The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes (1970)
Directed by Billy Wilder

Film Review

Billy Wilder's The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes may not have been a great commercial success when it was first released in 1970, and it may not have found favour with all the critics, but it now enjoys the status of a cult classic and is assuredly one of the most elegant and enjoyable of cinema's many takes on the exploits of Arthur Conan Doyle's famous Victorian detective.  Despite being heavily trimmed on its first release (removing two self-contained stories), the film is as slick and polished as any other Wilder production, and the dialogue (written by Wilder and his long-time collaborator Izzy Diamond) positively crackles with wit and mischievousness.  If the film does slightly send-up Doyle's creation, it does so in an affectionate and courteous manner, and manages to be much closer in spirit and mood to the original Sherlock Holmes stories than the Universal films featuring Basil Rathbone in the 1940s.

The casting is, for want of a better word, imaginative.  Robert Stephens, an accomplished actor of the English stage, is hardly the obvious choice to play Holmes but he brings a vigour and subtlety to the part that is seldom surpassed by the better known incumbents of the role.  There is a gentle campness to Stephens' humane portrayal of Holmes which is perfectly in keeping with the light-hearted tone of the film, but this does not detract from the complexity and tragic dimension of the character.  Watson is equally well interpreted by Colin Blakely, who, in contrast to the amiable buffoon portrayed by Nigel Bruce in the Universal films, is not merely included for comic relief but quickly establishes that he is worthy companion to Holmes, a helpmate and guardian angel (and occasional buffoon).  Geneviève Page is at her most ravishing as the enigmatic leading lady who somehow manages to arouse Holmes' seldom glimpsed romantic side whilst retaining an air of mystery that is as cool and impenetrable as London fog.  The handsome supporting cast includes Christopher Lee, superb as Holmes' cold-hearted brother (who gets a marvellous dressing down from a decidely unamused Queen Victoria), Stanley Holloway as a chirpy gravedigger and Irene Handl as possibly the greatest Mrs Hudson of them all.

As you would expect of a Billy Wilder film, the production standards on The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes are excellent.  No Hammer-style penny pinching on evidence here, or embarrassing use of clunky back-projection.  The sets and costumes are meticulously authentic, the photography (particularly that of the picturesque Scottish location) is stunning throughout, making this one of Wilder's most beautifully presented films.  Miklós Rózsa contributes an attractive score which adds greatly to the mood of the film, lifting it when the narrative pace occasionally shows signs of flagging.  The only area where the film is less than perfect is its far from elementary plot, which is so convoluted and intricate that is a real test of concentration to keep up with it.  Stop paying attention for one minute and you'll end up like poor Dr Watson at the end of the film, confused and slightly out of it.  Fortunately, thanks to the modern miracle of DVD, we can now go back and watch it again, and thereby gain a little more appreciation for a film that has for too long been considered one of Wilder's lesser works.  The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes is an absolute delight, the kindest and wittiest parody any fictional detective could hope for.

Film Synopsis

Sherlock Holmes is at a loose end when he is summoned to the ballet to attend a performance of Swan Lake with his friend and colleague Dr Watson.  Madame Petrova, Russia's leading ballerina, tells Holmes that she intends to retire from her profession and offers him an expensive violin if he will agree to father her child, in the hope that it will inherit his brains.  Holmes declines, insisting that he has no interest in women, hinting that his relationship with Watson is more than it appears.  A short while later, Holmes is visited by an attractive Belgian woman who is visibly distressed and suffering from amnesia.  The woman, Gabrielle Valladon, recalls that she was in London, looking for her engineer husband, when she was attacked and thrown into the river.  Intrigued, Holmes begins his investigation but is soon warned off by his brother Mycroft.   Undeterred, Holmes and Watson accompany Gabrielle to Scotland where they happen across a funeral in which Gabrielle's husband is buried along side two dwarfs.  The gravedigger reveals that the three corpses were fished out of Loch Ness and he is convinced that before they died they had a close encounter with the legendary monster.  Just when he is on the point of resolving the mystery Holmes runs up against his brother a second time, and realises that he is about to make the blunder of his career, all because of a woman...