Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson

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Movie
German title Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson
Original title Шерлок Холмс и доктор Ватсон ( Scherlok cholms i doctor watson )
Country of production Soviet Union
original language Russian
Publishing year 1979
length 135 minutes
Rod
Director Igor Maslennikov
script July Dunski
Waleri Frid
music Vladimir Dashkevich
camera Yuri Weksler
occupation
chronology

Successor  →
The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson

Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson ( Russian Шерлок Холмс и доктор Ватсон , Scherlok cholms i doktor watson ) is the first part of the five-part Soviet television film series " The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson, ”which came out in 1979. The television film consists of two episodes (Part 1: “The Acquaintance” , Russian: “Знакомство” , Part 2: “The Bloody Inscription” , Russian: “Кровавая надпись” ). The film is based on the novel A Study in Scarlet Red and on the short story The Speckled Band from the Sherlock Holmes series by Arthur Conan Doyle . In addition, some elements from the novel The Sign of Four and other stories have been incorporated.

action

The acquaintance

Dr. Watson ( Witali Solomin ) returns to Great Britain after being demobilized from Afghanistan . His old friend, Mr. Stamford ( Gennady Bogachev ) suggests renting a room in the apartment at 221b Baker Street , which is rented out by an old lady named Mrs. Hudson ( Rina Seljonaja ). The second room in this apartment is already rented to a Mr. Sherlock Holmes . Stamford suggests sharing the rent on the apartment.

The first impression of acquaintance with Holmes ( Vasily Liwanow ) is strange. Holmes conducts chemical experiments with blood, plays the violin , has expert knowledge of cigar ash , the nature of London's dirt and criminal law - but he does not know the most general things (for example, that the earth revolves around the sun ), does not read fiction , history and philosophy. Holmes is visited again and again by very strange visitors, and the photos at his table show people of hideous ugliness. Dr. Watson suspects that Holmes is part of organized crime .

After Watson and Holmes speak out during a joint boxing match, Watson's suspicions are refuted: Sherlock Holmes turns out to be a private detective .

Soon after, Holmes must investigate the " Spotted Ribbon Case ". A certain Helen Stoner ( Maria Solomina ) visits him and tells him that she is afraid for her life. Two years ago, her twin sister died under mysterious circumstances a few days before their wedding, and now Helen is afraid that the same will happen to her.

Helen and Julia lived without a mother with their stepfather , Dr. Grimbsy Roylott ( Fyodor Odinokow ) in a property not far from London. Helen says that Julia heard a strange knocking one night and one night let out a terrible scream and passed away. Shortly before she died, she mentioned a spotted ribbon. Now Helen is planning to get married too. Because of a sudden repair job in the house, she has to live in the same room as her sister lived in. Now she too hears a strange knocking at night and is alarmed by it.

Holmes wants to examine the house in the stepfather's absence, and Helen tells her that her stepfather will not be there the next evening. After Miss Stoner's departure, Holmes and Watson are taken over by Dr. Roylott visited, who threatens him and demonstrates his immense physical strength. Holmes and Watson arrive secretly the next evening and spend the night in Helen's room. They discover a snake crawling into the room through a ventilation opening. After Holmes hits her with a stick, the snake creeps into the stepfather's next room and bites its master, Dr. Roylott. As it turns out, it would have been disadvantageous for his stepdaughters to marry because then they would receive part of their late mother's inheritance. So Roylott's plan was to get rid of the stepdaughters with a poisonous snake.

