Review of The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes (1970) by Allan C — 18 Apr 2015

Focused more on the character of Arthur Conan Doyle's famous detective rather than solving a mystery. The film take place in the quiet movements of life between his famous mysteries. Holmes is very human and not the idealized character of the novels here, shown here as a depressed, drug addicted and a closeted homosexual.

It's a melancholy film where director Billy Wilder and co-writer I.A.L. Diamond mix comedy and drama quite well as they have done before in classics like "The Apartment" and "The Fortune Cookie.

" the film does't have a strong narrative, being an episodic film, but the characters, particularly Robert Stephens as Holmes is enough to carry the film. It's also kind of strange to see Wilder doing a costume/period film.

Most of his films seemed strongly "American." Even films like "Irma La Douce" still had American stars, but this film feels very British. I've been reading the Cameron Crowe interview book "Conversations with Wilder" and he doesn't really seem to have an opinion if there he had a preferred cut of this film.

It's one that for many years had lost episodes that were cut from the original theatrical release, but which in recent years have been found and restored. Regardless, the film is still quite strong and is somewhat unique among Wilder films.

Colin Blakely plays Watson and Christoper Lee steals all of his scenes as Holmes smarter brother, Mycroft Holmes. Geneviève Page also appears and there is a fine score by Miklós Rózsa, that I think stands among his best film scores.