User Reviews

Edward Woodward is Holmes and John Hillerman is Watson. Anthony Andrews chews the scenery as Moriarty. Mycroft Holmes is kidnapped to help break a secret code to give Moriarty the key to British intelligence.

The makers of this original story try to give Holmes Holmesean things to say, so dialog is lifted from "The Greek Interpreter", "The Bruce-Partington Plans" and other Holmes tales by Arthur Conan Doyle. Their research is oddly inadequate in other places, for going by the number of the _Strand_ Watson displays, it's during the period when both Holmes and Moriarty are dead. Of course, Sir Arthur wasn't always careful about these things himself.

The rather silly story telegraphs most of the major plot twists well ahead of time. It ends with a chase in hearses that reminds one of the 60s comedy "The Wrong Box". Throughout, the dialog is obvious, especially one unintentionally humorous scene in the middle where Holmes and Moriarty both have each other at gunpoint and no one shoots.

Moriarty is a genius of evil yet he surrounds himself with the sort of henchmen Austin Powers' Dr. Evil would be proud of. Perhaps no one would look quite adequate compared to Moriarty (there is mention that he is a mathematical genius who wrote a work on asteroids), but these guys are such obvious losers one wonders what the job market for crooks looked like in the 1890s, if this was the best he could hire.

In contrast to the wonderful Granada series where Watson was perfectly portrayed as a surgeon who performed under fire (and was wounded, twice or so) in Afghanistan, and who possessed the courage, intelligence and patriotism of the ordinary Victorian gentleman who simply isn't up to Holmes' massive intelligence, John Hillerman's Watson is a slight reversion to the old days where Watson was portrayed in the first stages of senility. This Watson is not truly dumb (like, say, Nigel Bruce or Bernard Fox) but he's incredibly gullible. In the midst of a tense case where Watson knows Moriarty is roaming free and he's out to get the Holmes brothers and he's already abducted Mycroft, someone rushes up to Watson and says, basically, "Come with me, somebody's sick," and Watson dutifully tags along. But Watson does come through competently in the end. Curiously, Hillerman's Watson is sporting a beard. Perhaps that's why his wife has thrown him out of the house and he's living with Holmes at a time when none of them should be at 221B Baker Street.

It's difficult to understand why Mycroft Holmes, who is conceded to be, even by Sherlock, the sharper of the two brothers, was abducted so easily. It was a trick Watson might've fallen for, but Mycroft should've seen through it in an instant.

Woodward's Holmes is waspish and irritable and Hillerman's laid back Watson makes a extreme contrast. As usual, too much is made of Holmes' recreational cocaine use. No one divulges what sort of sedative Watson is on, but Hillerman never seems to raise his eyelids all the way up. Lestrade is simply a loud-mouthed jerk. The excessively loud music cues ones emotional responses, so all one has to do is watch and never really think or feel.

For the Holmes completest, it's a necessary curio. For the typical viewer whose knowledge of Holmes is rudimentary at best, it's an undemanding time-killer that's a cut above most other TV-movies (they went all out on interior decoration). Why it's called "Hands of a Murderer" isn't explained, but it's a suitably lurid title.

This one-off Sherlock Holmes film for television starts in quite focused, dynamic, and dramatic fashion with a scene of Professor Moriarty escaping his hanging in quite a clever fashion. Unfortunately, the rest of the film doesn't really maintain this standard, and it descends into what is for the most part a laughable, though interesting, muddle.

The plot first. On the whole, it doesn't seem to make much sense, and I couldn't tell quite whether the filmmakers were trying to cleave to the Sherlock Holmes canon (they included many rehashed incidents and lines of dialogue from Arthur Conan Doyle) or strike out on their own (this certainly resembles no particular story), but what they do come up with is mainly vague hints of danger and a bit about a disgraced actress with unexplained superpowers of hypnosis. It doesn't really hold the attention nor does it come together cohesively.

Edward Woodward notoriously looks nothing like Sherlock Holmes, but I got past that quite quickly. He actually does a very good job with the part. His Holmes is in the Jeremy Brett mold and while he certainly not as good as Brett's masterful performances as the detective, he is very worth watching. His Holmes is appropriately spiky and irascible but with a sense of humor, and he manages to make the exaggerated dialogue written for him to show how loyal he is to his brother Mycroft believable.

Mycroft as played by Peter Jeffrey is very much the creature-of-habit civil servant, and important element of the the Mycroft Holmes character that we don't often see. However, after the scene lifted from "The Greek Interpreter" in which the brothers have a deduction contest through the window, we don't get the slightest hint that Mycroft is is supposed to be the intellectual better of the world's greatest detective -- or even of higher than average intelligence. Many scenes of Mycroft being tortured for information pile up and become repetitive as well as exploitive.

Moriarty here, and most of the scenes he appears in (as well as that in which mystery-hypnotist-woman puts her lover in a trance) are so overplayed that they become complete unintentionally funny cheese. Anthony Andrews overacts completely as the professor; his only character work seems to consist of "I am utterly evil." The villain is portrayed as sashaying around an office full of Egyptian mummies, while apparently keeping a poisonous snake in a cigar box just so he can kill people by asking them to get a cigar.

John Hillerman is largely adequate as Watson, though a little shallow in his constant semi-bewilderment. To top it off, most of the dialogue is quite cliché-ridden and content-free. There's a certain interest to this film as another interpretation of Holmes and an apparent attempt to "darken" the detective for the 1990s, but it mostly comes off as misguided and silly.

Everyone above must have watched a different film to the one I had the misfortune to sit through last night. This is not just the worst Holmes film I've ever seen but one of the worst films I've ever seen. The writing was pitiful. Everything's solved by someone drawing a gun! Turgid, simplistic and riddled with holes. For instance, why does Moriarty sit there gurning while Holmes spends 14 years grinding down his chains, or jump out of the carriage, as Holmes does? I thought the bloke was supposed to be a criminal mastermind? Oh, I could go on forever, but I'll never get back those minutes I lost watching that rubbish, and I don't want to do the same to you, whiffling on here. One final word: Avoid. Like the plague. (Sorry, that was three more.)

I like Woodward, Hillerman and Andrews. All excellent actors. This film is good overall. The story is interesting. It is great to see a lot of the canonical characters. The action is well paced. Anthony Andrews makes an excellent Moriartry. Hillerman is good as Watson. However, I always think of the Sidney Paget depiction of Holmes. Woodward is too stocky for Homes. He does a good job though.