Sherlock Holmes Returns

This one's near the bottom of the barrel of Holmes pastiches, with Anthony Higgins wildly miscast as Holmes and a routine TV movie plot. Not worth the time it takes to watch it and lacking the comic awfulness of (say) the infamous Stewart Granger "Hound of the Baskervilles" with it's cardboard sets and William Shatner's over-acting as the villain.

This would have proved to be a fun series if produced. The Sherlock Holmes, not usually my favorite character, was well cast and Deborah Farentino would have been a fine addition. Not as serious as the Doyle novels, of which were relatively low brow. The story was interesting and well staged. Its too bad that some have taken them seriously, but when taken with a good mood, I guarantee you could really enjoy this little lark. Living in San Francisco for a number of years it was nice to see the old city. No, it isn't classic mystery, but really, neither was the source material. All in all a well paced breezy mystery worthy of attention it never received.

This movie seemed to pretty clearly be a series pilot that was not picked up. That's a shame, as I enjoyed the sense of humor in the movie. There were possibilities, as long as they didn't try to get too clever with some of the supporting characters that they seemed to be setting up.

No, it is not traditional Holmes, but for our family, it was clean, fast-paced and funny ... well worth watching repeatedly!

If you just don't take yourselves and Sherlock too seriously, it's a hoot! Yes, the scene at the beginning was a bit hokey, but his demeanor in performing the initial discoveries upon awakening was hilarious.

We loved the twists ... thought his ineptitude juxtaposed with his genius was fantastic ... and we loved the sling-shot effect his revised conclusions had on us.

I particularly loved his dealing with technology ... his responses to American 20th century slang ... his misdirections as a result of the new "wonders" he had yet to learn ... and yeah, Big Willy ... heh, heh, heh.

And then there was Zapper ... ah, he was absolutely the best ... what growth potential there was for that character!

Dr. Winslow was a perfect foil ... not just a hanging on the coat tails side-kick ... I liked her.

We also had the impression that Mrs. Hudson's character was going to be more present if this had gone into series, and that would have been fun.

I wish we could find it in distribution as a CD so we could watch it more often ... the tape I made from the original TV airing is almost completely worn out.

So, lighten up and I'm certain you'll love it, too ... if you can ever find it.

Please, if any of you find it you'll let me know about it, eh?;-)

Yeah ... I liked Moriarity from 'Young Sherlock' being Sherlock here .... that was kewl.

This version just doesn't work. The casting and directions are just too off to really get a connection with the viewer. The script and concept, however could work if given some decent production. In fact, it did six years earlier!

This 1993 made-for-TV movie was a remake of a 1987 made-for-TV movie. Obviously meant as a series pilot that just never took off. Even though the 1987 cast and crew did it much better, they decided to remake the same script. If you can find it somewhere, its definitely a must-see for mystery and Sherlock Holmes fans. Check it out at http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0093850/ Just forget about this 1993 version. It's painfully obvious they just couldn't get the same cast and crew that worked in '87 version.