The Case of the Whitechapel Vampire (2002 TV Movie) User Reviews

Death by vampire

[TheLittleSongbird · 4/10 · 21 April 2018]

Am a huge fan of Sherlock Holmes and get a lot of enjoyment out of Arthur Conan Doyle's stories. Also love Basil Rathbone's and especially Jeremy Brett's interpretations to death. So would naturally see any Sherlock Holmes adaptation that comes my way, regardless of its reception.

'The Case of the Whitechapel Vampire' is the last of four Hallmark adaptations with Matt Frewer as Holmes. Don't care for any of the four, with 'The Sign of Four' being especially disappointing, but ranking the four 'The Case of the Whitechapel Vampire' is perhaps the best. Like with 'The Royal Scandal', it at least doesn't have the dubious distinction of not doing classic stories justice.

Again, Kenneth Welsh is the best thing about 'The Case of the Whitechapel Vampire' and the only good actor in the film. He is an excellent Watson and more the faithful interpretation of a loyal and intelligent Watson and not the bumbling buffoon for comic relief purposes. Cary Lawrence is also decent.

Found some of the locations suitably atmospheric and parts of the music eerie.

However, my negative feelings on Frewer's Holmes continues to remain unchanged. He is far too manic and eccentric, with too much of an over-emphasis on hammy humour in places, and his rapport with Watson too abrasive and borderline bullying. The rest of the cast struggle, especially Neville Edwards playing Chagras as too much of a cartoonish caricature and Michel Perron over-acting just as much as he did in 'The Sign of Four' and with an even more inconsistent, risible accent.

Despite being the best generally of the four films, 'The Case of the Whitechapel Vampire' is one of the weaker-looking ones too. Too much of it looks static and cheap, with only some of the sets appealing. Moreover, 'The Case of the Whitechapel Vampire' has a lack of tension and suspense and is pretty dull, the pedestrian direction not helping. It further suffers from being somewhat over-stuffed, too many various and different ideas cobbled together and it just feels muddled and disjointed. The denouement is far too rushed and doesn't make much sense as a result, while the dialogue lacks intrigue and subtlety.

Overall, far from irredeemable but lacking in a lot of lustre. 4/10 Bethany Cox

A Theatrical Mystery and Verbal Movie: Stage on the Screen

[claudio_carvalho · 6/10 · 24 October 2003]

The skeptical Sherlock Holmes (Matt Frewer) and Dr. Watson (Kenneth Welsh) investigate some deaths in the monastery of Whitechapel attributed to a vampire. Sherlock Holmes refuses to believe in any type of action from the supernatural or any coincidence. As usual, there is a very logical conclusion of the story. This is the type of very verbalized movie, basically with no action. The viewer feels like being in a theater, with a stage on the screen. Therefore, the running time could be shorter. The viewer may also become a tired, especially if he is not fluent in English and needs to read the subtitles. But it is a good plot and the mystery and its resolution keep the attention along the whole story. My vote is six.

GOOD ADAPTIONS AND FUN FOR HOLMES FANS

[dogma-53668 · 8/10 · 14 April 2019]

It's really nice to have new Sherlock Holmes adaptions played by different actors. Every actor who played Sherlock Holmes and dr. Watson bring their own Aura to the parts. Give it a chance just enjoy it for what it. Makes more sense than the Robert Downey jr. Versions. Good atmosphere, fun to watch. I wish there were more than four.

"The more violently twisted the mind the more violently twisted the logic." Average made for TV murder mystery.

