Guy Henry as the first “Young Sherlock Holmes” in YOUNG SHERLOCK: THE MYSTERY OF THE MANOR HOUSE.
Melia as a by-no-means-unsym- pathetic obsessed avenger. Also available domestically from Im- age Entertainment for $24.99.
YOUNG SHERLOCK: THE MYSTERY OF THE MANOR HOUSE
1981, Goldhil DVD/Granada Media, DD-5.1, $39.95, approx. 225m, DVD-1 By Kim Newman
Produced before Barry
Levinson’s YOUNG SHERLOCK HOLMES, this serial is a more satisfying version of Holmes’ beginnings, though hampered by UK children’s TV budget limitations. An elderly (unseen) Dr. Watson plays wax cylinders upon which Holmes recounts an adventure which took place before they met, when Holmes was a lanky 17 year-old (Guy Henry, later the BBC’s “horror
host” Dr. Terror, slightly chan- nelling Peter O’Toole). The plot is good, involving a plan to ab- duct and impersonate Queen Victoria while stealing the koh- i-noor: behind it is Moriarty, only ever seen in long-shot and leaving groundwork to confed- erates, including Sebastian Moran’s arrogant brother Jas- per (Christopher Villiers). Writer Gerald Frow doesn’t
go the SEVEN PERCENT SOLUTION route in using early trau- mas to “explain” Holmes, but does fill in bits of continuity as we see the lad swap his billycock for a deerstalker and befriend a widowed cook-housekeeper be- ing wooed by a Mr. Hudson who has a house in Baker St. The serial is long enough to look be- yond the intricate plot (clues: stolen mannequins, poisoned thorns, the tracks of an appar- ent three-legged dog, a clock
set to turn at 1/24th speed) as Sherlock is left to board with comically hypocritical rela- tives by the bankruptcy of parents who have flitted to France and whose fecklessness inculcates Holmes’ wariness of close relationships. He finds refuge with the family of a proto-Watson local doctor (Tim Brierly) and is warned about a tendency to be arro- gantly omnipotent, which he promises to moderate. Shot mostly on tape (à la
1970s-’80s DOCTOR WHO), it has to take shortcuts: an offscreen explosion settles plot while traps and fights are too obviously re- hearsed, but the acting is fine, with a canny mix of melodramatic, sincere and comedy playing. Aside from inevitable videotape streakiness with action (and candles), Goldhil’s three-volume set looks fine.
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