Incident at Victoria Falls (1992) (TV)

Director:

Bill Corcoran

Writers (WGA):

Gerry O'Hara (story)
Bob Shayne (teleplay)

Release Date:

24 May 1992 (USA)

Genre:

Adventure | Mystery | Thriller

Plot Keywords:

Sherlock Holmes | Independent Film

Cast

Christopher Lee	...	Sherlock Holmes
Patrick Macnee	...	Dr. John Watson
Jenny Seagrove	...	Lillie Langtry
Joss Ackland	...	King Edward
Richard Todd	...	Lord Roberts
Claude Akins	...	Theodore Roosevelt
John Indi	...	Khumalo
Steven Gurney	...	Gugliamo Marconi
Sunitha Singh	...	Maharani
Neil McCarthy	...	Captain James Morrison
Jay Pillay	...	Chandra Sen
Dale Cutts	...	Van Meer
Alan Coates	...	Stanley I. Bullard
Margaret John	...	Mrs. Hudson
Jerome Willis	...	Mycroft

Also Known As:

Sherlock Holmes and the Incident at Victoria Falls
Sherlock Holmes: Incident at Victoria Falls
Sherlock Holmes: The Star of Africa
The Star of Africa

Runtime:

Netherlands:200 min | USA:88 min (compact video version) | UK:187 min (2 parts)

Country:

UK | Italy | Belgium | Luxembourg | France | USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Sound Mix:

Stereo

Certification:

USA:PG

Company:

Banque Paribas Luxembourg

Trivia:

Last film of Richard Todd.

Quotes:

Sherlock Holmes: Watson, I think you should perform a post-mortem on this woman.
Dr. John Watson: Good God, Holmes, she was ripped apart by crocodiles!

Fun film ... if you're not an uptight Baker Street Irregular

This is the 2nd of 2 very long TV movies/miniseries featuring two wonderful actors: Christopher Lee as Holmes and Patrick Macnee as Watson. (The following year a 3rd, "Sherlock Holmes in New York", promoted Macnee to Holmes.) Like the first, it has faults and virtues, although ultimately weighted on the side of the latter. As a side note, when shown on TV in this country, this film and its companion were each cut by about a quarter-hour.

However loosely – and it's very, very loosely – this film is related to an old Basil Rathbone film, "Terror by Night". This involves transporting a fabulous diamond, the "Star of Rhodesia", with Holmes overseeing security. "Incident at Victoria Falls" also involves a fabulous diamond, the "Star of Africa". This latter is an actual diamond, although much larger than the gem displayed in the film. That was the Cullinan Diamond, over 300 carats (well over a pound!) in the rough. The Cullinan was eventually cut in to 9 large gems and a goodly number of smaller items. These are all now part of the Crown Jewels.

The film's "Star of Africa", already cut and polished, is – like the Cullinan – going to be transported from South Africa to Britain, where it will be presented to Edward VIII. Mycroft Holmes sends his brother Sherlock to provide security with a plan involving a glass duplicate of the "Star". Yeah. You all know how this turns out: we get to play "diamond, diamond, who's got the diamond?" for the next couple of hours. But it's all in good fun, only slightly spoiled by the banality of the script – I found myself on a number of occasions saying the next highly predictable line before the character who had it. On the bright side, we only get a glimpse of Holmes wearing a deerstalker instead of being constantly treated to that particular wardrobe malfunction.

As for the rest of the cast, there are few that would be much recognized on this side of the Pond. As to characters, it will turn out that one of them is a ringer – not really a fair cop, since we're given no clue that there's anything suspicious about him or her. In the cast, several well-known historical names appear … such as King Edward (played by the estimable Joss Ackland), Lillie Langtree (played by a fine actor, Jenny Seagrove), Theodore Roosevelt (played by the well-known Claude Akins), and Gugliamo Marconi (played by an unknown, Steven Gurney).

The settings for the film are scenic, and the action usually brisk. The train trip from Capetown to Victoria Falls is a lot of fun, enlivened particularly by Claude Akins, who plays Teddy Roosevelt with appropriate and effective swagger and bluster.

The script writers may have assumed the viewer would already know of the relationship between Langtree and Edward VIII – but in any event, this fact never appears in plot or dialogue – not to mention the fact that Ms. Langtree's participation in the story contains elements entirely antithetical to her actual character.

The story takes a number of twists and turns, although Holmes's vade mecum, detection by deduction, sometimes falls by the side of the road. In this respect, the film falls short of the standard set by the great Basil Rathbone … not to mention the even greater Jeremy Brett.

Well, no film is perfect. This one is a good evening's entertainment, over 3 hours long. While the cast is generally average, Lee and Macnee give the entire film centrality and impetus. The trick here is not to mind the various little problems and go along for the ride. It's a pretty good one, especially the railroad.