[poolandrews · 5/10 · 1 October 2005]

The Case of the Whitechapel Vampire sees Sherlock Holmes (Matt Frewer) & his trusty assistant Dr. Watson (Kenneth Welsh) tackle yet another baffling mystery. Holmes receives a letter from a Brother Marstoke (Shawn Lawrence) asking for his help in the murder of Brother Sinclair (Norris Domingue) who appears to have been murdered by a Vampire. Holmes takes the case & discovers that while on missionary work in Guiana Brother Marstoke has encountered such Vampiric killings before, both Brother Lee & Thomas had fallen victim. Brother Marstoke thinks that a 'demon' of some sort is responsible & has followed him back to London to continue it's killing spree. Inspector Jones (Julian Casey) & Scotland Yard are clueless so Holmes begins his investigations & quickly finds a long list of suspects like Dr. Chagas (Neville Edwards) whom is Scotland Yards number one suspect & who both studies & adores Vampire bats & to further add suspicion has had run-ins with Marstoke before, but surely there's more to it than that? As the bodies continue to pile up Holmes must cut through the superstition to find the truth & unmask the killer!

This Canadian produced feature length made for TV Sherlock Holmes mystery was written & directed by Rodney Gibbons this was one of four TV films by Gibbons to feature Frewer as Holmes apparently filmed for CTV television, first was The Hound of the Baskervilles (2000) then The Sign of Four (2001) after that came The Royal Scandal (2001) & finally this, the only one not adapted from an existing Holmes mystery. The script isn't overly complex or involving but it passes an hour & a half reasonably enough. It's a simple tale & isn't exactly edge of your seat stuff but it remains watchable, it entertains & at least I wanted to stick with it right trough to the end to find out the killers identity. The character's are as you would expect, Holmes is totally brilliant in every way, Watson is his slightly slow sidekick, the police are bumbling idiots & there are many people whom seem to enjoy acting suspiciously while a murder investigation is taking place. The final reveal & the killers motives are a little unadventurous & not entirely satisfying. Technically The Case of the Whitechapel Vampire is rather lame, the cast & crew obviously never went anywhere near Lonon & probably never set foot outside Canada which hardly gives the film an authentic feel or look, basically the whole atmosphere of a grimy Whitechapel just isn't there. It's painfully obvious that it was made for TV with bland static photography, a small cast, limited sets with little period detail & cheap production values throughout. Now a word about the casting, namely Matt Frewer as Holmes. Can you believe it? Isn't Holmes meant to be English? After you get over the initial surprise he ain't too bad actually & overacts with the best of them, in fact I started to quite like him by the end amazingly. Everyone else is bland & forgettable although Welsh as Watson is pretty good while Edwards as Chagas is pretty awful. Overall The Case of the Whitechapel Vampire is a passable made for TV murder mystery that entertains to an extent, I doubt anyone will want to watch it more than once though so try & catch it on TV for free, which is where it belongs to be perfectly honest. Worth a watch if your a mystery fan & there's nothing else on.

Serviceable Sherlock.

[rmax304823 · 6/10 · 1 February 2014]

Holmes (Frewer) and Watson (Welsh) are called to a case that takes place in an Abbey inhabited by monks and nuns. A couple of monks wind up with the signature bite of the vampire on their necks. The monks are terrified. It surely has something to do with their having done missionary work in Guyana, which is full of bats. The tale is a little twisted but the general idea is that the monks and nuns think they're being pursued by some South American demon, while the atheistic Holmes and the more prudent Watson look for a material source of the problem.

The photography is just fine. The chiaroscuro is masterful. No kidding. Some shots evoke images of Rembrandt. We've all seen the stone and brick walls of night-time Victorian alleys before, the cobbled streets, but rarely more vividly, never more slick with glittering patches of water. Unfortunately we don't get to see too much of London. The budget apparently didn't allow for it.

None of the performances stand out much. Frewer has the right features for Holmes, but a fair-haired Holmes takes a little getting used to, and so does his gaiety and light voice. Between Rathbone and Brett, the character was ruined for everyone else. Although, come to think of it, things might have been worse -- Arthur WONTNER? Cary Lawrence turns in a polished performance as the blind Sister Helen. There are one or two evocative phrases, words, or character.

