The Case of the Whitechapel Vampire (2002) (TV)

User Rating:

5.9/10   

Director:

Rodney Gibbons

Writers:

Arthur Conan Doyle (characters)
Rodney Gibbons (written by)

Release Date:

21 July 2002 (Sweden)

Genre:

Crime | Mystery | Thriller

Plot:

Sherlock Holmes investigates a series of death rumoured to be caused by a vampire. |

Plot Keywords:

Vampire | Sherlock Holmes | Detective | Monastery | Private Detective

Awards:

2 nominations

Cast

Matt Frewer	...	Sherlock Holmes
Kenneth Welsh	...	Dr. Watson
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Maria Bertrand	...	Woman in Cape
Danny Blanco	...	Hector de la Rosa (as Danny Blanco Hall)
Julian Casey	...	Inspector Lestrade
Norris Domingue	...	Brother Sinclair
Isabel Dos Santos	...	Signora de la Rosa
John Dunn-Hill	...	Lamplighter
Neville Edwards	...	Dr. Chagas
Kathleen Fee	...	Mme Karavsky
Jane Gilchrist	...	Sister Mardaret
Jere Gillis	...	The Thing
Cary Lawrence	...	Sister Helen
Shawn Lawrence	...	Brother Marstoke
Kathleen McAuliffe	...	Mrs. Hudson
Joel Miller	...	Brother Caulder
Michel Perron	...	Inspector Attley Jones
Philip Pretten	...	Policeman #1
Tom Rack	...	Brother Abel
Terry Simpson	...	Workman
Emma Stevens	...	Mrs. Duncan
Matthew Tiffin	...	Brother John

Runtime:

Netherlands:90 min | USA:120 min (including commercials)

Country:

Canada

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Sound Mix:

Stereo

Certification:

UK:PG

Why Bother!?!

The first question you need to ask is "Why the hell bother?". Sherlock Holmes has been done to death and with Jeremy Brett, reached the apex of plausibility. The Basil Rathbones are good fun and there's been numerous feature film attempts, some of which are excellent and some of which should be forever stricken from the records. Unfortunately these Hallmark efforts fit into the latter category.

I've always enjoyed Matt Frewer's acting and he certainly has the perfect face for Holmes but the quality of acting is abysmal. It's like a 1960's Disney animated version of Holmes, cod Cock-er-knee accents and Sherlock has become some sort of pantomime version of himself, complete with stupid fake upper class accent and ability to annoy practically everyone. This results in all dramatic suspense being lost as we're expected to accept this Holmes as a comic geek.

The few Hallmark episodes that have been produced are all stinkers and have been made purely for the US market that still believes that Victorian England was a perfect chocolate box representation.

I have a sneaky suspicion that director Rodney Gibbons is the main culprit and the cause of the rampant artificiality of these terrible additions to the cult of Holmes.

If you like amateur dramatics then you'll love these. If you love the density of Holmes' Victorian world you'd be better off with the many Jeremy Brett episodes.