Billy Wilder’s twenty-third movie, The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes, starring Robert Stephens and Colin Blakely, was released in 1970. Billy was 64 years old.
This movie represents another career twist for Billy Wilder. It was released four years after The Fortune Cookie, and is not a comedy — slapstick, frenetic, or otherwise. It’s a fairly straightforward detective movie of the Sidney Lumet variety. Something about it reminds me of Murder On the Orient Express. Perhaps it’s the cinematography.
I like Sherlock Holmes. I own The Complete Sherlock Holmes two-volume annotated set, and the leather-bound Complete Sherlock Holmes edition. I’ve seen a few Sherlock movies starring Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce (to my mind, the best Holmes and Watson of all time). So I’m totally into the subject matter.
Yet this movie bored me to tears.
Robert Stephens, as Holmes, is too angry, too sexually ambivalent, and too preoccupied with his 7% solution (of cocaine) for my tastes. Watson was no better. I couldn’t get interested in the story. I’m not that interested in Sherlock’s private life. I want to see his public cases, as told by Watson. Those offer plenty of excitement.
Principle Cast:
Sherlock Holmes……………………………………Robert Stephens (1931–1995)
Dr. Watson…………………………………………..Colin Blakely (1930–1987)
Geneviève Page…………………………………….Gabrielle Valladon (1927- )
Mycroft Holmes…………………………………….Christopher Lee (1922- )
Madame Petrova…………………………………….Tamara Toumanova (1919-1996)
You can call me Billy. But don't expect me to answer to that.
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