Sherlock Holmes - The Master Blackmailer
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Actor: David Scase, Edward Hardwicke, Gwen Ffrangcon Davies, Jeremy Brett, Robert HardyBrand: MPI
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language)
Format: Color, DVD, NTSC
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Running Time: 102 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2003-03-25
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Studio: Mpi Home Video
DVD Reviews of Sherlock Holmes - The Master Blackmailer
DVD Review: OK - it's not quite canonical - but still very good!
Summary: 4 Stars
Apparently when this episode of the Granada Holmes series was first aired, reviews were not generally good. Many complained it was too much of a departure from the original, Doyle's 'The Adventure of Charles Augustus Milverton.' Personally, I'm inclined to think comments of that sort are missing the point somewhat: this was an adaptation of one of Doyle's shorter short stories, Granada had been contracted to shoot a 2-hour film - something had to fill the minutes! The approach taken by adapter Jeremy Paul was to build in back stories for other characters mentioned by Watson in the short story: so, for example, Watson's passing mention of the broken engagement between 'Colonel Dorking and the Honourable Miss Miles' is fleshed out, interwoven. Milverton's murderess / assassin is given a name, a past and present... All very sympathetically done.
What carries the day is the acting: Robert Hardy's chilling Blackmailer really makes the flesh crawl; Norma West's Lady Swinstead (aka the murderess), all sadness, beauty, refinement, and barely suppressed passion is a real treat to watch - especially the final showdown with her tormentor. Serena Gordon's performance as bride-to-be Lady Eva Blackwell is also noteworthy: at the beginning, one sees the light-hearted young girl, with barely a care in the world. As the film progresses and she falls under the blackmailer's grip, we see her struggling to 'keep up appearances' for her dashing fiance, the Earl of Dovercourt, whom one senses she does love, but whom more than anything else, she is afraid of disappointing, of failing. Jeremy Brett's Holmes is a touch more contemplative than that of earlier episodes, as Brett was apparently suffering from heart problems by this stage, so there was no more leaping over sofas or throwing himself onto the ground, but he still manages to convey the master detective's intensity, his loathing of blackmail, and his determination to succeed (by criminal means and by deception if need be).
The 'kissing scene' is well-covered elsewhere, so I won't say too much here: in my view, it's a beautifully layered performance. Certainly when Sophie Thompson's Aggie (the housemaid) flings her arms around 'her plumber' 'Escott' and demands a kiss, one has to smile as the usually debonair, cocksure plumber with the raffish smile and eye for the ladies, suddenly hesitates and seems unsure what to do with his own arms! One senses there that Holmes has strayed somewhat inadvertently into hitherto uncharted waters and is slightly out of his depth; that the rather pathetic 'I don't know how [to kiss]' is Holmes talking rather than his plumbing persona; and that whilst the master detective never quite loses sight of his object, and pumps Aggie ruthlessly for information right up to the end, it's a pretty close-run thing and he really had to 'plumb his own [emotional] depths' (Escott's motto is 'we plumb the depths') to pull it off! OK - so there's no mention of a kiss in Doyle, nor any indication that if there had been, Holmes felt remotely guilty for misleading an unsuspecting young woman. One assumes that he retains his self-assured detachment even when he has to play the lover. But one could argue that the approach the film takes makes Holmes more human and vulnerable, when he might otherwise be at his coldest and least likeable. I mean - burglary for the greater good is one thing, but cold, calculated misleading of unsuspecting young woman's affection? A Victorian readership might have shrugged it off to say that 'trifling' with a housemaid's affections doesn't count, but today's audiences might find it harder to stomach. So seeing Holmes at a bit of a loss and getting somewhat more than he bargained for redeems him somewhat!
The only black mark I would put against this film is the omission of the final scene from the story: the morning after Milverton's murder, Lestrade calls at Baker Street. Milverton has been murdered, he tells Holmes and Watson. The murder was a particularly brutal one, he says, and the murderers (there were two sets of foot prints, he explains), burned all the deceased's papers, although nothing else was taken. One of the servants had been able to give a very clear description of the second man. Holmes's comment on the description is that it might have been Watson (and of course it was!) - and quite uncharacteristically for the Granada series, which is not short on humour, it is completely missed out! I wonder why?
Description of Sherlock Holmes - The Master Blackmailer
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