The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes (1970)

Director:

Billy Wilder

Writers:

I.A.L. Diamond (writer)
Arthur Conan Doyle (characters)

Release Date:

29 October 1970 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy | Drama | Mystery

Tagline:

The world's greatest detective tackles his toughest case !

Plot:

Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson assist a beautiful woman with amnesia who seeks her missing husband.

Plot Keywords:

U Boat | Midget | Sherlock Holmes | Bagpipe | Ballerina

Awards:

2 nominations

Cast

Robert Stephens	...	Sherlock Holmes
Colin Blakely	...	Dr.John H. Watson
Geneviève Page	...	Ilse von Hoffmanstal, aka Gabrielle Valladon (as Genevieve Page)
Christopher Lee	...	Mycroft Holmes
Tamara Toumanova	...	Madame Petrova
Clive Revill	...	Nikolai Rogozhin
Irene Handl	...	Mrs. Hudson
Mollie Maureen	...	Queen Victoria
Stanley Holloway	...	Gravedigger
Catherine Lacey	...	Woman in wheelchair
Peter Madden	...	Von Tirpitz
Michael Balfour	...	Cabby
James Copeland	...	Guide
John Garrie	...	Carter #1
Godfrey James	...	Carter #2

Runtime:

125 min | Germany:120 min (TV version)

Country:

UK

Language:

English | Russian | French

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Iceland:L | USA:PG-13 (certificate #22200) | Australia:PG | Finland:K-12 | Sweden:11 | UK:A (original rating) | UK:PG (video rating) (1988) | USA:GP (original rating) | West Germany:6 | Singapore:PG

Filming Locations:

Drumnadrochit, Loch Ness, Highlands, Scotland, UK

Company:

Compton Films

Trivia:

According to Billy Wilder, since because of schedule conflicts he couldn't himself supervise the bowdlerization of the picture demanded by the Studios, he entrusted the task to the editor, Ernest Walter. Nevertheless, Wilder supposedly strongly disliked the cuts made by Walter, and couldn't re-edit the movie because all the deleted scenes were lost or thrown away. Some of those scenes are available today, but never with both the audio and the video intact.

Goofs:

Errors in geography: When Holmes, Watson and Gabrielle get off the train at Inverness, the train goes forward to another destination. The railway station at Inverness is a terminus.

Quotes:

Holmes: Some of us are cursed with memories like flypaper. Stuck there is a staggering amount of miscellaneous data, most of it useless.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Christopher Lee: Mr. Holmes, Mr. Wilder (2003) (V)

Thoroughly civilised, delightful entertainment

Billy Wilder's take on the world's most famous detective is both painstakingly faithful and sardonically subversive to Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's idiossyncratic creation. Presented as a case that loyal companion John Watson duly recorded but requested remain secret until long after his death, in which Holmes aids a Belgian woman find her missing husband, a mining engineer hired by an apparently non-existant English company, it makes clever use of the rulebook Conan Doyle set down while at the same time undermining it from within. The title and the plot may seem misleading at first - the first half hour especially seems at odds with what comes afterwards - but in fact if you're a Holmes fan you'll quickly realise that this is as close to romance as the detective would ever allow, and Wilder tells it through a masterful accumulation of small touches that only someone as meticulous as the man himself would notice. Script-wise, it's a cracking mystery in the best Doyle tradition, with all the time-honoured twists and turns present and correct. The acting is also up to Wilder's usual standards; Stephens and Blakely are an engaging duo as a bored Holmes and a bumbling Watson, and there's a hysterically funny supporting turn by the always underrated Revill as a Russian ballet impresario. Wilder's trademark pointed cynicism fits the English witticism particularly well, even if at times it all seems a bit too modern for the peaceful Victorian surroundings, but it is quite ironic to see him chiding Britain's stiff-upper-lip, old-fashioned morality when the film seems to be an "old timers' movie" entirely out of sync with its own time. Still, it's hard to find fault in such a thoroughly civilised and delightful entertainment.