villain : Doctor Moriarty . As Holmes and Watson set out to investigate and doing battle with an old nemesis , over an ancient necklace attributed to Cleopatra .The atmospheric doings involve Egyptian tombs , a spectacular heist on a van , among others , in this rather tired and no excessively brilliant Sherlock Holmes mystery . A genuine ripping yarn with suspense , thrilling events and simple intrigue about stealing , murders , auction and red herrings . Pretty stale stuff , though Christopher Lee turns out to be a decent Holmes . It is all a bit elementary and no great challenge for Holmes's brain or even ours for the matter . This is a suspenseful and intriguing film in Arthur Conan wake , but very freely based on his splendid novels , in fact, it seems to be more similar to the usual ¨Krimi¨ mystery , that's why it was produced by the powerful and prolific Artur Brauner , an expert producer of this German sub-genre . Of course , Holmes solves the mystery at the end , including a surprising twist . Displaying functional settings , as well as appropriate and evocative cinematography . Sir Christopher Lee gives a nice acting as the immortal Sherlock Holmes , Lee starred in at least six Sir Arthur Conan Doyle shot renditions or related filmed productions. They are : Hound of Baskerville (1959) in which he played Baskerville himself , The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes (1970) as Sherlock's brother : Mycroft , Sherlock Holmes and the prima donna (1991) as Holmes , Incident in the Victoria Falls (1992) as Sherlock . Lee's interpretation is pretty good but far from Basil Rathbone who played magnificently as an intelligent , obstinate , broody , pipesmoking sleuth , considered to be the best and most authentic Sherlock Holmes , as his acting is similar to subsequent actors as Peter Cushing and Jeremy Brett for TV or Nicol Williamson (Seven-per-cent-solution) or Christopher Plummer (Murder by decree) . Here Holmes/Christopher Lee is accompanied by notorious secondaries , though no too much known , such as : Hans Söhnker as Prof. Moriarty , Hans Nielsen , Senta Berger , Ivan Desny , Wolfgang Lukschy and Leon Askin .

It displays an atmospheric and adequate cinematography in black and white, shot on location in Dublin, County Dublin, Ireland ,London, England, UK and Spandau, Berlin, Germany . Sherlock Holmes und das Halsband des Todes(1962) was professionally directed by Terence Fisher , and inferior than precendent Hound of Baskerville (1959). Fisher was an expert on terror genre for Hammer production , his best films were the following ones : "So Long at the Fair", Portrait from Life (1948), "Dracula", ¨The Revenge of Frankenstein¨ (1958), ¨The mommy¨ (1959), The Stranglers of Bombay (1959), "Two Faces of Dr. Jekyll", ¨The brides of Drácula¨ (1960), "Curse of the Werewolf", ¨The phantom of opera¨(1962), "The Gorgon", "The Earth Dies Sceaming", "Dracula ,Prince of Darkness" and "Frankenstein Must Be Destroyed".

To my knowledge there are currently two versions of this available. One of them has been dubbed by Americans and the other is for German speakers only. Should neither of these options appeal please be assured that you are not missing much.

Christopher Lee has the unique distinction of being the only actor to have played both Sherlock and Mycroft Holmes. He had the great misfortune to be totally miscast as Mycroft in Billy Wilder's equally unfortunate 'Private Life of Sherlock Holmes' and is served no better as Sherlock in this Euro mishmash directed by Terence Fisher with additional scenes by someone named Frank Winterstein.

This is essentially a 'Krimi' in all but name and it is really only the cast that makes it bearable. Lee at least has a lighter touch that he usually exhibits and scene-stealer Thorley Waters as Dr. Watson has his customary twinkle. Ever dependable Hans Neilsen plays the man from the Yard and the much-respected, much-honoured Hans Soenker is an urbane Moriarty. Both Ivan Desny and Senta Berger have utterly thankless roles. Berger of course is utterly ravishing and it would not be long before Hollywood came to call.

Cinematography is by veteran Richard Angst. The direction is pedestrian whilst the score by Martin Slavin is atrocious.

Should you be a 'Holmesian' you will find this opus less than satisfactory. Should you not be then this is hardly likely to prompt you to become one!

