Review of The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes (1970) by Rami R — 28 Sep 2007

This film is infamous for having much cut from it by Billy Wilder himself. And while I appreciate his choices I am annoyed with the fact that they are not featured as extras on this DVD. I'm not exactly sure what the deleted scenes (or should that be plots) are but I can't shake the feeling that the first 30 minutes are completely redundant in relation to the rest of the movie and perhaps it might not have been if the movie were longer. Cutting a movie down to size is always a very tough thing to do. The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes suffers, but still manages to be entertaining.

Complaints aside, I really do enjoy Wilder's bizarre approach to Sherlock Holmes. Robert Stephens plays him with more a touch more humor and pathos than most other actors and comes across as a mix between Alan Rickman and Rick Mayall. It's definitely the most pleasant I've seen Holmes. The mystery he gets involved in may be huge, though it's not exactly exciting. Wilder seems more interested in having every element of the story fall into place than give us something with a sense of urgency. And for a film over 2 hours long (it was meant to be 3) it's not cool to have every scene presented at its own pace. There has to be some compromise.