The treasure of Agra

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Movie
German title The treasure of Agra
Original title Приключения Шерлока Холмса и доктора Ватсона: Сокровища Агры ( Prikljutschenija Scherloka Cholmsa i doktora Watsona: Sokrovishcha Agry )
Country of production Soviet Union
original language Russian
Publishing year 1983
length 145 minutes
Rod
Director Igor Maslennikov
script Igor Maslennikov
music Vladimir Dashkevich
camera Yuri Weksler
cut Lyudmila Obrazumova
occupation
chronology

←  Predecessor
The Hound of the Baskervilles

Successor  →
Sherlock Holmes in the 20th century

The adventures of Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson: The Treasure of Agra (Russian: "Приключения Шерлока Холмса и доктора Ватсона: Сокровища Агры" ) is the fourth film in the multi-part television film series The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson after the stories of Arthur Conan Doyle about Sherlock Holmes .

The two-parter is based on the novel “ The Sign of Four ” and the story “ A Scandal in Bohemia ”.

action

The events of the film take place in London in 1888 . Two storylines are interwoven in the film. The first storyline is dealt with throughout the first part and at the end of the second part; the second forms the beginning and middle of the second part. The storyline headings are informal and are not addressed in the film.

The secret of the treasure

Sherlock Holmes is visited by a young woman named Mary Morstan, who together with his friend Dr. Watson asks that the mystery be solved on her father, who disappeared many years ago. For some time now she has received a pearl from an anonymous sender each year. Now she has received a letter that should clear up this riddle. Holmes and Watson accompany Miss Morstan to Thaddeus Sholto, a lover of the Orient, who tells them the story. The father of Thaddeus and his twin brother Bartholomew, Major Sholto, had brought back a treasure from India together with Colonel Morstan, Mary's father; while sharing the treasure, there was a quarrel in which Colonel Morstan was killed. Later, on his deathbed, Sholto betrayed the treasure to his sons - but before he could reveal his situation, he died when he saw a one-legged man through the window. Now Bartholomew Sholto has found the treasure and it is to be divided between the two brothers and Mary.

When Thaddeus, Holmes and Watson arrive at the Sholtos house, they discover that Bartholomew is dead, murdered by a poisonous thorn. Holmes follows a trail over the roof; later, together with the sniffer dog Tory, they trace the perpetrator, who accidentally stepped into a puddle of creosote . The tracks reveal that there were two perpetrators: one went barefoot and the other has a wooden leg. The tracks lead to the Thames and the detective finds out that the perpetrators escaped on the steamship Diana . In between, Watson reports to Mary Morstan; feelings flare up between the two more and more.

The whereabouts of the steamer is discovered by Holmes with the help of the "Baker Street Special Forces"; Inspector Lestrade, after his prime suspect, Thaddeus Sholto, is exonerated, is involved in the investigation. The one-legged man and his helper Tonga, a native of the Andamans , are pursued on a police cutter ; the native who had Bartholomew Sholto on his conscience is shot. The one-legged man, Jonathan Small, had managed to scatter the treasure during the chase in the Thames - since he originally captured this treasure with three Indian accomplices and Sholto and Morsten had stolen it from him. Now that the treasure no longer stands in the way of Watson and Miss Morstan's feelings, Watson makes her a marriage proposal, which she accepts.

Irene Adler

While investigating the Agra Treasure Case, Holmes notices that Watson has feelings for Miss Morstan. Watson, however, reminds him of an earlier case in which Holmes himself had developed feelings towards a woman. In this case, Holmes is visited incognito by the King of Bohemia . The king, sometimes arrogant, sometimes pleading, asks Holmes for help on a delicate matter. The king had an affair with the American actress Irene Adler when he was still the Hereditary Prince . There is a joint photo of the two, with which the woman is now blackmailing the king before his upcoming wedding. However, during his observation, Holmes reveals that Irene is marrying herself (Holmes, disguised as a beggar, is even her best man ). To find out where Miss Adler is keeping the photo, Holmes arranges a brawl in which he, disguised as a vicar , is injured and carried to her house; then a fire alarm is staged, which reveals the hiding place of the photo. But Irene saw through the trick; when Holmes later shows up to take the photo, he finds out that Irene Adler is away with her newlywed husband. She takes the incriminating photo with her: since she is now married herself, she no longer has any reason to blackmail the king. However, she leaves another photo for the king, which Holmes asks for instead of a reward. Irene Adler's portrait has remained in his room since then, as a reminder of the detective's failure. That Holmes' feelings for this woman becomes clear when he looks wistfully at the portrait over and over again.

