Review: Sherlock Holmes and the Deadly Necklace

Loosely based on Arthur Conan Doyle’s Valley of Fear, Sherlock Holmes (Christopher Lee) and Dr. Watson (Thorley Walters) are convinced that the dastardly criminal Moriarty (Hans Söhnker) is up to no good, stealing a priceless necklace supposedly worn by Cleopatra. Scotland Yard however, are more annoyed with Holmes’ apparent grudge/bias against the master criminal genius, whom they see as a respectable member of society. Undeterred, the world’s greatest detective and his assistant set about trying to prove their suspicions.

 

Christopher Lee managed to play several different characters in the filmed versions of Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes series. He was a perfectly dashing, gentlemanly Sir Henry Baskerville to Peter Cushing’s Sherlock in Hammer’s version of “The Hound of the Baskervilles”, and also played a very serious Mycroft Holmes in Billy Wilder’s underrated “The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes”. Less-known is that he also played Sherlock Holmes himself at least three times. I think the reason why this is less well-known is because two of those times happened to be in TV movies, and the other time was in this German-made (though partly through French and Italian financing as well) 1962 mystery film. Despite being directed by Hammer’s Terence Fisher (Hammer’s “The Hound of the Baskervilles”) and partly lensed in the UK, this wasn’t actually a Hammer film. In fact, Fisher apparently only directed some scenes, as assistant director Frank Winterstein is credited as ‘co-director’ in the on-screen credits (He was also assistant director on “Genghis Khan” a few years later). Who directed what, I cannot say. The film was recorded without live sound and dubbed into German in post, as was common in German films at the time. Neither of the film’s English stars (including Thorley Walters as Dr. Watson) were asked to do their own dubbing for the English dub, unfortunately. Hell, the multi-lingual Lee probably could’ve dubbed himself in several other languages for that matter. It’s a real shame, because part of what makes Christopher Lee’s performances is his baritone voice. The dubbing doesn’t just hurt Lee, it hurts the film. The English dubbing at times appears to be done by Americans, or at least actors trying to sound American. Think about the idiocy of that in a Sherlock Holmes story. I also have to say, whether it’s a print issue or not, the B&W film looks like a 1920s film rather than 1962 quality B&W. It’s a bit shoddy-looking. Putting all of this aside, the film is solid, if fairly unremarkable.

 

I think everyone’s first Sherlock Holmes will likely always be their preferred Holmes, and for me that’s Peter Cushing. I’ve previously enjoyed Lee, Basil Rathbone, Christopher Plummer, Sir Ian McKellen (as the aging “Mr. Holmes”), Sir Michael Caine (the rather phony, preening Sherlock Holmes in “Without a Clue”), the underrated John Neville, Nicol Williamson, and Robert Stephens in the part. Robert Downey Jr. was also entertaining in the first Guy Ritchie film, I suppose. However, I consider Ritchie’s Holmes films an alternate universe take for the most part (much like the TV series “Elementary”), Downey certainly got the ego and drug addiction aspects down pat, though (I can’t remember what I thought of Christopher Plummer, it’s been so long since I’ve seen “Murder By Decree”). For me, although it was quite similar to his dashing Van Helsing characterisation, Peter Cushing just seemed to embody Holmes best as I see it. Gentlemanly – almost genteel, the genius deductive reasoning, a slight arrogance perhaps, quite lively when needed, and he looked fine in the part too. Although I did like Nicol Williamson’s performance as Holmes in “The Seven Per-cent Solution”, the drug addiction thing has never been my favourite aspect to the character, so your ideal image of Holmes might differ and you may prefer the Williamson or Downey incarnations to Peter Cushing or Basil Rathbone (I’ve heard Jeremy Brett is a very popular Holmes, I’ve not seen his foray into the role however). In this film, Lee immediately sold me as Sherlock Holmes, particularly playing up the rather arrogant side (The rather posh-sounding Robert Stephens did a fine job with that too, in “The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes”). Since we’re not hearing his trademark deep voice, that hurts things somewhat, though. However, he looks very much the part – more so than any other actor I’ve seen in the part. In fact, I’d say he’s almost as good in the part as Cushing – but loses out by a hair.

 

Dubbed or not, Lee’s Sherlock is by far the best thing here, though. I haven’t read the original stories, but I suspect Lee’s interpretation of the character is probably pretty close to the source (Lee was often said to be a stickler for that sort of thing). The mystery is fine, but nothing terribly memorable or gripping. Moriarty as a mere thief? That seems a bit B-grade to me, though it’s serviceable at least. Thorley Walters is perfectly fine as Dr. Watson. He’s no Nigel Bruce, Peter Macnee (my personal favourite, opposite Lee’s Holmes in the TV movies) or Colin Blakely (“The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes”), but there’s not as much difference in the different portrayals of Watson as there is Holmes. He does a very solid job at the end of the day, and I wish it was in better surrounds. I also rather enjoyed the performance by Hans Söhnker as arch-villain Moriarty (hilariously mispronounced by the actors doing the dubbing as ‘Moriar-ity’, not ‘Moriarty’), he fits the dastardly character just nicely. The rest of the actors (Senta Berger included), are a bit forgettable however. I also need to mention the dreadfully cheap and intrusive music score by Brit composer Martin Slavin (“The Wild Affair” with Nancy Kwan and Terry-Thomas). Jazzy as hell, it simply doesn’t belong anywhere near Sherlock Holmes, and it certainly didn’t need to be so insistent throughout.

 

A bit of a cheap-looking B&W mystery, with a solid Holmes and Watson in Lee and Walters, and a pretty good Moriarty in Hans Söhnker too. Scripted by Curt Siodmak (“The Wolf Man”, “Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man”) of all people, I’ve read that producers fiddled around with Siodmak’s work. It’s a decent B-mystery, it’s just a shame it’s been horribly dubbed and clearly done rather on the cheap, it could’ve been even better than it is. You can’t help but feel you’re watching a C-grade 1940s serial or something rather than a feature film from the 1960s. Christopher Lee (and his many fans) deserve better than this, I think. I’ll still recommend it, but with some strong reservation. A classic case of Oh, what might’ve been…

 

Rating: B-