Sundog Rising!
Reflections on living the life literary by the Urban Sundog
Hounds and Baskervilles
And I haven’t even seen the Robert Downey Jr. version, let’s get that straight right up front.
When I started thinking about this week’s entry, I figured, well I must have seen 2 or 3 at least — wait a minute. More like 5 or 6 if I stop and think. No, wait again. More like …
How many?
Doing my research, I discovered there have been more than 85 actors who have played Sherlock Holmes on the screen! And once I started seriously listing them, I can say I’ve seen at least 13 of them. Eight different versions of The Hound of the Baskervilles alone! And that’s not counting the true hound, the Wishbone version I watched with my son way back when. Which now I think of it, gives me a subject for a future post. It’s time to start a Let’s Bring Back Wishbone movement!
In the meantime, chronologically, I’ve seen all the following actors play Arthur Conan Doyle’s legendary detective, in one form or another:
Basil Rathbone, Peter Cushing, Robert Stephens, Stewart Granger, Nicol Williamson, Christopher Plummer, Jeremy Brett, Michael Caine, Matt Frewer, Richard Roxburgh, Benedict Cumberbatch, Jonny Lee Miller, and Andrew Gower
Who have been ably assisted by the following Dr. Watsons:
Nigel Bruce, Andre Morell, Colin Blakely, Bernard Fox, Robert Duvall, James Mason, David Burke, Edward Hardwicke, Ben Kingsley, Kenneth Welsh, Ian Hart, Martin Freeman,
and … Lucy Liu?
Feeling like the odd doctor out at the old boys club, no doubt.
That’s 13 Holmeseses and 13 Watsons. But to be accurate, Jeremy Brett’s Holmes had both David Burke and Edward Hardwicke as Watson, while Andrew Gower’s David Kingsley/Sherlock Holmes on CBC’s Murdoch Mysteries doesn’t have a Watson to call his own. Although he does have Inspector William Murdoch, so it’s difficult to think of him as deprived.
It’s also difficult to think of any other character from literature who has been so immortalized in film. The only possible competitor would be Count Dracula, but that’s a subject for another day. Or perhaps, rather, night. Some of the earliest film versions of Holmes were made in Germany during the silent era, demonstrating his international appeal. "Mein Gott, Vatson, you dumbkopf!"
Once I discovered just how many different portrayers of Holmes there have been, I actually feel a little embarrassed to say I’ve only seen 13. So in a far from complete list, here’s how I would generally classify the actors I’ve mentioned.
First off, I’m upping the number to 15. I’ve decided I will count Wishbone and Robert Downey Jr. So, to begin with:
1. The Sherlock Holmes I’ve chosen not to see:
Robert Downey Jr. I’ve got nothing against Robert Downey Jr., I think he’s a fine actor. Or Jude Law as Dr. Watson. But the glossy, superficial image of these movies don’t appeal to me as a valid treatment of Holmes. There’s enough quality out there I can afford to skip him. Maybe my loss.
2. The Sherlock Holmes I was most disappointed by:
Nicol Williamson, in The Seven Percent Solution, 1976. With Robert Duvall as Dr. Watson. I know the movie did well, but I was hoping for so much more from Nicol Williamson.
3. The two Sherlock Holmeses who made the least impact on me:
Robert Stephens in The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes, 1970, with Colin Blakely as Dr. Watson; and Stewart Granger in a made for TV 1972 Hound of the Baskervilles, with Bernard Fox as Dr. Watson. I honestly don’t think Robert Stephens did that bad an acting job, but he didn’t have the physical presence for a memorable Holmes. I remember Christopher Lee in a bald wig as brother Mycroft much more vividly from that movie. And Stewart Granger was just too large, too silver haired, and too … Stewart Granger. Not always a fault in an actor playing Holmes, but all I remember is a particularly wide man in a deer stalker hat smoking a pipe.
4. The two odd duck Sherlock Holmeses
Matt Frewer, with Kenneth Welsh as Dr. Watson, and Richard Roxburgh with Ian Hart as Watson, both in Hounds of the Baskervilleses, 2000 and 2002 respectively. Again, Matt Frewer is just so undeniably physically bony Matt Frewer no matter what role he plays. The lack of an English accent didn’t help. Kenneth Welsh was more convincing as Watson. And then what was going on with Richard Roxburgh? Now there was an actor who again should have really torn the role apart, but the script has Holmes floundering helplessly in mortal peril at the end with a particularly strong and pissed off Watson needing to come to his rescue. Mess with the balance of weight between the two characters at your peril. Watson needs to be strong, and can flourish in a solo scene, but he should never overshadow Holmes when they’re sharing the screen. They can be shown as equals, but make Holmes inferior for a moment to the supporting cast and you’ve lost the mystique.
5. The Real Hound of the Baskervilles Sherlock Holmes
Wishbone, what can I say?
6. The funniest Sherlock Holmes
Michael Caine, in Without a Clue, 1988, with Ben Kingsley as the much smarter Dr. Watson. Making the inversion I said couldn’t work, work. Watson is the real genius but lacks the panache to carry off the stories, so he hires an actor to be Holmes for him. The imbalance can only be made to work as a comedy. An underrated movie, with both Caine and Kingsley demonstrating knacks for physical comedy you wouldn’t necessarily expect.
