Both this episode and its Casebook season-mate "The Creeping Man" were adapted by Robin Chapman and directed by Tim Sullivan. The question that arises, for me, is why does one succeed much more fully than the other, given that both are under the command of the same screenwriter/director team?
For reasons I'll explore in a review of "The Creeping Man", that episode is tremendously more successful than its premise would seem to warrant, whereas "The Illustrious Client" is, unfortunately, flat at times. First the good: acting. Brett is always luminous as Holmes and Hardwicke's Watson gets a nice expanded part in this story, emphasizing his courage and loyalty to Holmes in a showing that epitomizes his role as Holmes' (and the viewer's) rock.
A strong cast is highlighted by the late Anthony Valentine as Baron Gruner and Kim Thomson as Kitty Winter, object of the Baron's lust and later the cause of his undoing. Gruner is, in some regards, such an effective antagonist that one wishes more had been made of the character, both in canon and in adaptation. What if Conan Doyle had retained him (disfigured by Kitty's vitriol attack or not) as a spiritual successor to Moriarty? One cannot call the baron a "worthy adversary", in that his moral character and base motivations render him unworthy to touch Holmes's boots, but this was nonetheless a character with great villainous potential had he been developed properly.
Kitty, for her part, gives this episode energy and spirit that is otherwise somewhat lacking, acting as she does as catalyst for the story's most crucial dramatic moments. She is also a welcome corrective to the unwitting damsel in distress and doormat that is the baron's fiancee, Ms. Merville (Abigail Cruttenden). Perhaps the heart of the difficulty is that we are
given no particular reason to care about Ms. Merville, apart from the fact that she's the daughter of a very important man and this fact seems to motivate some even more important men to seek Holmes' help in persuading her to break off her engagement to the baron.
And what precisely is Holmes doing here? The most interesting thing he does is to lounge with Dr. Watson at a Turkish Bath, an intriguing setting that is never revisited.
Hookahs and steam-baths aside, Holmes has been engaged to solve a rather mundane problem, one requiring none of his powers of deductive reasoning, acute observation, or other specialized detective skills. The only reason he has been employed is, seemingly, because members of the aristocracy (in this case English, but in other stories he takes similar clients from The Continent) view him as a panacea, or "superhero" of sorts, who can discretely resolve all of their politically sensitive, unseemly entanglements.
Holmes *almost* bristles at being used as this sort of "fixer", threatening to decline the commission when Sir James Damery (David Langton) is bound not to reveal the identity of the Illustrious Client who has sent him to engage Holmes on Ms. Merville's behalf, but we know Holmes will never resist the chase.
So what remains is mostly melodrama without strong elements of detection or mystery. Melodrama can be effective in its own right, and the subject of melodrama in relation to Holmes stories (both Doyle's originals and their various adaptions and reincarnations) is worthy of detailed discussion elsewhere. The problem in this case, beside aforementioned lack of other story or character elements to flesh out the melodrama of the basic plot, is that Tim Sullivan's direction is not fully supporting the melodrama.
Design and visual elements are, on the whole, quite solid but unexceptional, with the overall effect that the production lacks in energy and flair--both of which you need if you're going to match the emotional pitch of this sort of story. Peter Hammond, who directed several episodes of this series, seemed to understand the Holmes stories in this way and was consistently able to match the literary tone with stylized visuals and dramatic choices. By contrast, the direction of this episode is for the most part quite understated. Although solid, it does little to complement or elevate the story elements.
Oddly enough, Sullivan carries out this task admirably for the next episode, "The Creeping Man"--where, in tandem with a stronger adaptation by Chapman, the tone of the production matches ideally with the preposterous but compelling lunacy of that story. Here, though, the script seems to be by the numbers, with the director doing little to shake things up.
There are nonetheless small moments that help: Mrs. Hudson is seen tending to Holmes after he has been wounded by Gruner's agents, tucking Holmes in for the night in an endearing moment of maternal attentiveness. Elsewhere, Gruner is listening to excerpts of Mozart's "Don Giovanni" as he peruses souvenirs of his past conquests. That opera being a retelling of the Don Juan legend, and one in which the duplicitous seducer ultimately meets his comeuppance in spectacular style, this flourish seems to be the adapter and/or director's one firm acknowledgement of this story's melodramatic (not to say operatic) territory.
Lacking either the sheer cleverness of "The Problem of Thor Bridge" or the imaginative excesses of "The Creeping Man", this story needed a bit more to distinguish it among such compelling entries. The Granada crew made a fine effort. It is a reasonably faithful recreation of Doyle's imperfect original and a good way for a Holmes fan to spend an hour. Beside others in the series, however, it falls in the middle of the pack.
3 out of 7 found this helpful.
Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink
