The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes (1970) ‹ Bits

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I don’t dislike women, I merely distrust them. The twinkle in the eye and the arsenic in the soup…
Sherlock Holmes, The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes

The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes

Movie Review

1970 | PG
Reviewed May 25, 2007
Rating: 4 stars

It’s ironic that, as a great fan of Sherlock Holmes, I tend to avoid most Holmesian movies—all too often such “video pastiches” are grossly inaccurate and an insult to a fan’s intelligence, as if the creators of said pastiches had simply watched one Basil Rathbone movie and decided that they were now qualified to make a new Holmes story. So of course I approached this movie with trepidation; the awkward title alone made me nervous. Surprisingly—very surprisingly, and pleasantly so—my fears were entirely unfounded. Short of The Seven-Per-Cent Solution, this is the best original Holmes movie I’ve ever seen. It’s witty, thoughtful, and genuinely touching; obviously the director/writer is a dyed-in-the-wool Holmes fan, for he’s created a beautiful tribute to (and unflinching character study of) the one we fans refer to as “the Master”. Robert Stephens makes an excellent Sherlock, and we finally get a decent Watson in the form of Colin Blakely—for once the perpetual sidekick gets to flirt with the ladies, utilise his medical expertise, and occasionally make deductions of his own (although he does deteriorate inevitably into comic relief as the film progresses). (One minor quibble: why do all Sherlockian movies feature a slim Mycroft? Is it assumed that the audience won’t take him for Sherlock’s brother unless they have a similar build?)