It was always obvious, even before watching it, that this Sherlock Holmes movie wouldn't be as terrific and compelling as "The Hound of the Baskervillers" (the other Holmes movie directed by Terence Fisher and starring Christopher Lee – although not in the titular role), but I honestly didn't expect it to be *this* disappointing. The most major problems are noticeable on the surface already: an international co-production with two directors, a lesser interesting plot outline (at least in comparison with most of Doyle's stories), issues during the post-production phase and English-speaking actors whose voices are dubbed… in English! Yup, especially if you're a fan of the aforementioned Hammer film or – like myself – swear by the brilliant old Sherlock Holmes movie series starring Basil Rathbone, you might consider skipping this one or least lower your expectations drastically. Still, "S.H. and the Deadly Necklace" isn't entirely without merit, neither. Surely a lot of fans desperately crave to see the almighty Christopher Lee depict the greatest and most intelligent fictional detective who ever lived? Even though he doesn't sound like himself, Lee's charisma and impressive posture is exactly right for the character. With his inborn aura of superiority and stern grimaces, Lee is like a natural born Sherlock Holmes and it's regrettable that he was only offered to play the role once and in such lackluster conditions. Lee also receives excellent support from Thorley Walters (well cast as Dr. Watson) as well as a couple of lesser known performers. The film definitely also benefices from the masterful art direction and enchanting black-and-white cinematography, respectively courtesy of Paul Markwitz and Richard Angst. Last but not least there are some memorable moments to enjoy, including Watson's uncomfortable encounter with a prostitute and the multiple disguises of Sherlock Holmes. Sadly these aspects are merely just footnotes in an overall tedious, suspense-free and incoherent mystery/thriller.

"Sherlock Holmes and the Deadly Necklace" is, among the twenty- something films by Terence Fisher that I have seen, one of his less accomplished works. A bit better than the boring "Night of the Big Heat", this is a production with motivations I don't fully understand: for a start I do not know why they decided to make a Sherlock Holmes movie starring Christophe Lee in German (although there is an English language version, the official version is in German, which is the one I opted to watch), with Lee's real voice absent in all versions. Then I cannot reason why in 1962, with moneys coming from German, French and Italian production companies, they decided to shoot an adventure movie in black and white. The decision seems even more uninspired given the uneven quality of Richard Angst's cinematography, ranging from attractive expressionistic images (as the scene where Holmes saves his life using a police whistle) to flat compositions (as the Baker Street apartment). Maybe the budget was low, but they had several names in the cast that were not highly expensive, but neither cheap to hire. And thirdly there is not a well-defined concept of what they wanted to do: producers, composer, writer and director seem to point into different directions. The German producers probably assumed it as one of the many cheap detective movies they were making by the dozen, composer Martin Slavin opted for a playful score, writer Curt Siodmak kept loyal to Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's three main creations (Holmes, his nemesis Moriarty and his mate Dr. Watson) and Fisher… well, he had to keep everything going. However it would be unfair to deny that there are a few hints that suggest the intention of making some kind of photo-novel or a black-ink-on-cheap-white-paper comic book, and that would explain why the filmmakers could not care less what language characters spoke, the anachronisms (the more obvious being ladies' hair styles), Slavin's jingling-jangling cues, extensive use of maquettes, and a few disheveled art direction and wardrobe decisions, starting with the key prop, a very ugly and cheap looking necklace that supposedly once adorned Queen Cleopatra's neck. I am also sure that Lee never wore an uglier costume in his entire long career than the horrendous checkered suit he wears in the countryside sequence. The actor does his best as Doyle's creation (obviously not imagining the estrangement that dubbing would produce, resulting in an involuntary Brechtian effect of rejection to his participation in the movie), so we tend to go for the villains, played with gusto by Hans Söhnker as Moriarty and Leon Askin as his chauffeur-assistant Charles. But what we see is what we get, so we better not complain. We are warned very early into the film that we are going to watch a rather sloppy product, when the same shot of a longshoreman working on dock is repeated twice within minutes. Compared to this, Fisher's next project starring Pat Boone is a masterpiece.

I had my doubts about this film when I bought it, at the time I had become fan of Sherlock Holmes because of TV- series starring Jeremy Brett. Before that I had seen only few Basil Rathbone movies, which were enjoy ables but not as great as Brett's work. But I had to see Christopher Lee as Sherlock Holmes.

Well, first I was disappointed, because film is placed at 1910's instead of late 1800's. But jazz background music, great atmosphere that these black and white pictures have, and of course Christopher Lee as world's greatest detective saves a lot. Also Thorley Walters gives a good performance as Dr. Watson. The scenes where Holmes and prof. Moriarty are having an intellectual war between each other's and Homes showing how much the police has not seen on this case are must seen scenes for every Sherlock Holmes- fans.

Film is directed by Terence Fisher and I think it is even better then he's Hammer- film "the Hound of the Baskervilles" also starring Lee as a romantic hero. I only wish they would have cast also some British Hammer- actor as Moriarty.