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Jeremy Brett as Sherlock Holmes and Edward Hardwicke as Dr. Watson are easily the greatest actors to ever team up in those roles. Sadly, this story was not worthy of their talents. Like usual, they both do an excellent job. However, the Vampyre story is pathetic. Roy Marsden plays the role of Stockton, who comes to town and everyone begins to die. Stockton had lived in South America where he had spent a lot of time studying voodoo, witchcraft, and other occult sciences. By coincidence, Ferguson (Keith Barron) and his wife (Yolanda Vasquez)had just returned from many years in Peru. Ferguson's wife is Peruvian, and so is her promiscuous maid (Juliet Aubrey). The Fergusons have a young baby, and Ferguson has a teenage son (Richard Dempsey) from a previous wife. Stockton meets Ferguson, and Stockton comes over for dinner and the Ferguson baby dies. People begin having strange marks on their necks that look like bite marks. The actual events are so mundane that it takes a lot of effort and misdirection to confuse the viewer as to what is really going on in this story. The screenplay is very weak. What was needed here was a good Family Therapist, not Sherlock Holmes. Just about every mishap occurs because the Fergusons (and their live-in maids and Stable-Boy) are a totally dysfunctional family. Stockton is basically a weirdo who is into some bizarre activities relating to poisons. Stockton enters the chaos of the Fergusons and brings things to a boil. The surprise ending is predictable and a letdown. Holmes is always a couple of steps behind the pace of this pedestrian story. Too bad that such a great team of Brett and Hardwicke were wasted on this script.
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