Whitechapel, of course, conjures up Jack the Ripper eating somebody's kidney, probably with a nice chianti. Vampires today are all over the screen, sometimes pathetic, sometime demonic, sometimes just thirsty. There was a real Doctor Chagas -- Carlos -- who became famous in tropical medicine in South America. He had a disease named after him. (Kids, the name of the disease that was named after Doctor Chagas is Chagas' disease.)

Either the structure of the story is tortuous or I'm aging at a faster rate than I'd hoped, because I kept getting all those monks mixed up. If they'd only dress differently from one another. And the ending: all the clues, ratiocination, and events that have been edited out of the narrative come crashing in all at once. It leaves you feeling as f you'd just gorged yourself on the collected works of Agatha Christie.

There have been worse movies about Holmes and there have been better ones. This one will pass.

highly entertaining fun for the kids!

[lotsafun · 10/10 · 8 November 2005]

The four Sherlock Holmes movies by Hallmark are just good fun versions for kids. Don't even try to take 'em seriously folks. Don't expect them to be artistic masterpieces based on literary classics. These TV movies were made for a family audience and there's plenty of comedy for kids in these things. Frewer's Holmes must be seen to be believed! He's a hoot! He's the most eccentric Holmes EVER! Kids will love this guy! Kenneth Welsh is much more traditional in his role and he makes a very fine Watson. These Frewer Holmes flicks are sure to entertain the kids and will hopefully encourage them to read more about The Master Detective. They certainly wont get bored watching any of these with the ultra-intense and comedic Frewer on the screen.

Fairly mediocre Sherlock Holmes mystery

[Red-Barracuda · 5/10 · 30 December 2013]

From the opening few seconds it is immediately obvious that this is a TV movie. The production values scream this out. The music and sets all show their limitations pretty clearly, while the acting on display is very much of television standard. So from the get-go you are at least under no false impressions of the scope of this one and that's probably a good thing in the long run because this Sherlock Holmes mystery doesn't really ever ascend above the level of mediocre.

The story is about a series of murders at a monastery seemingly committed by a vampire in the same area as Jack the Ripper operated. One of the monastic Brothers believes that it is the work of a demon he claims to have encountered before in British Guyana called Desmondo. The 'agnostic' Holmes is sceptical from the outset regarding this explanation and sets about applying his famed logic to solving the murder-mystery.

Apparently this is not actually based on an Arthur Conan Doyle original story. This may go some way to explaining some of the more ambiguous supernatural material such as a possibly-maybe divine intervention moment towards the end. Despite a very promising set-up, it isn't a particularly exciting or well written story. The actor who played Holmes didn't seem right to me, on the other hand Dr Watson was portrayed in a textbook manner. But overall, the acting was sub-par amongst the side characters, with the character who played the police inspector spouting a truly dreadful 'Scottish' accent. Despite all this, it was an acceptable enough way of spending ninety minutes and I was interested enough to discover the solution to the mystery. But overall there was little in the way of actual atmosphere or inspiration in this one.

cartoon Holmes

[didi-5 · 12 June 2010]

Matt Frewer's four films for Hallmark television are never likely to budge memories of the series made for Granada in the 1980s and 1990s; however, they are meant to appeal to a young audience and in this respect, they probably succeed.

Frewer is saddled with a comedy deerstalker, the worst British accent since Robert Duvall played Watson in 'The Seven-Per-Cent Solution', and an annoying range of tics, smirks and general non-Holmes type behaviour. But he does have a rather good Watson in Kenneth Welsh who is a more serious version of Nigel Bruce from the 1940s Holmes films, so there are some compensations.

The story here is nothing to do with Conan Doyle's 'The Sussex Vampyre'; it concerns a group of monks who are slowly being killed by what appears to be a vampire bat - each are found slumped and cold and bleeding from two wounds to the neck. Is there something supernatural going on, or, as Holmes believes, it this an inside job? The filming is actually not that bad - Canada passes for Victorian England, and set dressing isn't that inaccurate. With a better actor in the lead, these could be worthy additions to the screen Holmes. It's just that Frewer's version doesn't work - unless you see him as a kind of cartoon, comedy, superhero Holmes.

