Sherlock Holmes (TV Series)

The Case of the Winthrop Legend (1954)

Ronald Howard: Sherlock Holmes

Photos 

Quotes 

• [looking out the window of their 221B Baker Street flat] 

  Dr. John H. Watson : There's a gentleman just arrived in a hansom - appears to be coming up here.

  Sherlock Holmes : What else did you notice about our visitor?

  Dr. John H. Watson : Well, I don't know. I'd say abou thirtyish, conservatively dressed, a man of modest means. What do you think, Holmes?

  Sherlock Holmes : I don't know. I didn't see him - you did!

• Sherlock Holmes : The solution of a murder, Watson, is infinitely easier than the prevention. We have committed ourselves to a weekend in a drafty manor house that has been closed for 30 years. We will watch and we will wait and, in time, we will apprehend the person, persons or ghosts who will commit the murder of the Winthrop legend.

• Dr. John H. Watson : May I ask, sir, what precautions you've taken against it?

  John Winthrop : What would one do? How does one fight a myth? Well, what's your opinion, Mr. Holmes? Should I take this matter serioiusly?

  Sherlock Holmes : You are obviously taking it seriously by defying it - by coming down here to prove it doesn't exist.

  John Winthrop : By Jove, I hadn't thought of it like that. You're dead right, of course, but let me put it like this. Do you really think that the legend is dangerous?

  Sherlock Holmes : You're obviously overlooking the second conclusion, sir. If the legend is real and beyond our understanding, then your life my threatened by the supernatural. If we rule that out and the threat has a very realistic source, in either case the threat remains.

• Sherlock Holmes : Did you realise that young Harvey Winthrop was in love with Alice before she married his brother?

  Dr. John H. Watson : Holmes, you're fantastic! How did you determine that?

  Sherlock Holmes : He told me.

• [last lines] 

  [Holmes finds a coin next to the Peg Hall body] 

  Dr. John H. Watson : But it's a gold doubloon.

  Sherlock Holmes : And she said no court in the world would ever convict her.

• [Holmes has accused Winthrop's fiancée of murdering his brother based on admittedly flimsy evidence] 

  Harvey Winthrop : Well, assuming you're right - and, mind you, to me it's only an assumption - there's nothing we can do.

  Sherlock Holmes : Yes, there is. We can at least remove the assumption.