The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes (1970)

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Directed by Billy Wilder.

Starring Colin Blakely, Irene Handl, Stanley Holloway, Christopher Lee, Geneviève Page, Robert Stephens, Tamara Toumanova.

In Billy Wilder's cinematic homage to the spirit of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, British stage luminary Robert Stephens plays Holmes, while Colin Blakely is his friend and chronicler Dr. Watson. This self-described "hitherto suppressed and thoroughly fascinating" tale concerns Holmes' search for a missing mining engineer -- a case that may have a far-reaching effect on the national security of England. Along the way, Holmes falls in love for the first time in his life, with enigmatic foreign beauty Gabrielle Valladon (Genevieve Page). In this 1970 film, Wilder emphasizes such then-current topics as homosexuality (notably during the film's prologue) and drug addiction. Christopher Lee, a former screen Holmes himself, has a cameo (minus toupee) as Sherlock's brother Mycroft Holmes. Heavily re-edited and rearranged both before and after its release, The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes was a box-office disappointment when it came out in 1970. Since that time, its reputation has grown immeasurably, especially among those lucky enough to have seen a complete print. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

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The Private Life of Sherlock Ho ...
by CinemaRian in CinemaRian Blog

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"I suppose that a postmodern take on the Sherlock Holmes semi-mythos was inevitable, but was it necessary? The appeal of reading the original Holmes stories by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle are the images of Sherlock in his deerstalker, marching through foggy Victorian London on route to solve another mystery. The detective and his friend and chronicler, Dr. Watson, are characters like Superman, Tarzan, or James Bond, passing out of their original literary source material and into popular icon, and I like it that way. That said, Billy Wilder's The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes is certainly an interesting attempt at going deeper into the legend providing a semi-realistic account of the detective, played in this film by Robert Stephens. What Wilder finds is an accurate psychological portrayal considering the information from the Conan Doyle stories- a deeply arrogant and lonely man, unable to relate to others on anything other than an intellectual level, occasionally plugging his depres ... " [More]

Review by All Movie Guide

All Movie Guide

liked it.

Mellow and romantic, Billy Wilder's mutilated late masterwork is more an intimate portrait of Arthur Conan Doyle's famed coke-sniffing, violin-loving, super-rational detective than a straightforward mystery. Shooting elegantly in England, Wilder and longtime co-writer I.A.L. Diamond mine humor from Holmes's suspect sexuality and make plain his drug habit. As played by Robert Stephens, their Holmes is a figure of melancholy and regret. His impossible romance with a woman who is his intellectual match reveals the incompatibility between a life of reason and a life of feeling, yet the poignant end of their relationship renders emotionally palpable what Holmes has lost by being a great detective. Episodic in structure and originally intended to be over three hours long, Sherlock Holmes was drastically cut after a disastrous preview; most of the cut footage is presumed lost. One hour shorter, it was a failure in 1970, but its critical reputation has since flourished due to its visual beauty and fine performances from Stephens, Colin Blakely as Dr. Watson, and Genevieve Page as Holmes's love. The laser disc version contained 12 minutes of restored footage. ~ Lucia Bozzola, All Movie Guide

Tags: castle , clue , deduction-reasoning , detective , secrets
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