If you are a Holmes completist, then of course you will want to watch these. But otherwise, you won't miss anything by staying away.

A watchable film.

[Sleepin_Dragon · 6/10 · 10 February 2022]

It's hard not to watch this and compare it with Jeremy Brett's The Last Vampyre, and once again, as with all of Matt Frewer's Sherlock Holmes films, it's a mix of good and bad.

Let's start with the good, the story, I liked it, I'm not a huge fan of vampires in general, but this works rather well. I like the visuals, it looks authentic enough, it's atmospheric, it looks murky, and lacks some of the usual polish you get in such productions.

The acting, is a little patchy it's fair to say, some of the cast are a little hammy, Frewer though I did enjoy, I liked his accent, I liked his quirkiness, he had some presence.

On the debit side, it felt a little clunky at parts, some of the dialogue is a little over the top. I mentioned earlier that you shouldn't compare, the trouble is when you do compare this with Brett's, it's just not in the same league.

It's watchable, 6/10.

Average and stagy Sherlock Holmes recounting in which he has to investigate murders committed at an abbey

[ma-cortes · 5/10 · 19 August 2022]

Canadian adaptation with a peculiar Matt Frewer as Sherlock as well as acceptable Kenneth Welsh as Watson , but unfairly faithful to the source material . A so-so rendition of the most famous sleuth originally created by Arthur Conan Doyle . Someone... or something... is murdering the monks at the abbey in Whitechapel . Then Sherlock Holmes (Matt Frewer) and Dr Watson (Kenneth Welsh) from their 223 Baker Street's house are contracted by several religious clients for the investigation of mysteries , enigmas and killings at a monastery . Rumor is that it's the work of a vampire brought back from a new mission in Guiana . In all cases, the victims have been found with two large puncture wounds on their necks . On the wall, written in blood, is usually a message like "As you have sinned against me, so shall I exact my revenge" . The prime suspect results to be the strange Dr. Chagas (Neville Edwards) , while Brother Marstoke (Shawn Larence) believes that the murders might be vengeance from Desmodo , a fiercesome demon from South America who frequently turns up as a giant vampire bat.

A mediocre Holmes entry retelling a fictitous plot , non-novella , in which Matt Frewer gives a sui-generis acting and there's really cheap and painfully made production values , mostly filmed in stage with little attention to period detail throughout . This time Holmes and Watson have been called to investigate at an abbey where occurs a series of grisly death rumoured to be caused by a vampire, but being paced in a bland static developing . This is an ordinary and thrilling outing with intrigue , suspense and chilling elements , but not being based on the splendid novels by Arthur Conan Doyle . It's a genuine ripping yarn with much thriller , sinister events and moody intrigue . The TV series gets mystery , tension, thrills , detective action and packs some exciting though brief surprises . It's unfortunately obvious that it was realized for television including lousy cinematography , an unknown cast without prestigious secondaries , and short budget , adding limited settings. Main characters Holmes and Watson are middlingly played , on the one hand , Matt Frewer gave an extremely ironical and inadequate acting , as he didn't seem right to me and he didn't ajusted to classic textbook , on the other hand Kenneth Welsh portrayed better his Watson role , following the cannon manner , as he played as Watson with intelligence and seriousness , he's the perfect counterpoint to Holmes, in contrast to the botcher , chapucer Watson played by hilarious Nigel Bruce in the classic series . Other important actors played much better these immortal characters . As Peter Cushing had played Holmes for Hammer Production in Terence Fisher's The Hound of the Baskerville, when in 1968 replaced Douglas Wilmer in the BBC serial and produced by William Sterling . As Peter Cushing's interpretations were excellent , although the best Sherlock is forever Basil Rathbone . The great Rathbone created his own character based on the classical personage and is praised for giving a great authenticity to the famous role . Cushing as well as Rathbone played Sherlock Holmes as an intelligent , obstinate , broody , pipesmoking sleuth , their acting is similar to Jeremy Brett for TV or Ronald Howard (starring in TV chapters of the 50s with Howard Marion Crawford as Watson) or Nicol Williamson (Seven-per-cent-solution by Herbert Ross) or Christopher Plummer (Murder by decree by Bob Clark) in cinema . In The Case of the Whitechapel Vampire (2002) shows up briefly Mistress Hudson , but neither Inspector Lestrade, nor Mycroft , Sherlock's brother , and , of course , Doctor Watson who here has an essential appearance.

