The Sign of Four (1983)

Hired by a young lady, Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson investigate the strange recent deaths of her missing father's friends from the army, as well as the whereabouts of the Great Mogul, the second-largest diamond in the world.

Director:

Desmond Davis

Writers:

Arthur Conan Doyle (novel) (as Sir Arthur Conan Doyle), Charles Edward Pogue (screenplay)

Stars:

Ian Richardson, David Healy, Thorley Walters

1 win & 2 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Ian Richardson	...	Sherlock Holmes
David Healy	...	Dr. John Watson
Thorley Walters	...	Major John Sholto
Cherie Lunghi	...	Mary Morstan
Joe Melia	...	Jonathan Small
Terence Rigby	...	Inspector Layton
Clive Merrison	...	Bartholomew Sholto
Richard Heffer	...	Thaddeus Sholto
John Pedrick	...	Tonga
Michael O'Hagan	...	Mordecai Smith
Robert Russell	...	Williams
John Benfield	...	McMurdo
Moti Makan	...	Lal Rao
Kate Binchy	...	Maid
Gordon Rollings	...	Mr. Sherman

Storyline

Hired by a young lady, Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson investigate the strange recent deaths of her missing father's friends from the army, as well as the whereabouts of the Great Mogul, the second-largest diamond in the world.

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Plot Keywords:

stolen treasure | hidden treasure | stolen diamond | diamond | greed | 

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Genres:

Crime | Mystery

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Certificate:

Not Rated

Details

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Release Date:

7 December 1983 (USA)

Also Known As:

Sherlock Holmes: The Sign of Four

Filming Locations:

London, England, UK

Company Credits

Production Co:

Mapleton Films

Technical Specs

Runtime:

97 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

4:3

Did You Know?

Trivia

A brief establishing shot of Baker Street, with a street-cleaning cart passing by, is actually a piece of footage from The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes (1970).

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Goofs

The police inspector played by Terence Rigby is named "Layton", but was supposed to be the more famous Inspector Lestrade. You can clearly see Ian Richardson and the other actors mouthing the name "Lestrade" throughout the production, but for some reason they were all dubbed over with "Layton".

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Connections

Version of The Crucifer of Blood (1991)

User Reviews

Good film, involving without being gripping

Miss Mary Morstan has been receiving jewels from an unknown source for some time when the anonymous man wants a meeting. She takes along Holmes and Watson and they uncover a years old pact regarding stolen treasure – the so called `four'. However Holmes finds that someone is killing off the four in the hunt for the treasure and must race to stop him and save the jewels.

Over the past few months I have been watching al to of the Rathbone/Bruce Holmes films and have been enjoying them, but I thought I'd take another version and try it out. I heard good things about this version and they were mostly right – this is a good telling of the story, even if I struggled to follow some parts of it (my fault and not the film's!). The plot is a little duller than it should have been because we already know what's going on from the start as opposed to working it out with Holmes. However it is still enjoyable and has some exciting moments of action and good moments where Holmes deduces the clues!

The film also has a reasonable vein of good humour running through it and is funny at times. Happily this does not come from Watson being a buffoon of sorts. He is clearly Holmes' sidekick rather than equal but nonetheless he is certainly different from Bruce's playing. Richardson is a good Holmes and made me forget Rathbone, while Healy does quite well as Watson – although Bruce is forever in that role for me (even though I dislike that version of Watson). The rest of the cast are good and support the tale well.

Overall this is a good film with a worthy sense of time. It is a lot `straighter' that the Rathbone Holmes films but that is not a bad thing. Not a classic but certainly an enjoyable mystery film that is involving without being gripping.