7. Today’s Television Sherlock Holmeses
Head to head, you’ve got Benedict Comberbatch in Sherlock, and Jonny Lee Miller in Elementary. With Martin Freeman and Lucy Liu as their respective Watsons.
I started off quite enjoying Sherlock. Having Steven Moffat as a producer/writer was an overwhelming plus in my mind, because one of the only characters that outdoes Sherlock Holmes for me is Dr. Who. But both my wife and I agree this series suffers from a major imbalance in weight between Holmes and Watson. We got tired of the way Comberbatch treats Martin Freeman extremely quickly, despite agreeing both actors were doing remarkable acting jobs.
At times the series comes across to me as having too much of Dr. Who. Comberbatch’s Sherlock often seems like a detached alien being from the rest of the human race, but here, that doesn’t necessarily work. Ultimately Holmes annoyed both my wife and me too much for us to continue watching the show. We saw the first six episodes before quitting.
Then we have Jonny Lee Miller, who I would give the award to for performing the best fully realized character who is Sherlock Holmes-like. I don’t fully see him as Sherlock Holmes, despite the name. But I do see him as a complete individual who is worth watching in his own right, with Sherlockian overtones. Likewise for Lucy Liu. And I find the balance of weight between these two characters pretty much perfect.
And thinking of Lucy Liu as Watson made me wonder why there's never been a female Sherlock Holmes -- and then I remembered there was! Shot right here in Winnipeg! A kids TV series running from 1996 to 1999, The Adventures of Shirley Holmes! Don't know how I forgot, we taped all the episodes and mailed them on VHS to a niece of our own living in Saskatchewan in a town that didn't get the station. The series starred Meredith Henderson as Shirley, Sherlock's great grand-niece, solving crimes in modern times with the help of an unlikely Watson, John White playing Bo Sawchuk, an ex-gang member.
But another surprising favourite on the Canadian small screen is Andrew Gower’s performance on the Murdoch Mysteries series as David Kingsley, a boy who was traumatized so badly in his youth he retreated into the fantasy of becoming Sherlock Holmes, who is entirely only a literary character in this series. But Gower’s Holmes is a very solid version of the icon. I didn’t expect to enjoy him, but I did. His character has appeared in the series twice so far. Arthur Conan Doyle as a character in the show has also been known to drop by Murdoch’s turn of the 20th Century Toronto as well. After all, it's a tenet of the show that Murdoch has to meet anyone who was anyone between 1890 to 1910.
8. The three runner up Holmeses
In fourth place, Peter Cushing from 1959’s Hound of the Baskervilles, with Andre Morell as Watson; in third, Christopher Plummer from 1979’s Murder by Decree, with James Mason as Watson; and in second and first-runner up — Basil Rathbone in a number of movies from 1939 on, with Nigel Bruce as Watson.
Cushing brought a debonair flair to the role, and Christopher Plummer’s thoughtful performance in what is probably my favourite Holmes movie of all time ranks him high. Combining Holmes and Jack the Ripper certainly wasn’t a mistake. And I have to say James Mason is my favourite Watson of all time.
In that movie. The TV adaptation the same duo did of "Silver Blaze" falls pretty flat.
But closest to the top is the always iconic Basil Rathbone. His characterization is superb. It’s the quality of the stories told in these films that lets you down. And Nigel Bruce playing Watson pretty much straight for bumbling humour also holds back what might have been the most stellar portrayals of all time.
9. So the Winner, and still Champeen!
Jeremy Brett. Anyone who has seen him in the role needs no further explanation. Ably aided by David Burke and Edward Hardwicke as his two Watsons, both right up there behind James Mason for me, with Hardwicke just edging Burke out for second place in the Doctor race.
Jeremy Brett was the actor who made you believe he was Sherlock Holmes.
What I can’t believe is that he also played Freddy Eynsford-Hill in 1964’s My Fair Lady. Jeremy Brett? Sherlock Holmes singing "On the Street Where You Live"?
Now there was an actor.
*****
BOOK LAUNCH!
Continuing the Grand Tradition!
Local writer Cathy MacDonald debuts her first mystery novel
Put on the Armour of Light
from Dundurn Press, at McNally Robinson Bookstore in Winnipeg
on November 30, 2014, 1 pm in the Travel Alcove
(not 2 in the Atrium as originally posted.)
For more information on Cathy and her sleuth Charles Lauchlan,
check out her website at:
http://www.charleslauchlan.com/
and blog at:
www.portageandslain.com
*****
REALITY FICTION AND BEYOND!
This week:
Continuing The Twitchy Gal with Chapter Twenty-Five posted on Monday and Chapter Twenty-Six coming on Friday, November 7th at:
http://realficone.blogspot.ca/
“Whatever saves my butt at the end of the day is James Joyce to me!” Reflection by Lou Moon on the Retreat being rescued from destruction by UFO crash with moments to spare by an unlikely literary device.
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