Sherlock Holmes in New York

 

I continue to discover that I had remarkable taste when I was young.

In 1976, Roger Moore--in the midst of his run as James Bond--played Sherlock Holmes in the made-for-TV movie Sherlock Holmes in New York. Patrick Macnee is Watson and John Huston is a wonderfully evil Professor Moriarty.

How does Sir Roger fare as the Great Detective. Well, he really doesn't look like Holmes at all. And, of course, quantum mechanics teaches us that no actor can ever equal Jeremy Brett and Basil Rathbone in the role. But, all the same, Moore is quite good in the movie. His Holmes has a strong personality and exhibits great intelligence. Holmes makes a number of nifty deductions during this case and Moore brings verisimilitude to his sometimes melodramatic dialogue at these moments. He wears several pretty cool disguises and seems to have fun playing those parts--especially when he pretends to be a pompous Italian vaudevillian. Moore also endows Holmes with a sense of righteous fury when the situation calls for it.

 

Patrick Macnee is, I believe, deliberately plays homage to Nigel Bruce in his interpretation of Watson. I've never been completely happy with that version of Watson, though both Bruce and Macnee make a bumbling Watson so darn likeable that its hard to really object. (Macnee would get to play a more capable version of the good doctor 15 years later in a pair of films that featured Christopher Lee as Holmes.)

The films starts in London, with a disguised Holmes infiltrating Moriarty's lair to tell the master criminal that his latest scheme has been foiled and his minions tossed in jail. (Look for a fun in-joke here--the Maltese Falcon can be seen on Moriarty's desk. John Huston, of course, wrote and directed that classic film.)

But the minions won't talk, fearing Moriarty too much to rat him out. So, though his organization has been shattered, Moriarty himself is able to walk free. He vows revenge on Holmes first, though.

That revenge soon comes. Holmes and Watson are lured to New York City, where the son of Irene Alder has been kidnapped. (This is one of the few times, by the way, that Irene is portrayed as the actress/singer she was in "A Scandal in Bohemia"--rather than changed into a femme fatale/criminal.)

Soon after, Holmes is asked by the New York police to look into a massive gold robbery. Impossibly, tons of gold have disappeared from a secret underground vault. This has international implications that could lead to a world war.

But Holmes, by now, has been instructed to refuse to help without giving any explanation for his refusal. Otherwise, Irene's son will be killed. This is Moriarty's plot to destroy Holmes' reputation.

So, in order to thwart Moriarty, Holmes must first rescue the boy without Moriarty finding out the boy has been rescued, then dodging henchmen who are watching him, then solving the mysery of the gold robbery.

It's a great plot, with the Holmsian clues making sense and Holmes' multi-layered plan to outsmart his nemesis being legitimately clever. It's a Holmes mystery that feels like a Holmes mystery, with an actor who gives us a portrayal of Holmes that we can get into.

The movie is available on YouTube, so here it is. I've also acquired the novelization. When I've read this, I'll see if its worth commenting on in another post.