Cheap Sherlock Holmes - The Sign of Four (DVD) (Peter Hammond) Price

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Customer Reviews of Sherlock Holmes - The Sign of Four

Beautiful adaptation
This may be my favourite of the magnificent Granada series starring Jeremy Brett, most of which I love; it's definitely the best of the two-hour versions. Watson doesn't get the girl, but the sentimental look on his face when he comments "What a very attractive woman!" at the end is a nice touch, considering that marriage for Watson wasn't really an option in a TV series. Jeremy Brett is brilliant as always; I love the way he speaks to Toby, the dog, and the expression on his face as he comments "It was I who opened it" to the weird Athelney Jones. The chase down the Thames is classic. Holmes is possibly a bit more arrogant and inconsiderate in this adaptation than he was in the book, but Brett was able to do that; sometimes his Holmes shows unexpected flashes of compassion, sometimes he's wonderfully intolerable! This is a good introduction to the series, though one of the shorter classics like "The Red-Headed League" or "The Second Stain" might be even better to whet the appetite.

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Pointless
This second Sherlock Holmes novel, in which Watson falls in love with the client but still attempts to reunite her with the fortune that will separate them forever, has been rather unlucky in its screen adaptations. The first, in 1932, was a hyped-up vehicle for Arthur Wontner featuring fistfights, motorboat chases, and a peroxide Mary Morstan. This one was made in the middle of the Granada TV series and has two crippling problems. The first is Jeremy Brett, at the beginning of the illness that would take his life, and consequently losing his looks, voice, and presence. The second problem is that the central romance has been eliminated -- and without it, the whole point of the story (Watson's chivalry) is entirely lost. Stick with the pre-1987 titles in this series.

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Compared to the rest- this was a major disappointment.
Those two stars out of five go to the brilliant acting abilities of Mr. Brett and Mr. Hardwicke, the only things next to the dog that kept this film from being more disappointing that it already was. But before I start, please remember, Grenada may have soiled the Sign of Four, but this is truly their only blunder. They do great justice to the rest of the series.

First of all, the film's beginning. Next to the murder and mystery, The Sign of Four is most well known for the introduction to our favorite detective's rather surprising vice. The occasional (I say occasional because throughout the majority of the Sherlock Holmes stories it is indeed on occasion. In The Sign of Four, Watson says something of "three times a day for a month.") use of the narcotic, cocaine. They exclude that completely. I have been told that they do infact include it somewhere in the Grenada television series, but I was exceedingly disappointed to not see it in this film. On the note of cocaine, the last few lines of the novel were very clever. After Inspector Jones takes all the credit for the work of Holmes and Watson, Mr. Watson says something along the lines of, "You have done all the work in this business. I get a wife out of it, Jones gets the credit, pray what remains for you?" For me, said Sherlock Holmes, "there still remains the cocaine-bottle." Instead, Mr. Holmes simply falls asleep.

Besides that let down, this film manages to make one of the, if not THE most suspenseful chase scenes in all of English literature very, very boring. No, "Pile it on, men, pile it on!" cried Holmes, looking down into the engine-room, while the fierce glow from below beat upon his eager, aquiline face. "Get every pound of steam you can." or, "See here," said Holmes, pointing to the wooden hatchway. "We were hardly quick enough with our pistols." There, sure enough, just behind where we had been standing, stuck one of those murderous darts which we knew so well." Just a slow, average boat chase for this film.

Another great, and extremely important part left out by the film version of the Sign of Four, was the Watson/Mary Morstan subplot. This is absolutely, and I say this without a doubt in my mind, the most adorable scenes in the entire Sherlock Holmes collection, yet they left it our for fear of getting the amount of wives Watson had incorrect. Watson himself admits to being un connoisseur des femmes. Or, they could simply have NOT killed her off in their series instead of adding to the ruin of film adaptation of the greatest Holmes novel in existence. (After the Valley of Fear, of course. And not including the short stories, which in my mind, are far superior to the novels.)

If you want finer examples of the exceptional Grenada series, go with 'The Master Blackmailer,' 'The Hound of the Baskervilles' or any of the series episodes from Return or Adventures. I assure you, you will not be disappointed with those. And please, do not bother with Rathbone's Sherlock Holmes. I'll say what I said in the beginning of this rant, Grenada may have soiled the Sign of Four, but this is truly their only blunder. They do great justice to the rest of the series.