SHERLOCK HOLMES - A Little Journey Through Time

I watched "The Woman In Green" over the weekend on Amazon Prime, and it was going to be my Wednesday feature, but I found out later that Tabonga has a colourized version for you, so I decided to go a different route, and give you a look at some of the many films of Sherlock Holmes that have been made over the years! There have been almost 300 movies and/or TV shows with, or about, Sherlock Holmes, and to think Sir Arthur Conan Doyle didn't even consider Sherlock to be his best work! It just proves what Clifford Coulter said, and I quote, "Do It Now, Think About it Later!!" You will never know what your future might bring you!

The first film ever made featuring Sherlock Holmes was made in 1900 and had the great title of "Sherlock Holmes Baffled!" It was 30 seconds long, and nobody knows who played Sherlock! From 1905 to 1920, a number of actors tried their hand at the role of Sherlock, like Gilbert M. 'Broncho Billy' Anderson, Viggo Larsen, Otto Langoni, Georges

Tréville, Mack Sennett, Hector Dian, Hugo Flink, and more!

 After that, Ellie Norwood was Sherlock Holmes in a series of 48 short films from 1921 to 1923! Right in the middle of all that, in 1922 John Barrymore starred in this full-length feature appropriately called "Sherlock Holmes!"

 

In 1932, Arthur Wontner took over the lead role in "The Sign Of Four: Sherlock Holmes' Greatest Case!"

But even though "The Sign Of Four" was Sherlock's greatest case, they had no plans to stop there! Not at all, Sherlock was just getting warmed up! In 1939, the amazing Basil Rathbone took on the role of Sherlock in "The Hound Of The Baskervilles," and continued as Sherlock for the next seven years in an awesome run of titles!

As much as I like all the others, Basil Rathbone will always be my favourite Sherlock Holmes! Just like Sean Connery as James Bond, Basil Rathbone IS Sherlock Holmes, and as a bonus, the Basil years also had the coolest posters! End of discussion! This one was from the 1939 film, "The Adventures Of Sherlock Homes!"

In 1942 it was "Sherlock Holmes And The Secret Weapon!" All these Basil Rathbone versions also have the fantastic Nigel Bruce as the never to be underestimated Dr. Watson!

Still another one from 1942 is "Sherlock Holmes And The Voice Of Terror!" Basil and Nigel continue to kick arse all over the place!

The excitement refused to stop! In 1944 Basil was back with the great title, "The Scarlet Claw!"

I love this poster! Also from 1944, Sherlock Holmes in "The Spider Woman!"

Here's the movie that got my Sherlock up again! From 1945, "The Woman In Green," with the wicked Hillary Brooke as every hypnotist's dream come true!

The last film in this killer run of Basil Rathbone as Sherlock Holmes films was called "Dressed To Kill," and was released in 1946!

Through the 50's and 60's Sherlock was on the television countless times played by guys with names like Alan Wheatley, Ronald Howard, and Erich Schellow, but there were only like three movies made, "The Hound Of The Baskervilles" in 1959 starring Peter Cushing in the lead role, "Sherlock Holmes And The Deadly Necklace" in 1962 starring Christopher Lee as Sherlock, and this movie, "A Study In Terror," in 1965 starring John Neville as Sherlock! I like this movie, but you can tell by the poster that in a pop culture Batman world, influences are starting to change the way that Sherlock is perceived!

By the 1970's, it became time to have some fun with Sherlock in earnest, and we ended up with titles like this 1970 Billy Wilder film "The Private Life Of Sherlock Holmes" with Robert Stephens in the lead role!

Then in 1975, Gene Wilder took Sherlock to the dark side in "The Adventure of Sherlock Holmes' Smarter Brother,"(And it's not Mycroft!) with Douglas (The Brides Of Fu Manchu, The Vengeance Of Fu Manchu) Wilmer as Sherlock!

In the 80's and 90's Sherlock got serious again, with another completely different gang taking on his personality on TV and the big screen like, (Get Ready!) Geoffrey Whitehead, Vasili Livanov, Tom Baker, Guy Henry, Peter O'Toole, Roger Ostime, Larry Moss, and Jeremy Brett, and those are just the guys with multiple performances! in the 2000's Robert Downey Jr. breathed a new life into the role!

Ross K.Foad also had a nice run as Sherlock too, but these days it's the enigmatic Benedict Cumberbatch who dominates the minds of Sherlock fans all over the world! It cracks me up that Benedict's name sounds like a villain  from a "Batman TV show!" Without the writings of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, modern society would be deprived of two of it's favourite colloquialisms, "No Shit Sherlock," and "What Up Holmes?" I have no doubt that the name of Sherlock Holmes will continue to entertain society for at least another 100 years!

