"The Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes" The Master Blackmailer (1992)

User Rating:

7.9/10   

Director:

Peter Hammond

Writers:

Arthur Conan Doyle (short story "The Adventure of Charles Augustus Milverton" from volume "The Return of Sherlock Holmes")
Jeremy Paul (teleplay)

TV Series:

"The Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes" (1991)

Original Air Date:

2 January 1992 (Season 1, Episode 7)

Genre:

Crime | Drama | Horror | Mystery | Thriller

Plot:

Holmes and Watson attempt to break the grip of a ruthless blackmailer of their clients.

Plot Keywords:

Sherlock Holmes | Private Detective | 1900s | Victorian Era | 1890s

Cast

Jeremy Brett	...	Sherlock Holmes
Edward Hardwicke	...	Dr. Watson
Robert Hardy	...	Charles Augustus Milverton
Norma West	...	Lady Diana Swinstead
Gwen Ffrangcon Davies	...	The Dowager
Colin Jeavons	...	Inspector Lestrade
Nickolas Grace	...	Bertrand
Serena Gordon	...	Lady Eva Blackwell
Sarah McVicar	...	The Hon. Charlotte Miles, Lottie
David Mallinson	...	Colonel John Dorking
Brian Mitchell	...	Harry, Earl of Dovercourt
Hans Meyer	...	Hebworth alias Veitch
Sophie Thompson	...	Agatha
Stephen Simms	...	Stokes
Rosalie Williams	...	Mrs. Hudson

Runtime:

USA:102 min

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Sound Mix:

Stereo

Certification:

Germany:12 | UK:PG

Company:

Granada Television

Goofs:

Factual errors: A Scotland Yard police detective is seen picking up a discarded weapon with a handkerchief which was not a common practice in 1890, when the film was set. Fingerprint detection was not adopted in Britain until 1901.

Movie Connections:

Followed by "The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes" (1994)

Soundtrack:

Beau Soir

Disguised as Holmes

An earlier comment of mine was deleted by a complaint from a blackmailing reader, who threatened me to go more lightly on his pet world.

This was never a great Holmes story. It is of the "take action and disguise self" branch of the Conan Doyle tree. I much prefer the scientist who deduces, ideally deducing what's going on the master criminal's mind.

Here, the story structure has four women whose lives are touched by the bad guy. They are the center of the thing, these four, not Holmes, and every sequence is set up to illuminate them not the detective. Two are women who have been successfully blackmailed. One (the redhead) not yet. The fourth sets a kind of symmetry as she is employed by the criminal and exploited emotionally not by him, but by Holmes. These four are mirrored by other women and men dressed as women in a portrayal of a sort of survivalist London underground.

Ted's Evaluation -- 2 of 3: Has some interesting elements.