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Customer Reviews of Holmes:Study in Scarlet

Quite typical but little original
This is a typical story about and with Sherlock Holmes. We find all his famous deductive and inductive power that leads him to a solution in no time and with no blundering hesitation. Yet some « four » people are killed and a woman is nearly assassinated twice. But he knows from the very start who the killer is. His problem is to catch him redhanded. And of course he does. With Sherlock Holmes, the suspense you get is about how he is going to catch the killer, though of course we are never swift enough to know him from the very start, though after a while we know Conan Doyle's tricks and we can foresee the solution. But this film shows another aspect of Conan Doyle's writing. It deals here with a criminal ring and this is common in many stories : several people unite to commit a crime. In this case the initial crime commited by this ring triggers a series of other crimes to eliminate the members of the ring, which we understand from the very first moment : this is after all absolutely human : one person wants to keep all the profit of the crime and avoid sharing it with anyone else. But another element is interesting. This initial crime has to do with China. Conan Doyle used such « exotic » elements many times in his stories : either the United States, or the nihilists and revolutionaries from Russia, or the sailors and seamen, or some people from India, etc. This is an interesting reflection of the British Empire and its naval power. England, or Great Britain if you prefer, was entirely shaped by this empire and the importance of seamen in this global power. Conan Doyle is definitely one of his time and provides us with a fair image of his society. In fact it is interesting to follow the stories and see the connection between the publication date and the events in the world at this moment. A good film, even if it has aged a little.

Dr Jacques COULARDEAU

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FAIRLY GOOD ADAPTATION.
One of the few films in which the unique Anna May Wong - who plays the rather sinister Mrs. Pyke - can be seen to advantage. In London, after the apparent suicide of James Murphy, a member of the mysterious Scarlet Ring organisation - led by lawyer Thaddeus Merrydew (gads! what a name!). The club meets in London's Limehouse district to disperse of Murphy's property. There is an interesting twist and Anna May Wong is memorable in her off-beat role of the white man's Oriental wife - something which was very uncommon in 193O's cinema. The working title for this TIFFANY production was THE SCARLET RING. Actor and script co-writer Reginald Owen - who had previously played Dr. Watson to Clive Brook's Holmes in a 1932 feature - envisioned a series of films, himself starring as the master sleuth. Basil Rathbone accomplished this dream beginning in 1939; the famous series lasting until 1946. Dated, but not too bad: there is some imaginitive aspects to the film which should appeal to discriminating fans of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's most famous creation.