The motion picture was middlingly directed by Rodney Gibbons . This Television artisan made other films about Sherlock : Royal scandal , The sign of the four , Hound of the Baskerville and this The Case of the Whitechapel Vampire (2002) . And he also directed ocassionally for cinema and making several Telefilms and TV episodes from notorious series , such as : Back to Sherwood , Lassie series , Secret pact , Wilder, The Neighbor , Deadly Isolation , Artificial lies , Owd Bob , Little men ,Stranger in the House, among others. Rating : 4.5 . Regular Sherlock Holmes adaptation.

Sher-schlock Holmes

[Leofwine_draca · 3/10 · 14 June 2014]

That this 2002 Canadian TV movie is based on a made-up Holmes story rather than a canon one should be a warning in itself; this turns out to be a schlocky and entirely befuddled production that has little to do with the original stories. Purists will no doubt find themselves outraged by the antics of the producers, which reduce the story elements to their most basic level.

The rest of us are left amused by a film which comes across as a cheesy B-movie instead of a classy Holmes adaptation. The entire story is set in what looks like a medieval monastery, with the sweaty monks at the mercy of a vampire killer. Wait until you see the costume! It's all very silly and of course nothing like the real Holmes.

Matt Frewer starred as the Victorian sleuth in four of these movies and he portrays the detective as an upper class twit. Let's just say that his acting is entertaining for all the wrong reasons. I'm not sure why North Americans have to put on an affected RP accent every time they play a Brit; it's a bit like a Brit supposing that all Americans speak in Southern drawls, which couldn't be further from the truth. Anyway, THE CASE OF THE WHIECHAPEL VAMPIRE is a mess, but also still marginally better than the appalling BBC production of SHERLOCK HOLMES AND THE CASE OF THE SILK STOCKING with Rupert Everett.

Rabid monk or minority ravager?

[charlytully · 7/10 · 2 August 2009]

These are two of the choices offered as possible solutions in a fairly anachronistic rendering of an apocryphal Holmes-like tale. This made-for-TV story got nominated for cinematography awards in both the United States and Canada (it was filmed in Montreal). Therefore, if you want the best quality experience from WHITECHAPEL VAMPIRE, watch this with your television on "mute," and you will not hear the evidence as to why this offering did not receive any script-writing kudos. While it is clear Matt Frewer models his rendering of Sherlock Holmes more on the character "Snidely Whiplash" from TV's 1960s Bullwinkle cartoon than on Basil Rathbone's characterization in his famous string of 1940s Holmesian offerings, Tom Rack as Brother Abel is perhaps the weakest link in an acting chain of questionable strength. In terms of whether this series is great for kids, as some have suggested, it may well be, if one's goal is to raise little agnostics or atheists.

