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Amazon.com: This 1970 Billy Wilder comedy-drama about a major defeat in the career of Sherlock Holmes may have little to do with the legacy of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, but in its uncut form it happens to be one of the finest films of the decade. Robert Stephens makes a perfectly splendid Holmes, brilliant, sophisticated, and deeply flawed, while Colin Blakely plays Dr. Watson as a drinker and ladies' man with more personality and intelligence than is often granted him by filmmakers. The case (which has some echoes of Doyle's story "The Bruce-Partington Plans") begins with Holmes aiding the distressed Madame Valladon (Geneviève Page), who is searching for her missing husband. The inquiry shifts to Scotland, and despite a stern warning from the hero's brother, Mycroft Holmes (Christopher Lee), Sherlock pursues events that reveal a top-secret government plan. Lush, energetic, funny, gorgeous to look at, and ultimately tragic, the film is layered with Wilder's familiar collision of cynicism and yearning, hope and betrayal, grace and isolation. --Tom Keogh
Customer Reviews
Average Rating:
Rating: - A PLOT WITH SUCH BIG HOLES IN IT, YOU CAN DRIVE A SUBMARINE THROUGH THEM
This reminds me of the crappy Pink Panther movies in comparison with the good Pink Panther movies. This is the worst Sherlock Holmes movie ever. I did watch this movie all the way through, but only because I will watch any Sherlock Holmes movie. Most everything about this feeble attempt is lame. Christopher Lee is good as Sherlock's brother, but he can't overcome the weak dialogue. The thing I like the best about Sherlock Holmes movies is all the little detecting that Sherlock does using minor clues that nobody else notices, but Billy Wilder seems to be scrupulously avoiding this integral part of the Holmes character. Holmes is not a detective in this one. This plot is implausible and silly. The principle actors are miscast. (Watch for Stanley Holloway as a grave digger) The dialogue is absurd. This is a humorless, flaccid movie.
Rating: - private life of sherlock holmes
I would like to tell you about the great people that shared & helped in the private life of sherlock holmes. he was the best at solveing the crime that was against the law &then had to maked the guilted answer for their action's.they had done which were outside of the law and have justiced served.Checkout this movie i think you will enjoy it very much.
Rating: - The Human Side of the Most Famous Detective
This 1970's film directed by the genius of Billy Wilder, who made over 90 films in his life time, (not one a dud) adapted the film from the novel by I.A.L. Diamond, focusing on the human side of the most famous detective in history.
Robert Stevens as Holmes is more "real" for lack of a better term, as Wilder shows not only his genius but his addiction to cocaine, and his prudishness, typical of the times and an emotional side that most of us have barely caught a glimpse.
The term "Classic" has been bandied around a lot lately, even calling 21st century films, "True Classics." Well, this film was made in 1970, directed by a genuis who had been making films in Hollywood since the 1920's.
"Private..." has that good old atmosphere to it; a certain amount of irony and tongue and cheek to keep the most cynical intrigued because it doesn't take it self too seriously...a melodrama yes, but something of old Hollywood in the love story. Sorry, but Holmes falls in love and in the books, it was only hinted at once. (I hope this is not a spoiler, but an aspect of the film, (particularly Holmes fans and film lovers' generally to see the film again or seek it out.)
Colin Blakely as Dr. Watson is one of the most funny and charming interpretations of the character that has been done...not over the top, but funny and reveals a great concern for his unusual friend.
A True Classic, The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes IS a gem and should be in every Holmes fan's DVD library.
Excellent.
Rating: - A truly great movie even in its present form
A long-time dream project for Billy Wilder, beginning life as a musical, going through several years of rewrites and casting proposals - at one point even a vehicle for Peter O'Toole and Peter Sellers until the director found both impossible to make a deal with - before going into production as a hugely expensive $10m budgeted three-hour plus roadshow picture only to be cut down to little over two hours when exhibitors refused to book the uncut version, The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes is something of a legend in itself. The whereabouts of all the elements for a full restoration has long defied the finest minds in film restoration, adding a layer of mystique and what-if? to the film's reputation.
The best way to watch The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes is to forget what could have been and marvel at what is left. For all its problems, even in the heavily cut version that was eventually released, this is one of Billy Wilder's greatest and certainly most heartfelt achievements - and a pretty good yarn as well, throwing missing dwarves, dead canaries, Trappist monks, Swan Lake, Sherlock's mysterious brother Mycroft, Queen Victoria and the Loch Ness Monster into the mix, as well as an amnesiac woman who rouses more than Holmes' professional curiosity, to tragic results.
Throughout, Wilder presents a much less self-assured vision of the great detective than had been seen before. In the opening scene he castigates Watson for the expectations the Doctor's stories in Strand Magazine have instilled in the public, and the film proceeds to ultimately explore that painful gap between expectations and reality with no mercy to the character's feelings but much compassion.
Where to Watson's spirit of adventure, all things are possible, to Holmes all things can be disassembled and found wanting. There's real pain, loneliness and despair behind his façade of dry wit. Robert Stephens' Holmes is a genuinely tragic figure, a victim of his own intellect whose descent into becoming a thinking machine is more an act of self-defence at his poor judgement in matters romantic. The final shots of him reaching for a shot of cocaine to hide a broken heart are one of the most haunting images of its era.
Colin Blakely's Watson too is a great creation. He is never mere comic relief or the all-too-familiar buffoonish stereotype but a fully realised figure pained by his inability to deal with his friend's drug use (and discomfort with being his unwitting supplier). There's a humanity, familiarity and genuine emotional interdependence ... Read More
Rating: - What Might Have Been...
The film that was released is an amusing Holmes pastiche, but when you take the time to review all the extras and get a sense of Wilder's intentions, you'll realize that this could have been a masterpiece. Poignent and farcical "movements" blend together seamlessly. It should be added to the ranks of "The Magnificent Ambersons" as a tragic loss.
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