The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes

[hooboy]

I have read Doyle's Holmes stories several times and never fail to discover something new each time!

Jeremy Britt in my opinion is the most true to the character in all of the films and The actor portraying Watson is No slouch also. Basil Rathbone was good BUT Nigel Bruce as the Good doctor leaves me cold .

He portrayed him as a buffoon and a dolt THAT is NOT in any way how Doyle wrote him. He was a Military Doctor and was wounded in battle before meeting holmes .

Unfortunately thru out early films It was thought that every Hero had to have a idiot friend. The "B" westerns were a prime example as well as the Charlie chan films etc. etc, It was almost as the film makers thought the viewers were Not bright enough to enjoy them as they were written PITY!

A bit of trivia ... Holmes stories are only surpassed as the most prolific stories ever published other than the Bible!

hoo

 

[shutterbugg]

Jeremy Brett (in the first series in the early 80s... by the revival his health had begun to fail and he looked aged, tired and bloated) was the best Holmes. Robert Downey is hands-down the worst. Hollywood today panders to the internet generation who has never read a book or seen a b&w movie.
Personally I have a fondness for Nigel Bruce's Watson even though he played him nothing like the book character.

 

[ghoststone]

You guys have inspired me to break out my Sherlock Holmes. I have never read the stories all the way through.

 

[stanlaurel]

Personally I have a fondness for Nigel Bruce's Watson even though he played him nothing like the book character.

I'm afraid that I also have a soft spot for Nigel Bruce.

 

[dukdalf]

When this thread was started I had never read a single page of Conan Doyle's writing. A serious lack in my education, both in general and as a pipesmoker I'll admit, but it has been seen to: after the first twohundred pages of The Penguin Complete Sherlock Holmes I'm very happy to have another 900 in store. So thank you, stanlaurel, for putting me right. As for the best Holmes on screen my vote would also go to Jeremy Brett, but I think the worst would be Benedict Cumberbatch. I may have a soft spot for Downey, I'm afraid... Worst Watson is probably Lucy Liu, my award for the best would go to Martin Freeman.

 

[hooboy]

I Believe Nigel Bruce would of been better served If he had played the fourth of the 3 stooges. IF one ever read Doyle and remotely saw any resemblance between Bruce and the character of the good doctor I seriously I mean seriously don't understand it! He in MY opinion ( which I am only authorized to give) is a mockery of Watson! He came across as a dolt and a buffoon, NOT in any stretch of imagination remotely anything like Doyles characterization of him.

Again, in early films It was thought That all screen heros had to have an IDIOT friend for the theater goers lack of understanding . IT was called comic relief , Makes one wonder ... relief from what pray tell? perhaps

relief from using brain functions?

hoo

 

[hiplainsdrifter]

These are such powerful stories. They are a cornerstone in my personal identity. I read them voraciously as a teenager. My wife and I read them aloud to each other when we were first married.

 

[foggymountain]

I started smoking a pipe at age 14, about the time I got the complete Holmes stories. Have you tried the McClelland Black Shag? I rather like it, though I admit there are better smokes. It would probably be good for rolling cigarettes.

 

[huntertrw]

"No wonder he dabbled with morphine..."
Actually, I believe that cocaine was Mr. Holmes' drug of choice.

 

[calabashed]

"No wonder he dabbled with morphine..."
Actually, I believe that cocaine was Mr. Holmes' drug of choice.

Indeed it was, but Watson also mentioned morphine briefly towards the beginning of "The Sign of Four". Though in a later story I remember Holmes criticizing opium smokers while disguised as one in an opium den, so maybe his experimenting left him with a dim view of opiates.

 

[maxx]

Sherlock Holmes and Spock were deeply significant to me as a kid. Also, a book of three short stories I read in grade school, published by Scholastic Book Services (anyone else remember them?) by Jacques Futrelle, called The Thinking Machine: Adventures of a Mastermind. I have a copy of it. The stories are: The Problem of Cell 13; The Case of the Flaming Phantom; The Mystery of the Silver Box. They were first published in 1905 and 1907. Add to this, the scholar/intellectual narrators of H.P. Lovecraft who I discovered in high school. Then came Descartes and Bertrand Russell.
My introduction to Holmes was through the Rathbone movies on late night TV during junior high. I didn't read the stories until I was 20. Later I read Poe, and his Dupin stories.

 

[seacaptain]

I just bought the blu ray version of Brett's Adventures of Sherlock Holmes.

 

[mustanggt]

I just bought the blu ray version of Brett's Adventures of Sherlock Holmes.
I did as well to see the episodes without the annoying youtube crap.

 

[mvmadore]

Looking for pipe smokers in a TV show or movie is fun and Sherlock Holmes references are great.

My wife and I bought the Blue Ray version of Jeremy Brett as Sherlock Holmes set for Christmas...it is sitting on top of her roll top desk, unwrapped, tempting us...

We love the adventures of Sherlock and Watson. My favorite "Sherlock" is Jeremy Brett.

 

[maxx]

I should have mentioned that Futrelle died on the Titanic.

 

[supdog]

Here's something for those who enjoy the theater of the mind. They are free to listen to and to download.
https://archive.org/details/oldtimeradio?&sort=-downloads&and[]=subject%3A%22Sherlock%20Holmes%22
I too have been a Sherlock Holmes fan for many years.

 

[mvmadore]

I have quite a few Sherlock Holmes shows via Old Time Radio.

I'm a huge OTR fan and have thousands of shows stored. One of my most favorite shows from that period is The Great Gildersleeve.
I have the Sherlock Holmes collection as an Audible book also and it is very well done and great to listen to.

 

[seacaptain]

I'm a huge OTR fan and have thousands of shows stored. One of my most favorite shows from that period is The Great Gildersleeve.

I'll have to check some of these out. http://www.otr.net/

 

[supdog]

If you really like OTR then you need to check out the Old Time Radio Researchers Group. They are located here:
http://www.otrr.org/.
Their shows can be found here:
http://otrrlibrary.org/
Stan, sorry about jacking your thread.

 

[deathmetal]

Holmes was clearly a habitual smoker. He smoked for the nicotine, not the tasting we do.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vgk-lA12FBk