The bloody inscription

Holmes receives a message from Inspector Gregson ( Igor Dmitriev ) about a strange case in the abandoned house on Brixton Road. The body of an elderly American was found there with no evidence of violence; on the wall the English word "Revenge" was written in blood. The case is being investigated by Inspector Lestrade ( Boryslaw Brondukow ). Some time later, another American was found dead in a hotel - Joseph Stangerson ( Victor Aristov ), suspected of the first murder; "Revenge" was again written in blood on the wall. Holmes finds the real killer. This is the American Jefferson Hope ( Nikolai Karachentsov ), who took revenge on two members of the Mormon sect for murdering his bride and her father, Lucy and John Ferrier. As a murder weapon, he offers the two Mormons to take one of two pills, he took the other himself. One of the pills was harmless, the other contained a strong poison . The first American, Enoch Drebber ( Adolf Iljin ) swallowed the poisonous pill and died; the second American refused and tried to quiet resistance, so he was killed with a knife. Hope is arrested, but dies shortly after of his aortic aneurysm . Inspector Lestrade got the glory of solving this case. Watson is deeply upset about this and decides to become Holmes' biographer .

actor

main actor

The acquaintance

The bloody inscription

Film crew

Interesting facts

  • Baker Street ( Riga , Jauniela Street, 22) and all nature scenes in the first film were shot in Latvia , with the exception of the house on Brixton Road (where Drebber was killed). This was filmed in Leningrad , namely the country house of Princess Saltykova (St. Petersburg, Ulitsa Akademika Krylova, 4).
  • During the shoot, the filmmakers encountered a fundamental mistake by Conan Doyle. In the story, the snake crawled into the room through a ventilation hole, then down and back up on a bell cord. In fact, snakes cannot crawl on hanging ropes; they need solid ground. Because of this, you couldn't turn the snake crawling on a rope - you can only see it stick its head out of the ventilation hole. In addition, Roylott not only calls the snake by whistling (as in the book) - because the snake cannot hear a whistle - but also by knocking that creates vibrations (which is also explained by film dialogues).
  • 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 .
  • In the text of the novel “ A Study in Scarlet ”, Holmes guesses when he first met Watson that he had just returned from Afghanistan. However, when dubbing the film, the word "Afghanistan" was replaced by "East" - because of the Soviet-Afghan war (1979-1989). Nevertheless, one can clearly read "Afghanistan" from the movements of his lips.
  • In Conan Doyle's novel “A Study in Scarlet” (German: “A Study in Scarlet”) the English “Revenge” is not to be read on the wall, but the letters “Rach”, which leads to speculation about whether the English first name "Rach-el" could be meant or, as the Goethe lover and the German mighty Holmes speculates, the German (!) word "Rach-e".
  • In the part "The Bloody Inscription" Holmes and Watson play chess together. The first eight moves can be clearly seen. An attentive chess player recognizes that the actors are not simply pushing the pieces around, but rather playing a well-known opening, namely the "two knights game" (1.е2-е4 е7-е5 2.Ng1-f3 Nb8-c6 3.Bf1- c4 Ng8-f6 4.Nf3-g5 d7-d5 5.e4xd5 Nc6-a5 6.Bc4-b5 c7-c6 7.d5xc6 b7xc6 8.Bb5-e2 h7-h6). Later in the film the arrangement of the characters is different that has nothing to do with this opening.
  • For the portrayal of Sherlock Holmes, Vasily Liwanow received the Order of the British Empire .

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, but the restoration by Twister is qualitatively better.

The "Twister" DVD contains Russian sound in Dolby Digital 5.1 as well as Russian and English subtitles. As a bonus, there is text information and interviews with director Igor Maslennikow (17 minutes), actor Vasily Liwanow (18 minutes) and composer Vladimir Daschkewitsch (27 minutes).

The “Krupny Plan” DVD does not contain any bonus material and only Russian subtitles; In addition to the 5.1 remix, it also contains the original Russian monotone.

Both DVD editions of the two-part series are titled “Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson: Red on White “(Шерлок Холмс и доктор Ватсон: Красным по белому) on the cover. This title is not used in the film itself.

Remarks

  1. ↑ Geography: The Acquaintance , [The bloody inscription http://www.221b.ru/geoPart2.htm ]
  2. ↑ Interview by Igor Maslennikow in the newspaper "Leninskie Iskry"
  3. ↑ Sherlock Holmes Silver Coin Set ( Memento from May 14, 2010 in the Internet Archive )
  4. ↑ 221b ( Memento of the original from March 1, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.221b.ru
  5. ↑ Image comparison of the Twister and the Krupny Plan version

Web links