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Sherlock Holmes' Smarter Brother (1975, UK/US), Great Mouse Detective (1986, US)
The Adventure of Sherlock Holmes' Smarter Brother (1975, UK/US)
Opinions have always seemed to be a little divided on it among Holmes aficionados. Why, I’m not sure. You have a little bit of everything in this film. It’s “A Scandal in Bohemia”, “The Adventure of Charles Augustus Milverton”, “The Adventure of the Naval Treaty”, and “The Final Problem” gone terribly, horribly camp. Also wrong. Very wrong. It’s a weird movie, and also rather anachronistic in the same fashion as Blazing Saddles, which never fails to amuse me for some reason. I won’t lie and say that the film is on par with Saddles, because it isn’t... As much as I love Gene Wilder, directing is not his strong suit, so don’t go into this one expecting a classic on par with Brooks’ films. (Given the casting of Gene Wilder, Arty Feldman, and Madeline Kahn, you would really assume it to be a Brooks film in the first place.) But it’s still quite funny and contains some seriously choice lines and gags that I would love to see reproduced in other works derivative of Sherlock Holmes.
Sherlock Holmes’ Smarter Brother has a bit of a misleading title, and probably purposefully so. Most fans of ACD’s stories would assume it to be a film about Mycroft, but even though there’s an amusing throwaway line concerning him in the film, he makes no appearance at all. The star of the show is Sigerson, Sherlock Holmes’ other smarter brother. (Trust me when I say that his position as such is by his own estimation. He even brilliantly refers to his own brother as “Sheer-Luck”.) Even Sherlock himself makes a few appearances in the film. He's there in the beginning to hand off a seemingly unrelated case to his brother via Orville Sacker, a clerk for Scotland Yard, but generally only pops up incognito when Sigerson is in need of “gentle guidance”. Guidance concerning the (actually quite important) case and, scarily, the well-being of Sigerson’s own clients. It makes you feel that Sigerson is really the second fiddle in his own stardom, but that's probably for the best. He is certainly intelligent in some ways (as only a Holmes can be), but he's kind of bumbling and endlessly bitter towards his older brother, which hinders him in others. He frequently lacks the absolutely mind-boggling eye for detail that Sherlock possesses; one of the best recurring gags involves him mistaking his large, male messenger for a woman from the sound of his footsteps outside the door to his flat.
So the plot itself is rather a mish-mash of ACD’s stories. The big case involves Jenny Hill, aka Bessie Bellewood, who was probably meant as something of a call-out to Irene Adler. She isn't exactly brilliant, though, and you get the impression that she only ever gets anything over on Sigerson because he's equally as ignorant half the time. But she is a rather saucy opera singer who finds herself in a scandalous relationship involving political intrigue, which sort of runs her right into the path of Moriarty and his underlings. So it's up to Sigerson to secure the top secret plans that she mistakenly pawns off to a big-time blackmailer in cahoots with the notorious professor. Sigerson and Orville make a team easily more bizarre than any Sherlock and Watson duo, and it’s frankly hilarious that they manage to get themselves into so many odd situations. Overall, it's an incredibly fun, weird film. And longtime Holmes fans will also appreciate the appearance of Douglas Wilmer as Sherlock.
The Great Mouse Detective (1986, US)
Speaking of things to do with Sherlock Holmes, I recently saw "The Great Mouse Detective" again. Despite the fact that I have an apparently inhuman tolerance for Disney magic, I really do like the movie. My memories of it from childhood were murky at best, but if any of you were subjected to the splendors/horrors of the Disney channel in the early-to-mid 1990s, you probably remember constantly being barraged with irrelevant or quirky information about the making of various films during commercial breaks. I didn’t mind the info bits on the Great Mouse Detective because they always dealt with the final battle scene in Big Ben. Which was, by the way, the first use of computer generated imagery in a 2D animated film. Or so they said. The Black Cauldron has that unique distinction in reality, but it’s not surprising to me at all that Disney would like to pretend that the film never even happened. The whirling gears of Big Ben have always been a striking image to me, however, and the battle scene between Basil and Rattigan is easily one of my favorite cinematic moments in an animated film. It’s just very well put together, especially coupled with the film’s score.
(Anyone watching "The Great Mouse Detective" for the first time would probably be inclined to believe that the titular character is just Sherlock Holmes in mouse form, but they’d be slightly off. No, Sherlock Holmes actually exists in human form in this universe. Basil of Baker Street, the film’s namesake, is actually just...um, Basil. He lives beneath 221B and is remarkably similar to Holmes, like a rodent counterpart. One imagines that he is the end result of chemical run-off from a science experiment gone wrong upstairs, but this theory is out the window when you realize that there’s honestly no logical explanation for how Dawson could exist as such.)
Nevertheless, Basil has a cute little dressing gown and his own chemistry set and everything. And even a violin! It really is just adorable, like always. Dawson isn’t portrayed as being quite as capable as some other Watsons, but at least he isn't a fumbling, ineffectual buffoon meant to showcase his Holmesian counterpart’s massive intellect and perceptive skills. The two actually made a nice cuddly little team, and the film ends on a note suggesting that this story, despite being based on “The Final Problem” (sort of), is their “A Study in Scarlet”. Actually, with Rattigan out of the way, it makes me wonder just how exciting they’ll find London at all… he was sort of the master criminal. I guess these two are doomed to an adorable eternity finding lost mouse-sized rings and naval treaties written on tiny receipt slips or something.
