It's based on "The Valley of Fear," Conan-Doyle's last and least novella. Poor Conan-Doyle. He'd grown to dislike Sherlock Holmes. The character was a cash cow but had become Frankenstein's monster. And there is nothing more disgusting than a cow that is a monster except a mixed metaphor.
Conan-Doyle had a much larger vision -- writing epic adventure stories. He did write some and a few were popular successes -- "The Lost World" -- but they didn't compare with Holmes. As time went by, Conan-Doyle put less effort into the Holmes stories. They lost their savour. In "The Triumph of Sherlock Holmes" with Arthur Wontner, we can see the result. This is a colorless Holmes -- no dope, no quirks, and some of the deductions are literally incredible.
Wontner himself isn't that bad except when compared to Basil Rathbone or Jeremy Brett. Wontner simply isn't a commanding presence. It's too bad because more than any other Holmes he resembles the Sidney Paget illustrations that accompanied the original magazine stories.
I suppose one of the ways that Conan-Doyle was able to satisfy his need to write exotic adventures was to insert flashbacks that took us to lands far away from 221b Baker Street. In "A Study in Scarlet" it was Mormons; here it's what seems to be the Wobblies in the Pennsylvania coal country. The back stories are frankly dull.
The productions are adequate, no more than that. The set dressings don't look cheesy; they only look stagy. The performances fit into the same category. The most memorable figure is McGinty, the head honcho of the Scowrers, a giant of a man with a voice to match.
Conan-Doyle had a much larger vision -- writing epic adventure stories. He did write some and a few were popular successes -- "The Lost World" -- but they didn't compare with Holmes. As time went by, Conan-Doyle put less effort into the Holmes stories. They lost their savour. In "The Triumph of Sherlock Holmes" with Arthur Wontner, we can see the result. This is a colorless Holmes -- no dope, no quirks, and some of the deductions are literally incredible.
Wontner himself isn't that bad except when compared to Basil Rathbone or Jeremy Brett. Wontner simply isn't a commanding presence. It's too bad because more than any other Holmes he resembles the Sidney Paget illustrations that accompanied the original magazine stories.
I suppose one of the ways that Conan-Doyle was able to satisfy his need to write exotic adventures was to insert flashbacks that took us to lands far away from 221b Baker Street. In "A Study in Scarlet" it was Mormons; here it's what seems to be the Wobblies in the Pennsylvania coal country. The back stories are frankly dull.
The productions are adequate, no more than that. The set dressings don't look cheesy; they only look stagy. The performances fit into the same category. The most memorable figure is McGinty, the head honcho of the Scowrers, a giant of a man with a voice to match.