dvd Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes

dvd 3* "The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes" 2004 stars Jeremy Brett. The commentary sheds light on the star having only a cameo in The Mazarin Diamond story, bloated from depression meds and heart deterioration, slimming black outfits, and trouble with lines in the Three Gables, where a young diplomat expires of injuries from his lover's bullies; his gran asks why now the household is under attack.
The Dying Detective simulates a tropical fever draws a greedy cousin to confess. The Golden Pince-Nez are left behind, and last words are "she" for likeable secretary to heavy smoking invalid in closed corridors with no escape. "Red Circle" chases a desperate Italian couple, and Watson leads the Black G to cut another throat. Here, the Three Garridebs are involved with the Mazarin Stone, so I'm unsure how they and Three Gables can be separate in Doyle's 1920-7 Casebook. The Cardboard Box is under the Xmas tree of a quarrelsome spinster. So many Sherlock tales have different titles, I remembered this "eary" one An extra is an interview with a Doyle descendant, held in a Foundation in Switzerland, in a room full of real artifacts from the time. Like the film version, but more crowded.

"The law is what we live with. Justice is sometimes harder to achieve."
"What is the object of this circle of misery, violence and fear? ... humanity's great problem for which reason so far has no answer."

Stars: Jeremy Brett

Sherlock Holmes and the Baker Street Irregulars 2007 4*

Two members of Sherlock Holmes' (Jonathan Pryce) street urchin gang (Ben Smith, Mia Fernandez) are kidnapped by a vicious murdering Irene (Anna Chancellor). The audience can identify with the apprentices, absorbing forensic techniques pushed forward by Doyle, leading international true crime consultant.

In book, Adler is deviously clever, hotly passionate. Here, why does she learn embalming from scratch, execute perfectly first and only time, so glass eye rolls across hotel room rug? A simple head silhouette would do.

I like this more understated realistic presentation than longtime actor Brett's swoopy tadara extravagance. Downey-Law 2009 explodes with cartoon action, more humor. Cumberbatch TV series updates Doyle. (Also stars Bill Paterson).

Sherlock Holmes 1 2009 5* - Downey, Law, McAdams

In honor of the 2011 Downey/Law sequel Game of Shadows, I'm catching up on Holmsian books and films. Fast, furious, fun, frenetic, and authentic, including the soundtrack. Doyle's scholastic, almost pompous, duo are here mischievous rambunctious boys. The method, buildings matched to symbolic animals, is unnecessarily tangled, best reduced to Holmes deductions from Lord Coward's clothing ruffles for the climax confrontation site and solving the ginger midget's conjuring tricks.

Open scene is hot double-barrelled chase and fight to capture Lord Blackwood mid-murder in a Gothic romance sacrifice ceremony. I've seen the whole before, but only recall fights, chases, and explosions, and enjoy enough for more - costumes, architecture, nuances. Clever film effects and sound show the detective's intense focus on detail, and the worst flame-bath effectively pierces and dulls our hearing too. Holmes reasons away devil magic and resurrection with science. Although the final fate of the villain in a storm does suggest divine retribution. I could do without the recurring Poe raven. After repeated watching, I guess it to be the called-for devil demanding his due.

The dim soft gray-brown palette evokes early photographs, suits smoky Victorian London, a character herself; the conversational style is reminiscent of the books. "Give me problems. Give me work." "food for thought" Dialogue and decoding scratches on a watch are straight from "The Sign of Four". Details, such as boxing, martial arts, inventions, untidy flat, VR initials gunshot into the wallpaper, attention to detail, conceit, and wit "fast women and slow horses" are true to Doyle. Various cases lend quotes, some in different context. The greatest adaptation differences are to do with the women. In Sign of Four, the men meet Mary together without conflict or jealousy. Irene Adler, bright in crimson satin and lush lips, is tempting competitive love interest.


Spoiler:

The doomed multiple murderer warns Holmes of a larger web, is hanged, and appears to rise from the grave, replaced with a body sought by the fascinating Irene Adler, employed unwillingly by the arch-villain Moriarty, a hint for the sequel.

Sherlock TV S1 2010 5* - Benedict Cumberbatch, Martin Freeman

The humorous, dangerous, very British BBC UK 2010 version updated Doyle with internet and mobile phones, revived my interest in Doyle's classic Victorian murder mysteries promoting early forensics and deductive solutions. Surprisingly, old and new Watson (Freeman) are both injured veterans of Kandahar, Afghanistan. The city of London is still an old character.

Cumberbatch has a lighter, less melodramatic interpretation than Jeremy Brett and not caught in explosions like Downey. Study in Pink is loosely based on Study in Scarlet, (Spoiler? having a choice of pills, placebo or poison, and a hack-cab driver hiding in plain sight). I was glad to see PBS and BBC-America bring my favorites over the pond.