The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes

Billy Wilder's 1970 take on the world's most famous detective is one of the writer-director's loveliest films, a sly, bittersweet, autumnal production that approaches the Holmes legacy with both humor and respect. Robert Stephens portrays the sleuth as a genial, witty fellow who is well aware of his reputation and quite a bit more socially deft than in subsequent incarnations, while Colin Blakely costars as a jolly, loyal Watson. The game is afoot after the body of foreign beauty Gabrielle Valladon (Genevieve Page) is fished out of the Thames bearing Holmes's card in her pocket and a few enigmatic clues on her person. The case eventually draws Holmes and Watson into the orbit of Sherlock's brother, Mycroft (Christopher Lee), as well as a bizarre mystery involving missing little people and the Loch Ness monster. Wilder played with revisionism of the Holmes legend decades before it was fashionable, incorporating Holmes's addiction as a central issue and cleverly tweaking the homoerotic readings of the Holmes-Watson relationship while spinning a melancholy tale of a logician who hides the heart of a wounded romantic. Both a superb film and a timely release, given the surge of interest in Sherlock Holmes—as evidenced in the current TV series' Elementary and Sherlock­—The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes unfortunately suffers from a somewhat disappointing transfer, displaying scuffs and scratches, faded color, and a haze across much of the footage. Extras include deleted scenes reconstructed from incomplete elements and video interviews with Lee and editor Ernest Walter. Recommended, overall. (S. Axmaker)