IRON KING / Nihon Gendai Kikaku Productions - 1972

It's Mega Monday as we head to Japan for more giant robots from this TV series about two good guys (one has a magic whip and the other can change into Iron King) who roam the countryside searching out bad guys to kick their sorry high tech asses! The series consisted of 26 episodes and had three sets of villains for our heroes to fight through. The complete series on 3 DVDs is available on Amazon for as little as $1.23 plus shipping!

Eegah!! sent over a fun little sound clip for our earjoyment, sooooo, you can push the big red 'GO' button located there by our old broken down robot, NOW, Ralphie The Tarantula!.. Here's a taste of... IRON KING!

Here's the leader of the Shiranui Clan planning more mayhem for the lowly Earthlings...

He calls on their giant wheeled robot, Silver Rider, to roll over the buildings in Japan!

But, our hero Gorô changes into Iron King to combat the out of control, insane machine!

Iron King shows up just in time to slow down the freakin' thing! Let's get ready to rumble!!

Then, Gentarô tries to get in on the action with his magic whip but gets tangled up on a wheel hub and has to hang on for dear life as Silver Rider tries to shake him off!

Thing is, Gorô has to drink a lot of water to keep Iron King's energy cells at maximum charge!

Wait!.. Oh crap, I didn't mean to show this still... Oops, sorry about that!

Anyway, back to the show! Iron King didn't appreciate that last move and is really pissed now!

Silver Rider can command these flying wheels that have an electric charge between them!

Gentarô uses his whip to get atop the wild robot menace and is able to toss a device into its head causing it to go crazy and then explode!.. To be continued.

Soooo, tune in next week (not really) when the Flame Demon calls on his Giant Rat Robot Patrol with their cool radar dishes for ears!! And, tune in Wednesday (for real) when Eegah!! will bring us another great post!

THE SORCERER"S APPRENTICE - Alfred Hitchcock Presents (1962)

Good Evening, and get ready to "Hold Your Breath," because tonight I've got another great installment of  "Alfred Hitchcock Presents" for you! This tale was written by one of the master's of the short story, the great Robert Bloch, so you know it's going to be a little bit more than twisted!

It's the year 1962, and Season 7, Episode 39 was titled........

............"The Sorcerer's Apprentice!" The only thing it has in common with the Mickey Mouse version in Disney's "Fantasia," is the name, and.......failure!

David J. (Carnival Rock) Stewart is "Sadini the Great", a cheap two bit magician!

A dim-witted young man is found passed out near the great Sadini's trailer! In real life, this young man had quite a story to tell! His name was Brandon De Wilde, and he was nominated for an Oscar in his second film appearance at the age of 11, for the movie "Shane!" He had his own TV series that ran for a year in the 50's called "Jamie!" He was in "Hud" and "The Trip," and he died at the age of thirty in 1972 while on the way to the hospital to see his wife, he ran his camper into a parked truck!

Sadini is a good hearted chap, and he brings the kid into his trailer to see if he can revive him!

The "Siren of Swindon" Diana Dors is Sadini's wife Irene! The decor in the Sadini's home is fairly bizarre to say the least! Diana Mary Fluck, aka Diana Dors was often called the Marilyn Monroe of England! Strangely enough, this show was released the same year Marilyn Monroe died!

The kid's name is Hugo, and when he comes to, he is a bit startled by what he think he sees!

Hugo is completely convinced that the faces that are staring down at him are the face of an Angel and the face of The Devil!

Sadini lets Hugo hang around and help him out with odds and ends, and in the meantime, Irene is busy messing around with George as played by Larry Kert. Larry was really more of a singer and a dancer, and didn't work much in film or TV but, it should be noted that he had the original role as Tony in the Broadway version of "West Side Story!"

The finale to Sadini's act includes the cutting in half of his wife with a huge saw blade, a great trick that's been around for years!

I love this shot of the crowd of mesmerized audience members!

I told you Hugo is a little slow, and he starts to freak out watching this, but George explains to him that it's just a trick!

"Tah - Dah!!"

This shot cracks me up, the camera angle makes George look like he's the "Amazing Colossal Man!"

George figures out how they can use the kid to get rid of Sadini for good, but of course it ends up backfiring on him!

With the might of the magic wand comes great power!

After he stabs Sadini, Hugo decides to do the 'cut the woman in half' trick, but there's one slight problem!

He doesn't know how the trick works, so it's Good Night Irene!!!

No doubt the world would be a much less sane place without the likes of people like Alfred Hitchcock! His first film was made in 1922, but was never finished, and was called what else but? "Number 13," and his last production was made in 1976, some 54 years later! Another thing I dig about Alfred Hitchcock is all the cool one word titles he had in many of his films, like PSYCHO (another classic Robert Bloch novel), and the rest is going to come on like cool Beat Poetry: BLACKMAIL, MURDER!, SUSPICION, SABOTEUR, SPELLBOUND, NOTORIOUS, ROPE, VERTIGO, TOPAZ, and FRENZY!!!