Opinions have always seemed to be a little divided on it among Holmes aficionados. Why, I’m not sure. You have a little bit of everything in this film. It’s “A Scandal in Bohemia”, “The Adventure of Charles Augustus Milverton”, “The Adventure of the Naval Treaty”, and “The Final Problem” gone terribly, horribly camp. Also wrong. Very wrong. It’s a weird movie, and also rather anachronistic in the same fashion as Blazing Saddles, which never fails to amuse me for some reason. I won’t lie and say that the film is on par with Saddles, because it isn’t... As much as I love Gene Wilder, directing is not his strong suit, so don’t go into this one expecting a classic on par with Brooks’ films. (Given the casting of Gene Wilder, Arty Feldman, and Madeline Kahn, you would really assume it to be a Brooks film in the first place.) But it’s still quite funny and contains some seriously choice lines and gags that I would love to see reproduced in other works derivative of Sherlock Holmes.
Sherlock Holmes’ Smarter Brother has a bit of a misleading title, and probably purposefully so. Most fans of ACD’s stories would assume it to be a film about Mycroft, but even though there’s an amusing throwaway line concerning him in the film, he makes no appearance at all. The star of the show is Sigerson, Sherlock Holmes’ other smarter brother. (Trust me when I say that his position as such is by his own estimation. He even brilliantly refers to his own brother as “Sheer-Luck”.) Even Sherlock himself makes a few appearances in the film. He's there in the beginning to hand off a seemingly unrelated case to his brother via Orville Sacker, a clerk for Scotland Yard, but generally only pops up incognito when Sigerson is in need of “gentle guidance”. Guidance concerning the (actually quite important) case and, scarily, the well-being of Sigerson’s own clients. It makes you feel that Sigerson is really the second fiddle in his own stardom, but that's probably for the best. He is certainly intelligent in some ways (as only a Holmes can be), but he's kind of bumbling and endlessly bitter towards his older brother, which hinders him in others. He frequently lacks the absolutely mind-boggling eye for detail that Sherlock possesses; one of the best recurring gags involves him mistaking his large, male messenger for a woman from the sound of his footsteps outside the door to his flat.
So the plot itself is rather a mish-mash of ACD’s stories. The big case involves Jenny Hill, aka Bessie Bellewood, who was probably meant as something of a call-out to Irene Adler. She isn't exactly brilliant, though, and you get the impression that she only ever gets anything over on Sigerson because he's equally as ignorant half the time. But she is a rather saucy opera singer who finds herself in a scandalous relationship involving political intrigue, which sort of runs her right into the path of Moriarty and his underlings. So it's up to Sigerson to secure the top secret plans that she mistakenly pawns off to a big-time blackmailer in cahoots with the notorious professor. Sigerson and Orville make a team easily more bizarre than any Sherlock and Watson duo, and it’s frankly hilarious that they manage to get themselves into so many odd situations. Overall, it's an incredibly fun, weird film. And longtime Holmes fans will also appreciate the appearance of Douglas Wilmer as Sherlock.
The Great Mouse Detective (1986, US)
Speaking of things to do with Sherlock Holmes, I recently saw "The Great Mouse Detective" again. Despite the fact that I have an apparently inhuman tolerance for Disney magic, I really do like the movie. My memories of it from childhood were murky at best, but if any of you were subjected to the splendors/horrors of the Disney channel in the early-to-mid 1990s, you probably remember constantly being barraged with irrelevant or quirky information about the making of various films during commercial breaks. I didn’t mind the info bits on the Great Mouse Detective because they always dealt with the final battle scene in Big Ben. Which was, by the way, the first use of computer generated imagery in a 2D animated film. Or so they said. The Black Cauldron has that unique distinction in reality, but it’s not surprising to me at all that Disney would like to pretend that the film never even happened. The whirling gears of Big Ben have always been a striking image to me, however, and the battle scene between Basil and Rattigan is easily one of my favorite cinematic moments in an animated film. It’s just very well put together, especially coupled with the film’s score.
(Anyone watching "The Great Mouse Detective" for the first time would probably be inclined to believe that the titular character is just Sherlock Holmes in mouse form, but they’d be slightly off. No, Sherlock Holmes actually exists in human form in this universe. Basil of Baker Street, the film’s namesake, is actually just...um, Basil. He lives beneath 221B and is remarkably similar to Holmes, like a rodent counterpart. One imagines that he is the end result of chemical run-off from a science experiment gone wrong upstairs, but this theory is out the window when you realize that there’s honestly no logical explanation for how Dawson could exist as such.)
Nevertheless, Basil has a cute little dressing gown and his own chemistry set and everything. And even a violin! It really is just adorable, like always. Dawson isn’t portrayed as being quite as capable as some other Watsons, but at least he isn't a fumbling, ineffectual buffoon meant to showcase his Holmesian counterpart’s massive intellect and perceptive skills. The two actually made a nice cuddly little team, and the film ends on a note suggesting that this story, despite being based on “The Final Problem” (sort of), is their “A Study in Scarlet”. Actually, with Rattigan out of the way, it makes me wonder just how exciting they’ll find London at all… he was sort of the master criminal. I guess these two are doomed to an adorable eternity finding lost mouse-sized rings and naval treaties written on tiny receipt slips or something.