BY DARREN ALLISON
The Film Detective has released one of their
most ambitious film sets to date with The Sherlock Holmes Vault Collection. The
set features three of the five films made between the years 1931-1937 starring
Arthur Wontner as world’s greatest super sleuth. Having been told he resembled
Doyle's creation for years, Wontner was finally cast in the role for The
Sleeping Cardinal (released under its American title as Sherlock Holmes' Fatal
Hour in this box set) in 1931. Produced by Twickenham Studios, Fatal Hour was
loosely based on "The Adventure of the Empty House" (a short story
written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle) with the noticeable change that in the film
version, Ronald Adair is a card cheat. Wontner was joined by Ian Fleming as
Doctor Watson and Philip Hewland as Inspector Lestrade. Sherlock Holmes' Fatal
Hour played rather well and was considered a success. As a result, little time
was wasted when producer Julies Hagen quickly rushed a second film into
production. The Missing Rembrandt (1932) reunited director Leslie S. Hiscott
with Wontner, Fleming, and Hewland. Unfortunately, it is not included within
this collection, as sadly it is considered a lost film - and naturally there
isn’t much The Film Detective can do about that. The collection is also missing
Wontner’s third outing as Holmes, The Sign of Four: Sherlock Holmes' Greatest
Case, also made in 1932.
However, there is still plenty here to enjoy
in this nicely compiled collective. The series of films picks up again with
Wontner’s fourth movie, The Triumph of Sherlock Holmes (1935). The story sees
Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson come out of retirement to investigate a
mysterious murder. They find that an American criminal organisation called The
Scowrers has asked evil mastermind Professor Moriarty to wreak vengeance on
John Douglas, the informant who sent them to prison. Again, the film did very
well and received a great many positive critical reviews.
Wontner was by now fifty-nine years old, and
it was becoming increasingly difficult to hide his age. Wontner's final Holmes
film, Silver Blaze (1937) had Ian Fleming return for a final turn as Dr.
Watson, as did Lyn Harding as Moriarty while John Turnbull became the third
actor to play Inspector Lestrade. The production notably injected Sir Henry
Baskerville from The Hound of the Baskervilles into this adaptation. The film
wasn't released in the U.S. until 1941 by which time it had undergone a title
change to Murder at the Baskervilles, probably due to the overwhelming success
of Basil Rathbone s The Hound of the Baskervilles (1939).
Whilst this set is clearly not the definitive
Wontner collection, The Film Detective has also included a bonus film to round
out the set. A Study in Scarlet (1933) was an American Pre-Code mystery
thriller directed by Edwin L. Marin and starring Reginald Owen as Sherlock
Holmes and Anna May Wong as Mrs. Pyke. Despite her billing, Anna May Wong only
appears on screen for some ten minutes. Reginald Owen had played Dr. Watson in
Sherlock Holmes (1932) and as such, became one of a small number of actors to
play both Holmes and Watson. A Study in Scarlet remains a nicely made movie,
dripping with atmosphere and rife with coded messages, villains and secret
passages. The film also opens with the original BBFC U certificate card.
Each of the four films (individually cased)
in this collection come with an impressive set of extra material. All four
films include an audio commentary: Fatal Hour (Jennifer Churchill), The Triumph
of Sherlock Holmes (Jason A. Ney), Silver Blaze (Phoef Sutton & Mark Jordan
Legan) and A Study in Scarlet (Peter Atkins & David Breckman). All
commentaries are informative and enjoyable. The history of Holmes is explored
over 3 parts and 3 discs in The Adventures of Sam Sherman, and lasting around
20 minutes in total. There are also a number of original shorts dating way back
to the 1900’s. In fact Sherlock Holmes Baffled (1900) may only run for around
30 seconds, but is still acknowledged as the earliest known film to feature
Arthur Conan Doyle's detective character. The quality of these shorts varies,
from excellent to the bad beyond compare. A Black Sherlock Holmes for example
is barely watchable, there is so much damage - but considering its historical
and social importance alone, it certainly warrants its inclusion here. Also
included is a reconstructed Radio adaptation of Sherlock Holmes and the Blue
Carbuncle, a Felix the Cat cartoon Sure Luck Holmes (1928). Elementary Cinema:
The first cinematic adventures of Sherlock Holmes, is an original documentary
lasting 27 minutes plus a full episode (Blind Man’s Bluff, 26 minutes) of the
Ronald Howard Sherlock Holmes TV series is also a welcome addition. The episode
(filmed in black and white) has been mastered rather nicely too, although
wrongly dated as 1964 instead of 1954.
So there is certainly plenty here for any
Holmes fan to enjoy. However, it is in the quality of the feature films where
this set falls short. All of these films were low budget productions, and were
never going to compete with the Basil Rathbone movies which were classy and
altogether more prestigious in their presentation. But that doesn’t mean that
these films still shouldn’t look good. Sadly, it looks as if all of these films
were struck from grainy 16mm prints, and it shows. In the case of Sherlock
Holmes' Fatal Hour (albeit, the earliest film here), I found myself stepping
down on the sharpness control, just to eliminate the heavy graininess of the
picture. I have no doubt at all that The Film Detective has probably worked
with the best possible sources that were made available to them.
If these films are new to you and first-time
purchases, then I dare say they will fit perfectly in your collection. But for
the more travelled Holmes fan it might be worth checking out your existing
versions again first, and ask yourselves if it is worth the overall upgrade?
The packaging has been nicely put together, a
nice leather look brown slip case holds all 4 individually cased movies, each
of which comes with a postcard-sized art card and an informative booklet
containing history and essays for each of the films. I certainly can’t fault
the effort here; it’s just a shame that the quality of the films doesn’t quite
hit the mark.
(Darren Allison is the soundtracks editor for Cinema Retro. Read his column in every issue.)
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