Only five episodes of the BBC s celebrated 1960s Sherlock Holmes series survive. Coincidentally, all five star the inimitable Peter Cushing (Star Wars) as Sir Arthur Conan Doyle s legendary detective, with Nigel Stock as Dr. Watson. And, fortunately for Holmes fans, they have finally been made available on DVD in North America, courtesy of A&E.
Having already starred as Holmes in the famous Hammer film Hound of the Baskervilles, Cushing was uniquely suited to craft the definitive portrayal for these five captivating televised mysteries. For his first outing as the BBC s Holmes, Cushing revisits the moors of Dartmoor for a feature-length version of Holmes most well-known case, The Hound of the Baskervilles. Subsequent adventures pit his vaunted intellect against murderers, cannibals and Australian bushwackers in faithful productions of The Sign of the Four, The Blue Carbuncle, A Study in Scarlet and The Boscombe Valley Mystery.There will certainly be some car-door slamming on Baker Street with the release of this essential collection of the long-thought-lost 1960s BBC TV series. The set contains five surviving episodes starring the venerable Peter Cushing as Sherlock Holmes, whose deerstalker he first tried on for size in the 1959 Hammer production of The Hound of the Baskervilles. That classic mystery gets the two-part treatment here and is easily the highlight of the set. The other stories–”A Study in Scarlet,” “The Sign of Four,” “The Blue Carbuncle,” and “The Boscombe Valley Mystery,” each clocking in at less than an hour–are a little worse for the abridgment, but watching Cushing’s cool and collected Holmes is good to while away an hour or two. To paraphrase Paul Simon, every generation throws a Sherlock Holmes up the pop charts, and Cushing ranks with the best of them (Basil Rathbone, Jeremy Brett). “I am no policeman,” he proclaims at one point. “I am the last and highest court of appeal in detection. When the official police are out of their depth, the matter is laid before me.” His partner Watson (Nigel Stock) is wrong when he states that “anticipation is the worst part of any adventure.” On the contrary, one eagerly anticipates Holmes’s arrival on the scene, where he will meticulously examine the clues and use his “remarkable powers of observation” to solve cases the police consider closed. Each baffling mystery is but “child’s play” or “commonplace” to him. As Watson gasps after Holmes makes another brilliant deduction, “You amaze me.” And so will this collection, no doubt. –Donald Liebenson
Buy “The Sherlock Holmes Collection” For Only $14.86
April 13, 2008
#1
I am eleven years old and I give Sherlock Homes five stars. When I went to see this movie it had a lot of action. Like things blowing up, and people fighting.
The movie was about a man “Sherlock Homes.” Who tries to catch a man who is killing people with tricks?
This movie was awesome! It keeps you watching to see what happens next. It is really funny too. I don’t see how those people don’t laugh when they do their scripts.
The special effect was good. It looked like it was real. The way they set it up made it even better. It was set up in the old days. It had really good details too.
The meaning is very simple. It means to me that don’t give up no matter what or who you are looking for. This movie is a must see. You should see it because the scenes. There are about three scenes that have slow motion in them. He thinks of what he’s going to do then. BAM! He does it, and they are knocked out cold.
April 13, 2008
#2
It’s great to see this on American DVD (NTSC). I have the PAL set from BBC but it doesn’t play well on my all-region player. This set is much better. It’s too bad A&E didn’t arrange to include the two earlier b/w shows from the BBC with Douglas Wilmer as Holmes: the 1964 pilot (The Speckled Band) and the first of the 1965 series of 12 episodes (The Illustrious Client), which appeared on PAL VHS from BBC in 1996.
April 13, 2008
#3
Let me start by saying that the episodes are all wonderful…the acting is superb and Peter Cushing shines like the star he was…I could tell you all about the different elements of mystery and drama on these discs but you already know that if you know who Peter Cushing is..if you do not then buy this collection from Amazon..it is worth every penny..I am a Peter Cushing fan and have watched probably every movie he has graced with his presence..he is at his best here as Sherlock Holmes.If you want to see more movies with Peter Cushing in them check out Hammer Films…he’s in quite a few of them…
April 13, 2008
#4
For many years, fans of Sherlock Holmes have been aware of the BBC series starring the great Peter Cushing as HOlmes.
However, due to the BBC policy of erasing tapes for reuse, episodes of this show have seldom been available for those living in the US–and those that were available (through gray-market sellers) were not very watchable.
Therefore, this collection of episodes, each in nice clear and clean prints, is a joy to receive. As expected, Cushing makes a very fine HOlmes and Nigel Stock makes an equally fine Watson.
One can only hope that BBC can locate more of these episodes–as well as some of the Douglas Wilmer shows that followed.
April 14, 2008
#5
This is the closest you’ll ever get to see the late Peter Cushing in a “stage play.” Watching him portray Sherlock Holmes is watching him become the character. No matter how many of his movies you have seen (and I’ve seen many, many of them), you must see him in these Sherlock Holmes stories.