"CSI 1900 (or so). Sherlockians will have much to discuss after viewing this original story written for Masterpiece Theatre"
Barbara Peters
The Poisoned Pen
Scottsdale, Phoenix, London
CSI 1900 (or so). Sherlockians will have much to discuss after viewing this original story written for Masterpiece Theater . The forensics fit the period and remind us how Arthur Conan Doyle influenced crime fiction with his emphasis on method and deduction. The young science of fingerprinting, tobacco ash, footprints….
Then there's the interpretation of Holmes by Rupert Everett, a younger man than Basil Rathbone or Jeremy Brett. He fits the physical bill and plays Holmes with a more introspective style. He's no stranger to vice as the drug-taking scenes suggest, but even so one can see that he grows a bit tight in the collar when Dr. Watson's fiancée, American psychoanalyst Mrs. Vandeleur, lists various sexual perversions that the abductor and killer of well-bred young girls from Belgravia might suffer. In the end, it's Holmes' recognition of addiction and its rising levels that contributes to his collaring the killer. And of course this self-knowledge is part of the journey Holmes' makes as a man, not a sleuth, in Cubitt's script, whereas Doyle, like Dashiell Hammett, was rather more interested in process than personality.
Watson, played by Ian Hart, is younger and more agile than Nigel Bruce and an endearing and believable friend to Holmes. Cubitt give him a proactive role to play in this dark case; he isn't merely a stooge.
As for the plot, I'd recommend viewers Google the Ten Commandments of Father Ronald Knox -- http://www.diogenes-club.com/knoxrules.htm – which were adopted by Britain's famed Detection Club as a codex as well as a general code for the writing of crime fiction to see how the script fares. In particular, Rule X although Rule I is worth consideration.
The foggy atmosphere, a product of weather the the burning of coal to heat homes plus other emissions, is perfect for the tale. And while watching the characters hurry to and fro, usually by horse-drawn vehicle, I couldn't help but reflect on how "polluted" London's streets were in the Edwardian Era by the waste products of locomotion. How easy it is to forget the problems connected with a congestion of horses….
I recommend to all the magnificent work of Baker Street Irregular Leslie S. Klinger who has edited and produced The Annotated Sherlock Holmes Vols I-III published by Norton. Vols. I-II are the collected stories; Vol. II the four classic novels. Kling won a 2004 Edgar Allan Poe Award—mystery's Oscar—for his magisterial work. And of course the volume of pastiches, novels and stories featuring Doyle's icons, is endless.
Barbara Peters, The Poisoned Pen Bookstore
Masterpiece Theatre "Sherlock Holmes and the Case of the Silk Stocking" airs Sunday, October 23 at 9 p.m. on KAET/Channel 8.
