The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes
The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes is a
1970 film directed and produced by
Billy Wilder; he also shared writing credit with his longtime collaborator
I.A.L. Diamond. It starred
Robert Stephens as
Sherlock Holmes and
Colin Blakely as
Dr Watson. The film offers an affectionate, slightly parodic look at the man behind the public facade, and draws a distinction between the "real" Holmes and the character portrayed by Watson in his stories for
Strand magazine.
The film was originally intended as a
roadshow attraction, touring major cities only on its initial run. However, it was heavily edited on its original release, and significant sections of the film are now missing.
The film is divided into two separate, unequal stories. In the lesser of the two, Holmes is approached by a famous
Russian ballerina (
Tamara Toumanova), who proposes that they conceive a child together, one who will hopefully inherit her physique and his intellect. Holmes manages to extricate himself by claiming that he is
homosexual and that Watson is his lover.
In the main plot,
Belgian Gabrielle Valadon (
Genevieve Page) is fished out of the
River Thames and brought to
Baker Street. She begs Holmes to find her missing engineer husband. The resulting investigation leads to a castle in Scotland. Along the way, they encounter a group of monks and some midgets. They also sight a cousin of the
Loch Ness monster.
It turns out that Sherlock's brother Mycroft (
Christopher Lee) had built a pre-
World War I submarine for the British navy, with the assistance of Mr Valadon. When taken out for testing, it was disguised as a sea monster. The midgets were recruited as crewmen because they took up less space and needed less air. When they meet, Mycroft informs Sherlock that his client is actually a top German spy, Ilse von Hoffmanstal, sent to steal the submersible. The "monks" are German sailors.
Queen Victoria (Mollie Maureen) arrives for an inspection of the new weapon, but is "not amused" by its unsportsmanlike nature. She orders the exasperated Mycroft to destroy it, so he conveniently leaves it unguarded for the monks to take (although it has been rigged to sink when submerged). Frau von Hoffmanstal is arrested, to be exchanged for her British counterpart.
In the final scene some time later, Sherlock receives a message from his brother, telling him that von Hoffmanstal had been arrested as a spy in Japan and shot. Saddened, the detective retreats to his room to seek solace from drugs and his violin.
The film originally contained another two separate stories, and a further
flashback sequence showing Holmes in his university days. These were all filmed, but later cut from the final release print. One sequence, in which Holmes investigates the seemingly impossible case of a corpse found in an upside down room, has been recovered and restored to the film's
laser disc release.
*
Robert Stephens (
Sherlock Holmes)
*
Colin Blakely (
Dr John H Watson)
*
Genevieve Page (Gabrielle Valladon)
*
Christopher Lee (
Mycroft Holmes)
*
Irene Handl (Mrs Hudson)
*
Clive Revill (Rogozhin)
*
Tamara Toumanova (Petrova)
*
Stanley Holloway (1st Gravedigger)
*Mollie Maureen (
Queen Victoria)
*Catherine Lacey (Old Woman)
*
Stanley Holloway appears in a cameo as a gravedigger, in a reference to his role in
Laurence Olivier's
1948 version of
Hamlet.
