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Storyline
Sherlock Holmes is asked by Susan Cushing if he could attempt to locate her sister, Mary Browner, recently married to a seaman, Jim Browner. She's worried that something may have happened to her and refuses to accept that she may have run off with another man. Holmes isn't interested in the case and offers to refer her to a missing persons agency. He is drawn into a case by Scotland Yard when the same Susan Cushing who sought to engage him receives two human ears in a box. Susan is convinced that they were sent by a lodger, a medical student whom she recently evicted for dallying with another sister, Sarah. There's now been a falling out between those sisters and Sarah is running a local mission house. Holmes isn't so sure that the ears were sent by the medical student and as he looks more deeply into the case, determines there is a connection between that occurrence and the third missing sister, Mary. Written by
garykmcd
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This, one of the last of the Jeremy Brett Sherlock Holmes series, is a class above the earlier episodes in terms of the power of the story as well as of the acting. Whilst nearly all Holmes stories involved violent death they were as written essentially entertaining puzzles rather than literature with any artistic pretensions. This adaptation though raises it to art due to the inclusion two fine actors: Joanna David and Ciaran Hinds, the powerful script and excellent direction. It is more in the league of a classic book adaptation. As mentioned by an earlier reviewer, the tone is considerably darker than others in the long running series and not quite the comfortable tea-time viewing of its predecessors.