Viali Solomin has received a lot of praise from viewers of Igor Maslenikov's series of Sherlock Holmes films for Soviet television for his exceptionally good portrayal of Doctor Watson, and I think it's very well deserved. His acting is superb, as demonstrated by the fact that "The Hunt for the Tiger" is a Sherlock Holmes film that doesn't suffer by the fact that Sherlock Holmes doesn't appear for over half of its length.
Watson here is very believably an, intelligent, loyal man with the deep feelings of a creative writer and the drive to help others of a good doctor. This allows this excellent adaptation of Arthur Conan Doyle's "Adventure of the Empty House" (skillfully folded into a three-part serial with "Charles Augustus Milverton" and "The Final Problem") becomes not just a tense and suspenseful mystery and adventure story, but also a very human drama about Watson and Mrs. Hudson's loss of Holmes, and later, of course, their joy when he returns. When he does come back Vasili Livanov is excellent as always; I'm not sure I could imagine any other actor pulling of the unlikely scene of Sherlock Holmes crying as well.
The direction and pacing are as finely-tuned as ever, and everything seems to hit the right note, with the events of the previous two films being wrapped up nicely. Once again I applaud the filmmakers who could make Sherlock Holmes speak Russian, and be more believable than on most occasions when he speaks his original English.
Watson here is very believably an, intelligent, loyal man with the deep feelings of a creative writer and the drive to help others of a good doctor. This allows this excellent adaptation of Arthur Conan Doyle's "Adventure of the Empty House" (skillfully folded into a three-part serial with "Charles Augustus Milverton" and "The Final Problem") becomes not just a tense and suspenseful mystery and adventure story, but also a very human drama about Watson and Mrs. Hudson's loss of Holmes, and later, of course, their joy when he returns. When he does come back Vasili Livanov is excellent as always; I'm not sure I could imagine any other actor pulling of the unlikely scene of Sherlock Holmes crying as well.
The direction and pacing are as finely-tuned as ever, and everything seems to hit the right note, with the events of the previous two films being wrapped up nicely. Once again I applaud the filmmakers who could make Sherlock Holmes speak Russian, and be more believable than on most occasions when he speaks his original English.