The Case of the Whitechapel Vampire

[CinemaSerf · 6/10 · 27 November 2022]

This starts off with a rather curious disclaimer stating it has taken the characters from the public domain and that no effort has been made to liaise with the estate of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. All perfectly legal, of course, but it did make me wonder what liberties they were about to take with the long established characters of "Sherlock Holmes" (Matt Frewer) and "Dr. Watson" (Kenneth Welsh). Well, as it happens, that intrigue is about as good as this gets as our super-sleuthing duo become embroiled in a series of murders that people suspect might be the work of a vampire. Frewer and Welsh are not Rathbone/Bruce, but they make for a decent pairing in this otherwise unremarkable drama that seems to draw more from "Cadfael" then from "Hound of the Baskervilles". The mystery develops pretty routinely, as you'd expect from a ninety minute television movie, before an ending that reminded me of "Scooby Doo". It isn't terrible, indeed the production looks fine, but the sum of the parts is underwhelming, with some pretty wordy dialogue and too many characters to clutter up any participation from the audience in the investigation. Maybe one for die-hard fans of these iconic characters, but otherwise just daytime telly fodder.

mediocre

[SnoopyStyle · 6/10 · 12 September 2018]

A monk is murdered and a vampire is suspected. Sherlock Holmes (Matt Frewer) dismisses the supernatural explanation but Dr. Watson (Kenneth Welsh) is unsure. Brother Marstoke reveals a series of murders with accompanying blood scrawled walls and large bat-like demon Desmondo from a faraway mission.

This is missing an exciting twist or an inventive take. Frewer has been more charismatic than this. The church should be a dark gothic setting but it's much too dull for that. It is a TV movie all the way through. This is functional but not much more than that. The Hallmark Channel is using the public domain classic character to do a non-canon mediocre mystery.

Something evil is among us...

[KatharineFanatic · 26 October 2002]

Unlike the former three adaptations in the Hallmark series, this one makes no pretense of even loosely 'following' any of Conan Doyle's works. This is the only reason that 'The Whitechapel Vampire' can get away with near heresy. The story involves ritual, possible demonic, killings in a monastery in Whitechapel, which was only recently deprived of Jack the Ripper.

Sherlock Holmes is called in to investigate, but finds himself facing the possible unknown. A skeptic of anything supernatural, he fully believes that these 'vampire killings' can be proven the work of a human hand. Thus the story involves the Christian faith, and pagan superstition, as well as a medium, in attempts to satisfy viewers of all belief systems. What it does instead is trip over its own ambitions.

Christians like myself will resent that in the end, something the medium has said proves itself right. And skeptics won't like the 'divine intervention' at a key moment of the climax. As a full-length film, it's often hard to follow, and isn't entirely explained, but manages to keep viewers on the edge of their seats. Frewer remains stereotyped, but it doesn't bleed through as often as in the first three adaptations. It is not the finest pastiche ever filmed but is worth seeing at least once.

Why Bother!?!

[Gyrobot · 16 September 2002]

The first question you need to ask is "Why the hell bother?". Sherlock Holmes has been done to death and with Jeremy Brett, reached the apex of plausibility. The Basil Rathbones are good fun and there's been numerous feature film attempts, some of which are excellent and some of which should be forever stricken from the records. Unfortunately these Hallmark efforts fit into the latter category.

I've always enjoyed Matt Frewer's acting and he certainly has the perfect face for Holmes but the quality of acting is abysmal. It's like a 1960's Disney animated version of Holmes, cod Cock-er-knee accents and Sherlock has become some sort of pantomime version of himself, complete with stupid fake upper class accent and ability to annoy practically everyone. This results in all dramatic suspense being lost as we're expected to accept this Holmes as a comic geek.

The few Hallmark episodes that have been produced are all stinkers and have been made purely for the US market that still believes that Victorian England was a perfect chocolate box representation.

I have a sneaky suspicion that director Rodney Gibbons is the main culprit and the cause of the rampant artificiality of these terrible additions to the cult of Holmes.

If you like amateur dramatics then you'll love these. If you love the density of Holmes' Victorian world you'd be better off with the many Jeremy Brett episodes.

This movie proceeds at a gentle pace.