actor

main actor

Part 1

Part 2

  • Georgi Martirosjan - The King of Bohemia, Wilhelm Gottreich Sigismund von Ormstein
  • Larissa Solovyova - Irene Adler
  • Pavel Remesow - Godfrey Norton
  • Ekaterina Zinchenko - Miss Mary Morstan
  • Viktor Proskurin - Thaddeus Sholto; Bartholomew Sholto
  • Sergei Shakurov - Jonathan Small
  • Yuri Serov - Tonga
  • Kira Gurezkaja - Mrs. Cecil Forester
  • and I, Moshsharenko, M. Rybkin
  • Bulldog Bambula - Tory

Interesting facts

  • Scenes that took place in and around Irene Adler's house were filmed in the St. Petersburg mansion called Datscha Gauswald , which was built in 1898 . Since then this building has been unofficially called "Irene-Adler-Haus" by the residents. The building is currently threatened with demolition.
  • The steamship on which the criminals were supposed to escape was called Aurora in the book . Because of the importance of the cruiser Aurora in the October Revolution, the boat had to be renamed. The ship in the movie is named after Diana , which is understandable: Aurora and Diana were sister ships ( protected cruiser of the Pallada-class ).
  • The film was shot in real London for the first time . The recordings of the trip over the real Thames have a noticeably poorer picture quality, as they were shot on 16 mm film at 16 frames per second. The cameraman was the journalist of the Soviet television, Vitaly Ilyashenko.
  • The New Zealand Mint has a special series of two dollar silver coins dedicated to the tales of Sherlock Holmes. Still images from the Russian film are used on the obverse .

German version

In the GDR the film was shown under the title “The Treasure of Agra” in a shortened version (110 min. Instead of 145 min.); initially a Russian version with German subtitles ran, later a German dubbed version. Sherlock Holmes was founded by Wolfgang Lohse and Dr. Watson was voiced by Erik Veldre .

On DVD

The films were restored for DVD evaluation by two companies independently of one another: the Russian label “Twister” and the Mosfilm subsidiary “Krupny Plan”. "Twister" released all five Sherlock Holmes films by Igor Maslennikow between 2000 and 2004 on DVD, some with bonus material. The “Krupny Plan” was published in 2007. Both restorations have advantages and disadvantages: the Krupny Plan edition has too steep a contrast and falsified colors; The colors of the Twister DVD are more balanced, but the use of an automatic denoiser filter resulted in digital image defects.

The "Twister" DVD contains Russian sound in Dolby Digital 5.1 as well as Russian and English subtitles. As a bonus, there are interviews with the actors Yekaterina Sintschenko (Miss Morstan), Georgi Martirosjan (The King of Bohemia) and Sergej Schakurow (Jonathan Small) included (bonus without subtitles) as well as text information about the cast & crew.

The "Krupny Plan" DVD contains no bonus material and only Russian subtitles; In addition to the 5.1 remix, it also contains the Russian monotone.

In 2019, PIDAX (licensed by DRA) released a new DVD version of 130 minutes in length and only with German sound (Dolby Digital 2.0) as episode 2 of this series with the same voice actors as mentioned above.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Datscha Gauswald on 221b.ru
  2. ↑ The geography of the film on 221b.ru
  3. ↑ Sherlock Holmes Silver Coin Set ( Memento from May 14, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) at newzealandmint.com
  4. ↑ Michael Ross: Sherlock Holmes in Film and Television - A Handbook. ISBN 3-930932-03-2 .
  5. ↑ Media on 221b.ru ( Memento from March 1, 2010 in the Internet Archive )
  6. ↑ Image comparison of the Twister and the Krupny Plan version