SFF26 - Silent Sherlock: Three Classic Cases

Fill your life with film

Runtime: 0min.

One of the world’s best-loved, and surely the most enduring of all fictional detectives: Sherlock Holmes, is brought satisfyingly to life in these early screen adaptations.

This selection of newly restored episodes begins with A Scandal in Bohemia, in which Holmes acquits himself as both master of disguise and of deduction, only to be outwitted by… a woman! In The Golden Pince-Nez, Holmes’ unrivalled talent for sleuthing solves a murder case that baffles Scotland Yard. Our triple bill concludes with The Final Problem, featuring ‘the evil genius of the underworld’ Professor Moriarty, grappling with our hero in hand-to-hand combat at the cliff edge of Cheddar Gorge!

Produced between 1921 and 1923, Stoll Pictures’ entertaining The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes series was so popular it ran for a remarkable 45 episodes, and was even sanctioned by Arthur Conan Doyle himself, who thoroughly approved of Eille Norwood as Holmes, observing: ‘His wonderful impersonation of Holmes has amazed me.’

A Scandal in Bohemia Dir. Maurice Elvey | UK | 1921 | PG b&w | English intertitles | 29m

The Golden Pince-Nez Dir. George Ridgwell | UK | 1922 | PG b&w | English intertitles | 22m

The Final Problem Dir. George Ridgwell | UK | 1923 | PG b&w | English intertitles | 23m

With: Eille Norwood, Hubert Willis, Percy Standing

Performing live: Günter Buchwald (piano, violin)

Online programme notes: Bryony Dixon

Screening material courtesy of BFI Distribution.