Sherlock Holmes has been a prolific franchise since the character entered public domain. That means it’s spread across studios and mediums, most recently on TV with Benedict Cumberbatch and Johnny Lee Miller, and film with Robert Downey Jr. and Ian McKellan.
The storied history of Sherlock Holmes on screen includes Peter Cushing in a BBC series and Christopher Lee in a few films. Severin has released available episodes of the Cushing series and one of Lee’s films on Blu-ray.
In both you can see the consistent portrayal of Holme’ powers of deduction from observational details. Some are just common sense but others draw on Holmes’ obscure details of his genius study.
Cushing’s Holmes is still a scamp in a dry, British way. He does things without telling even Watson (Nigel Stock) until it’s time to implement the plan. He’s still a know it all, relishing in assessing things more accurately than others. The BBC episodes are still tricky mysteries with plenty of red herrings.
The BBC episodes look like they were recorded off an analog TV on VHS but of course that would be unwatchable on a 77” 4K TV, so the high definition upgrade mimics an old TV on modern technology. The source material still had tracking glitches though. It’s nice to see those analog remnants.
The Lee film Sherlock Holmes and the Deadly Necklace is in stunningly clear black and white.
Commentaries by British authors can explain the BBC itself, rights to Arthur Conan Doyle stories, recasting and lost seasons of the BBC series, omissions from the books in 50 minute episodes, details about Doyle and compare all the other adaptations. Some have interviewed Cushing and Lee so have anecdotes about the productions.
The movie also has two features on ]director Terence Fisher, one an interview before his death and another of Tony Dalton’s own analysis of Fisher’s career. All in all informative supplements for those interested in the history of Sherlock Holmess.