Its funny how odd references can form a notion.
Last night I caught the film Enemy of the State on the box. Twenty years old and starring Will Smith it was one of those flicks about state surveillance of the public and a lost dodgy file. You know, The Pelican Brief and the Net were more of the same.
But it was seeing a young Ian Hart that surprised me. I'd seen the film before but never noticed him in what is admittedly a junior tech role.
Why my interest in Ian Hart? Well, one of my all-time favourite horror-mystery novels is The Hound of the Baskervilles by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. I've collected many different versions of the book like this one
... and seen various adaptations on the TV.
For a long time my number one film version was Hammer's classic starring the masterful Peter Cushing as Holmes. I have to say that a more modern film has taken the top spot of late, the 2002 TV film starring Richard Roxburgh as Holmes and yes, Ian Hart as Dr. Watson.
He plays the sleuth's companion brilliantly, cutting a dashing, diminutive figure on the moors in his tweed suit, stubbed revolver always to hand.
There is something fascinating about the moustached Victorian gentleman-agent like Watson and for me Hart's gritty modern performance is superb.
Born in Knotty Ash, Liverpool, Hart went on to play Sir Arthur Conan Doyle himself and reprised Dr. Watson once more too. He also played fellow scouser John Lennon and Prof. Quirrel in Harry Potter.
I've not seen any of these flicks nor his role as William Harrison in Longitude, an acclaimed TV series about John Harrison, genius clock maker
By pure coincidence the birthplace of John Harrison, is down the road from Moonbase in the Yorkshire hamlet of Foulby! [my own Lancashire ancestor's were clock and barometer makers but possibly not geniuses!]
Richard Roxburgh is equally excellent as the debonair Sherlock Holmes in the 2002 movie. Is he the best one yet or are you a Rathbone or Cushing fan?
But it was only this week that my brother Steve reminded me that he'd played Dracula in Van Helsing too! How do you think he ranks as the Count?
Who'd have thought that the Baskerville Hound could be so much fun. Could there be any toys I wonder?
Which is your favourite film version? Maybe a radio series?
Have you got the book?
I am a big Holmes fan but can't for the life of me understand why The Hound of the Baskervilles is always the story that gets filmed, it's not a great one! As for Holmes, I like Rathbone and Cumberbatch but suspect Jeremy Brett is my favourite.
ReplyDeleteI don't know either Kev. Maybe 'cos Hammer filmed it? but then again I don't know that many other Holmes stories. Which would you recommend? There's another TV film with Ian Hart as Watson called something like the Silk Scarf, which I will have to watch at some point. I remember when I was in the Alps in the last few years I saw an ad for the Reichenbach Falls. isn't that were Holmes dies?
DeleteYep, the falls are where he and Moriarty fight to the death (of one of them anyway!). Actually, the Holmes stories are mainly short stories so don't suit films. There weren't many full length novels.
ReplyDeleteAre they in Switzerland? The Falls I mean. I recall an excellent film called A Study in Scarlet, which I think had Holmes in it. A Jack the Ripper story. Did Holmes work on the Ripper case in the stories? I remember having a lovely Triang Sherlock board game at one time http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-vzG6KFRzLWA/WH9k5WT0qpI/AAAAAAAAv48/Lmjrp8djuQMKU1kp5nIQ3KpfKdd0KWLzQCK4B/s1600/DSC00659-707526.JPG Think I sold it.
DeleteI must admit I'm a big Sherlock Holmes fan, and I've got all the books, one volume with Sidney Paget illustrations. The Hammer version was always a favourite, although I think the film you're referring to Woodsy is A Study in Terror which starred John Neville as Holmes. The original film poster cashed in the Batman craze at the time and referred to Holmes as The Original Caped Crusader.
ReplyDeleteSherlock Holmes in New York has Roger Moore totally miss cast as Holmes, although Patrick Macnee as Watson isn't too bad.
The worst version for me is the bizarre The Seven Percent Solution which starred Nicol Williamson as Holmes in which Holmes' drug habit is examined.
That's it Scoop, A Study in Terror. Excellent. I even have it on an old VHS tape after recording it off the telly. The Ripper element always reminds me of the Eric Porter flick Hands of the Ripper and the Christopher Plummer movie Murder by Decree. Oddly enough it seems that the first appearance of Holmes in Conan Doyle's writings is a story called A Study in Scarlet.
DeleteThe fairly recent Cumberbatch modern day Holmes had an interesting take on the 'Hound' story. But for modern updates the John Cleese as Holmes with Arthur Lowe as Watson back in 1977 was pretty funny but not as funny as the earlier Cleese version with William Rushton as Watson. The two main charactors were in the 1900's while the surroundings were 1973.
ReplyDeleteI must admit that the Basil Rathbone version in so many movies was my favourite.
I need to re-watch the Rathbone Hound Terran. As for Cleese and Rushton, sounds like a winning combo! I've not seen the Cumberbatch Holmes or the Robert Downey Jnr. film. So much to see Watson!
DeleteAn excellent book, Starring Sherlock Holmes, by David Stuart Davies, Titan Books, first published in 2001, with a revised edition in 2007, covers all the Holmes films, television, and radio shows. Please do not forget Tom Baker. I was horrified when I saw that he was to play Holmes in The Hound of the Baskervilles, a BBC serial from 1982. But when I saw it on TV in the early 1980s I was very surprised, as Baker made a very good Holmes. He looked right for the role, being tall and thin. I can not say I care much for the 'updated' versions, which move too far away from the works of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Holmes never took on Jack the Ripper in the original books, but on film the two have often faced each other. In all, there were four novels; and 56 short stories which were published in five collections. There was a TV movie from 2004 called Sherlock Holmes and the Case of the Silk Stocking, a stocking being used as the murder weapon. There have been several animated versions where Holmes and Watson are various animals, such as mice or dogs. There was even a gnome. The spectral Hound would certainly make an excellent monster kit, especially a glow-in-the-dark version.
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