The Seven-Per-Cent Solution (1976)

 "Tell them I was murdered by my mathematics tutor!"

This is the first time I've ever seen this rather good film, but I did read Nicholas Meyer's splendid original novel, at least twice, during my youth. And, while much of the plot was familiar to me, albeit with some jogging of the memory, I din't recall the ending, with the uncomfortably Orientalist overtones: an Ottomas pasha, in 1891, would not, I suspect, of being in the habit of kidnapping European red-headed ladies for his harem as they remindeds him of Circassians he'd, er, known. Still, that aside(!), this is a bloody good film despite a moderately low wattage cast and a rather straightforward directorial style.

The sets are sumptuous, the location superb, and to cast a film entirely with character actors is no bad thing. Robert Duvall is a good Watson, Alan Arkin carries the film well as Sigmund Freud, And Nicol Williamson- excellent as Merlin in Excalibur- is a superb but necessarily different Holmes, still the deductive genius but coming to terms with his cocaise addiction and haunted by childhood trauma: untill the end, not recalling exact details from the novel, I was worried that he may have been sexually abused as a child by his maths tutor. Thankfully,and wisely, the story does not take this path.... I was a bit worried, after all that cold turkey montage stuff with that phallic snake from The Speckled Band being so very prominent, in a film featuring Sigmund Freud...

It's not all character stuff, though. It's fun to see Holmes and freud work together and learn from each other, much though it felt a little roo easy for Holmes to fall fr the initial ruse and show so little resentment. There's lots of adventure, a sword fight, a train chase,and lots of deduction. Even better, there are lots of nice little Sherlockian touches- and, in the brief mention of the orang-utan case, an oblique reference to a Poe short story starring Holmes' literary progenitor, Auguste Dupin.  

The hints of romance at the end, though? Very brave! Overall, then, a film which may lack a certain visual flair but has astrong enough story and cast to carry it through.

The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes: Series 1- The Speckled Band

"You scoundrel, Sir! I've heard of you before. You are Holmes the meddler. Holmes the busybody. Holmes the Scotland Yard jack-in-office!"

We get a variation of the trope here. Holmes is visited by a young woman living in a big house that is being terrorised by a bounder and a cad acting as patriarch, yes, but this time she's the step-daughter and not, as is more usual, a governess. The villain revels in the splendidly dastardly name of Dr. Grimesby Roylott, and is plotting to kill his step-daughter for her inheritance. With a snake, naturally.

This episode ticks all the usual splendid boxes, with some suitably Holmesian dialogue for Jeremy Brett to deliver as only he can. And Holmes handles the case superbly, with rather more actual deductive ability that he showed last episode. Not bad for a case which begins at such an ungodly hour.

And, of course, beneath it all is the awful position of the unmarried young Victorian women at the mercy of such horrid patriarchs as this. No wonder so many of them seek Holmes' help.