Did You Know?

Originally, the scenes featuring the Loch Ness Monster were intended to be filmed in the actual Loch. A life-size prop was built which had several Nessie-like humps used to disguise floatation devices. The humps were removed, however, at Billy Wilder's request. Unfortunately, during a test run in Loch Ness, the Monster-prop sank and was never recovered. A second prop (just the head and neck) was built, but was only filmed inside a studio tank.

With a 260-page script and a budget of $10 million, this was set to be a 165-minute Road Show picture with an intermission for comfort. It was to be the "Big One" for Billy Wilder. The shooting schedule ran for six months and resulted in a rough-cut that came in at three hours and 20 minutes. The film was originally structured as a series of very specifically structured linked episodes, each with a particular title and theme. The opening sequence was to feature Watson's grandson in London claiming his inherited dispatch box from Cox & Co. and there was also a flashback to Holmes' Oxford days to explain his distrust of women. All were shot, but deleted from the final print. So what happened? Well, it appears that United Artists suffered a number of major film flops in 1969 that pretty much scuppered the road show format for Wilder's massive project. Studio execs ordered the film to be cut to fill a regular theatrical running time, whittling it down to a 125-minute version. The episodic format made the pruning process relatively simple, so cut were the opening sequence, the Oxford flashback and two full episodes entitled "The Dreadful Business of the Naked Honeymooners" at 15 minutes and "The Curious Case of the Upside Down Room" at 30 minutes. We can only hope that the full footage can one day be restored, although a full print is not currently thought to exist.

Christopher Lee replaced George Sanders on short notice.

Last cinema film of Catherine Lacey.

Christopher Lee comes the role of Mycroft with considerable experience in the Sherlock Holmes universe: he previously played Sherlock Holmes and Sir Henry Baskerville.

Playing Sherlock Holmes in this film, actor Robert Stephens also played Holmes on the stage, in the William Gillette theatre production. His very next film & TV gig after this film was the TV series 'The Rivals of Sherlock Holmes', in an episode called 'The Missing Witness Sensation' [see: The Rivals of Sherlock Holmes: The Missing Witness Sensation.

Apparently, Billy Wilder had been a fan of Sherlock Holmes for many years prior to making this picture.

Miklós Rózsa:  Uncredited, the film's composer as an orchestra conductor of the Swan Lake ballet.