User Reviews

One of the earlier episodes of the Granada series, with Jeremy Brett as Holmes and David Burke as Watson. For me, what stood out in this film was less the acting (which is very good), but the humour. To watch out for in particular:

• The opening scene (in the barber's shop), where Watson tries a little deduction of his own, taking Holmes somewhat by surprise. As it turns out, Watson is mostly right, but Holmes does not give way without teasing him first. A wonderful addition that highlights the friendship between the two men.

• Observation and deduction on the carriage standing outside 221b Baker Street on their return, here scripted with both Holmes and Watson speaking, and so breaking once and for all, from earlier portrayals of Watson as slow or 'bumbling.' Though if you think about it, he couldn't have been either. He was a successful medical doctor, surely that alone required more than a modicum of intelligence, even in late Victorian England?!

• The scene in the murdered Blessington's bedroom, where Holmes examines the evidence, picks up a hair from here, a cigarette stub from there, and some ash residue from somewhere else, before making ready to leave, having pronounced to the police inspector, Watson, and others, that it's perfectly clear what has happened. The comic element is in the expressions of the other actors, and in Holmes's surprise when Watson (baffled and slightly long- suffering), asks him if he might 'tell us something now, Holmes?'

• The scene of Holmes and Watson back at Baker Street, with the former strewing papers and notebooks all over every available surface in his search for a newspaper cutting that solves the mystery. Look out in particular for Watson's hurried departure from a Mrs. Hudson who at that moment, is feeling pleased that she has finally managed to complete her spring cleaning, and that good lady's horror when she sees the state of the Baker Street sitting room.

• Holmes stopping his violin practice so that Watson can get on with writing, to the latter's deepest gratitude, only to continue scratching away (very badly) in the next room.

Hugely fun to watch, with exuberant performances from Brett and Burke, with Brett's Holmes full of the brilliance, arrogance, single-mindedness, and eccentricity of Doyle's master detective.

A young GP called Dr Percy Trevelyan (Nicholas Clay) seeks the advice of Sherlock Holmes (Jeremy Brett) about his benefactor's strange behaviour. He locks himself away in his rooms, never goes out and keeps a loaded pistol beside him at all times. Only a short while ago, this benefactor, Mr Blessington (Patrick Newell), had turned up at the struggling young doctor's surgery out of blue and offered him financial assistance to set up a lucrative practice at a fashionable address in London in return for residence at his house and three-quarters of his income. It seems that Blessington is hiding a guilty secret and is living in fear for his own life. On the following morning, he is found hanging in his bedroom. The police suspect suicide, but Holmes and Dr Watson (David Burke) uncover something far more sinister...

All in all a superb addition to ITV's acclaimed series based upon the works of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. The excellent dramatisation of David Marlowe and the direction by David Carson strike just the right balance between humour, intrigue and the more horrific elements of the story. Jeremy Brett is definitely one of the best actors to have played the famous Baker Street sleuth bringing out the character's intelligence, eccentricities and nuances while David Burke's Dr Watson avoids making the usual mistake of portraying the role as a bumbling buffoon and the on screen chemistry between he and Holmes is a joy to watch. The solution is a satisfying one and like the best suspense films it leaves many questions unanswered at the end leaving the audience to reach its own conclusions about what has occurred. Nicholas Clay is very good in the part as the young doctor as is Patrick Newell as Blessington. Viewers will remember Newell for his part as the espionage boss 'Mother' in the classic 1960's adventure series The Avengers.

Up to snuff for the series, this episode has Holmes and Watson visited by a young doctor (Nicholas Clay) who tells an odd tale. Recently licensed, or certified, or ordained, or whatever the hoop is called that docs in the 1880s had to jump through, Clay is broke and shivering in a drab apartment. You cannot be a successful doctor without the proper props -- a nice office in the right location, a grand consulting room with potted plants, and medical equipment more sophisticated than a potato peeler. You need to dress and groom properly too. Clay can't afford any of this.

Enter Patrick Newell as a wealthy older gentleman who offers to set Clay up in practice on Brooke Street for a three-quarter share of any profits. The profits appear apace, and Newell himself moves into an upstairs room as a resident patient, though there is nothing wrong with him. But then, as Clay tells Holmes, a residence in the neighborhood is burglarized. Newell goes Asiatic at the news. He has the windows barred, the locks changed, and the drawbridge raised. On a later occasion he claims that his room has been entered and takes to his bed in a state of enduring panic. There being no Xanax at the time, he stays there until the thing he'd feared finally takes place and Newell is left hanging.

It's not an especially gripping episode but the series itself was so finely done, at least during the first years, that it's entertaining.

The original story is padded out with an opening that takes place in Watson's barber shop and leads to a delightful sketch of Beethoven's violin concerto. The ending brings the musical theme back. Watson is beginning to write the tale but Holmes is scratching away at his violin in the same room and distracting him. (If you wanted to hear the violin in the Beethoven concerto played badly, this is one place to look.) Watson asks Holmes to please leave. As he does so, Holmes suggests that Watson change the name of the story from "The Brooke Street Case" to "The Resident Patient." The indignant Watson shrugs the suggestion off. But he's still nagged by Holmes trying to get the concerto right in the next room, botching it and starting over, until finally Watson crosses out his own title on the manuscript and writes in Holmes', at which point the violin becomes sweet again and a full orchestra takes up the melody.

Now, that's some pretty subtle stuff. But the Brits are excellent at this sort of thing and this BBC production should be applauded. Jeremy Brett gives us a real Holmes, quirky and arrogant and full of tics. And the period detail is impeccable. Holmes smokes his pipe often, yes, but not a non-canonical calabash. It's all very nicely done.

An elderly man sets up a young doctor to do posh practice as long as he gets a cut of the pay. However, things go very awry when he is haunted by strangers that seem to have entered his house. The story is decent enough but is nothing really exciting or remarkable. I think what I enjoyed most was Brett performance as Sherlock Holmes in this episode. Here he has many fine moments with him finding clues at the scene of Blessington's murder or when he leaves a mess for Mrs. Hudson to clean up while he's going through papers. I certainly agree that it is worth watching at the very least for the barber shop scene at the beginning and maybe even the closing credits where Holmes annoys Watson with his violin practice. Certainly one to be seen for the acting and the humor if nothing else.

The crooks abandon a pulley when they see the chandelier hook on the ceiling. That's a lot of weight to lift for one man with a primitive lifting manner. They kick out the bed, and it's light enough to move with a body. But heavy enough to have a body and pulley anchored to?

Fun episode. Good not great. Actors shine.