For many years now, a polished brass plaque has rested on a graystone building on Sacramento street, across from Lafayette Park. The plaque reads, "This house, built in 1881, was once occupied by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle." The building looks like what might have once been a residence for the man who invented Sherlock Holmes.
Further investigation, however, reveals that the famous author never actually lived on Sacramento street. He merely visited one of its occupants in 1923 during a stop on an American lecture tour. Conan Doyle and his wife actually stayed at the Clift Hotel.
Recently out from Synergy Entertainment are two DVD sets of little seen and little known Sherlock Holmes and Sherlock Holmes-related films. Each of these three disc sets contains silent films, sound shorts, feature films, television programs and cartoons. Some of these are based on canon – others are pastiches or parodies. The titles on these sets are said to have been copied from original archival film elements, and chosen for their “quality and rarity.” Some are available on home video for the first time.
The first Sherlock Holmes Archive Collection was released in 2009. The second Archive Collection was released in 2010.
The first Sherlock Holmes Archive Collection includes on disc one Sherlock Holmes Fatal Hour (1931) with Arthur Wontner as Holmes; a 2-reel burlesque Lost in Limehouse (1933) with Olaf Hytten as Sheerluck Jones; and a 1-reel British short, Limejuice Mystery (1930), with the Herlock Sholmes marionettes. This latter short features a character named Anna Went Wrong.
Disc 2 has The Sting of Death (1955), with Boris Karloff as the mysterious Mycroft in an episode of the TV series “The Elgin Hour”; The Man Who Disappeared (1951), a British TV episode with John Longden as Holmes; and the comedy shorts A Case of Hypnosis (1952) and The Strange Case of Hennessy (1933). The latter stars Cliff Edwards as the nutty Silo Dance (a paraody of Philo Vance). Much of the film is casually talk-sung in subtle rhyme. Go figure!
Disc 3 has The Adventure of the Speckled Band (1949), with Alan Napier as Holmes; The Copper Beeches (1912), a French film with Georges Treville as Holmes; The Man with the Twisted Lip (1921) with Eille Norwood as Holmes; The Case of the Screaming Bishop (1944) a Hairlock Combs cartoon; and as a bonus an episode of “Schlitz Playhouse of Stars” titled The General’s Boots (1954), with Basil Rathbone.
The second Sherlock Holmes Archive Collection includes on disc one Sherlock Holmes Baffled (1903); The Mystery of the Leaping Fish (1916) starring Douglas Fairbanks Sr. as detective Coke Ennyday; The Dying Detective (1921) with Eille Norwood as Holmes; The Devil's Foot (1921) with Norwood as Holmes; The Mysterious Mystery (1924) with Our Gang; Slick Sleuths (1926) featuring Mutt & Jeff; an Arthur Conan Doyle filmed talk (1929); and Sure-Locked Homes (1928) with Felix the Cat.
Disc 2 has the more familiar Sherlock Holmes and the Secret Weapon (1942) with Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce; its Spanish-release version Sherlock Holmes Y La Mira Secreta (1942); Sherlock Holmes movie trailers from the 1940s; Nigel Bruce and Leslie Banks screen tests dating from 1934; and rare Basil Rathbone & Nigel Bruce photos dating from 1939-1946.
Disc 3 has Sherlock Holmes' First Cases (1954), three television episodes with Ronald Howard as Holmes; Prof. Lightskull & Doc Twiddle: Inside India (1951), a television pilot; The Singular Case of the Plural Green Mustache (1965), a short narrated by the son of Arthur Wotner; The Mystery of the Willing Victims (1981), a cartoon; and one episode of “The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes Radio Show” (1939).
Some of this material is good, some bad. The second collection is much more a miscellany compared to the first - though each has interesting and even bizarre material. Sherlock Holmes Baffled on the second collection is the first ever depiction of Sherlock Holmes. The other silent era material is interesting. Lost in Limehouse on the first collection is truly entertaining though rather silly and odd, and, it has former silent film star Laura LaPlante.
Both collections are handsomely packaged, though lacking in any sort of descriptive booklet. The print quality is good to very good on most every selection - though annoying is the Synergy watermark which comes and goes. All in all, these collections should appeal to the Sherlock Holmes complete-ist.
More info: Both first Sherlock Holmes Archive Collection and the second Sherlock Holmes Archive Collection are available through on-line retailers.
Thomas Gladysz is an arts journalist and author. Recently, he wrote the introduction to a new “Louise Brooks edition” of Margarete Böhme's classic book, The Diary of a Lost Girl (PandorasBox Press). Gladysz will speak about his new book at the Village Voice Bookshop in Paris on January 13, followed by a screening of the film at the nearby Action Cinema.
Comments
Depends on what "occupied" means!
I liked visiting a house in Savannah, where the guide said "this is the bedroom occupied by Sherman"
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