[md_dg · 8/10 · 13 September 2023]

This movie has the flavor of a tv movie the from days of old, produced by and for the Hallmark channel.

A murder at a coed monastery calls for the talents of Sherlock Holmes. Holmes is unabashedly skeptical of religion, but murder is murder regardless of the venue. There are indications that the initial murder, as well as subsequent murders, were committed by a vampire, and as you might expect, Sherlock is equally skeptical about the undead. The movie proceeds at a gentle pace as we untangle the present conflict with past events which occurred in Guyana some years ago. All in all a pleasant way to pass a sleepy afternoon.

Hallmark

[yusufpiskin · 5/10 · 24 December 2021]

It's a fake Sherlock Holmes adaptation, but the movie starts off by warning you that it's fake.

Although I love the BBC and Hallmark adaptations of Holmes, I can't say that I like this version of Sherlock, who is never told like a gentleman in the books.

Matt Frewer is great again.

Even though it's called Vampire, the movie actually deals with the Dhampire cult, which is the only movie I know/watch on the subject.

Mediocre and mildly confusing

[Hayden-86055 · 4/10 · 1 April 2022]

I was not a huge fan of this film, I didn't like Matt Frewer as Holmes, he's too sarcastic, largely different to the book version and just plain incompetent. He has to be saved on three different occasions by other people, and his actual deductions mean nothing because it could have been anyone posing as the "vampire". He just pretends to be a monk to lure him in, not very detective like and his famous wit is near absent or, even worse, in some cases Holmes gets outwitted!

On the plus side Kenneth Welsh as Watson wasn't bad, the sets and atmosphere was quite good for the budget of a TV movie and the costumes were all fine. But those by themselves don't make a good film, the plot was interesting but disappointing overall whilst being a bit confusing to follow in parts.

4/10: Just below average.

Vampire attacks?

[ctyankee1 · 18 August 2013]

2002 The Case of the Whitechapel Vampire Sherlock Holmes investigates a series of death rumored to be caused by a vampire. He makes fun of religion right off. He claims he is agnostic.

A religious brother invites Sherlock to investigate a vampire who is killing church members a Whitechapel.

The brother claims to be a man of god but he has a storage room of all kinds of statues to other gods and liberal attitudes. So contradictory.

The costumes of the sisters and brothers look terrible compared with others. To add more insult the religious brother that is killed is said to have fallen on a Cross and that is how he got bleeding neck injuries.

In this movie a man who played in the Sign of Four- Inspector Jones is someone who is easy to dislike. He hates Sherlock he is loud and angry when he talks. He is just another actor over acting to make an impression.

This movie was better then the Sign of Four. There was not a whole lot of nonsense in it. I was very surprised with the ending. Sherlock loses his pipe which is way to long but at the end through some miracle gets it returned by a person named "Mr Church".

Watson tried to convince Sherlock to believe in a fortune tellers prediction. That was a downer for me but I am not surprised Arthur Doyle believed in mediums, spiritualist etc. He went to Catholic schools but did not practice his faith.

So like my mother would say "Consider the source."

Mediocrity my dear Watson.

[midnightmosesuk · 5/10 · 23 November 2022]

I've always enjoyed a good Sherlock Holmes mystery, my favorite portrayal being by the late, great Jeremy Brett. I was also a fan of Max Headroom back in the day and have a bit of a soft spot for Matt Frewer, so my curiosity was piqued when this was suggested to me as a film I might enjoy.

Sadly, the whole thing was a bit of a disappointment. Matt Frewer certainly looked the part but, just like Benedict Cumberbatch, he's just not a very good Sherlock Holmes. In particular, his English accent is, quite frankly, risible.

As others have pointed out, the actor playing Dr. Watson (Kenneth Welsh) was pretty good, but his portrayal was unable to save this very mediocre film.

Still, all that being said, it wasn't unentertaining, despite a lot of historical inaccuracies.

So, five stars it is then.