Customer Reviews

The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Vol. 1: (A Scandal in Bohemia/ The Dancing Men/ The Naval Treaty/ The Solitary Cyclist)

5 star:		(40)
4 star:		(15)
3 star:		(8)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This DVD contains the first four episodes of the marvellous Granada TV series of 1984-85. The episodes are being released in chronological order and include A SCANDAL IN BOHEMIA (Holmes Versus Irene Adler), THE SOLITARY CYCLIST, THE NAVAL TREATY,and THE DANCING MEN.

It's very rare to have a production team come together and make a show that 'works'. It's even rarer when something works so very well for so very long. Everyone associated with this production did an outstanding job and the love and respect for the material shows in every frame. The writing was true to Doyle, the cinematography and editing were of feature-film calibre, the casting was marvellous. This is the production that 'got it right.'

The DVD is reportedly being made from superior prints and it is to be a vast improvement over the VHS tapes, which lose some of their quality when transferred from PAL to NTSC formats.

But the most important thing about this DVD is: It will be the only one released if MPI feels that there is not sufficient demand for the remaining episodes. So if you are fond of this show, please buy the DVD. If enough of us do, we can look forward to more outstanding episodes from this landmark series--and they will look better than they have since their original broadcast.

The (British) Granada Television Sherlock Holmes Series was superb, presenting the majority of the short stories, along with two of the novels (Hound of the Baskervilles and Sign of Four) in marvelous period adaptations of Conan Doyle. This DVD looks like a great introduction to the series, presenting the first four of the episodes which first aired in the early 80s. The look and feel of the productions were just marvelous, in that they really captured Baker Street at the end the 19th century.

The key to the series was, of course, the late Jeremy Brett who really defined a new style of Holmes -- brilliant of course, but very moody -- sometimes excitable, sometime melancholy -- always very theatrical. Although this may not be a Holmes to everyone's taste, it really is quite close the Holmes presented in the stories and novels. Jeremy Brett quite simply became Sherlock Holmes for this series, soaking up his Holmes lore, and really presenting a great characterization over a period of nearly 10 years. Other characters (including the two Doctor Watsons) were also well drawn throughout, though of course it is Brett's Holmes that dominates.

The TV series was quite faithful to the original, though it was quite often necessary to fill out the stories with subplots beyond what could be found in may of the short stories.

I hope that there are many more DVDs coming out from the series. At 4 episodes per DVD, this is a great bargain in that VHS tapes of individual episodes cost about $15.

This is a must have DVD if you have any interest in Sherlock Holmes!

Absolute perfection! I have been a fan of this great series for many years and its debut on DVD cannot be too strongly welcomed. Brett's portryal of Holmes is magnificent (very true to the actual tales)and I particularly enjoy David Burke as Watson. Burke's Watson has a greater sense of compassion and kindness than Edward Hardwick in later episodes. Comparisons aside, these are the finest Sherlock Holmes productions ever and it will be a shame if the entire series is not transfered to DVD!

Speaking of "transfer", the video quality of this disc is very good (much superior to the original VHS tapes) and the 5.1 sound is excellent. My copy however had a bad audio track on the "Naval Treaty" episode, but I will have our friends at Amazon.com replace it for me rest assured. This is one DVD you can't and should not live without! Well done Granada TV!

The Granada TV adaptations -- featuring a spectacular acting job by Jeremy Brett as Holmes -- are the most faithful to Conan Doyle's works ever. Holmes is not the most likable man, with an outsized (but well deserved) ego, eccentric and unusual, arrogant, quick-tempered, but an intriguing genius. However, little attention has been paid to the transfer of the original source material to DVD. The Dancing Men, one of the best episodes of the series, and one of the best stories, suffers from warbling pitch variation in spoken dialogue and music. The image moves slightly up and down and from side to side at times, as though it had been transferred by playing the filmstock through a moviola to digitize it. The image quality is somewhat poor, sometimes very grainy, and sometimes marred by small reappearing spots and blots (as though they used a worn copy the filmstock for the transfer). The images are also somewhat fuzzy, like VHS, and I can honestly say that my VHS copies (taped from broadcast TV) are better. A very disappointing transfer of this wonderful material.

Our Well Studied and Deliberately Executed Holmes:

In reviewing this DVD, I'm actually examining the actor's performance as the character in the entire series, rather than those encapsulated within the specific titles. I have seen these episodes, and could do a separate review of each, but I think in this case that would actually be inappropriate. I can say, however, that these episodes are very good, and represent this outstanding series very well. The DVD itself is also of very high quality, as far as sound and picture are concerned. Granada did a first rate job, that has translated itself very handily to the new format.

Jeremy Brett's Holmes is something other than the various Holmes' we've been exposed to in the past. I was raised on Rathbone. But when I saw Brett's performances when they first aired on PBS, I slowly forgot Rathbone's influences. Brett immerses himself in such a way that must make it very personal to him, then displays the character of Holmes in a forceful and deliberate manner - and in a depth we may not see again.

The key thing to understanding Holmes, I think, is that he is unique as a genius as any genius would be. Exercising his talents to there fullest doesn't give him super-status as an overall human being by erasing other flaws. Instead, his talent takes precedence, accentuating his human flaws by casting them into a state of neglect that highlights them. Brett understands this, clearly because he himself is either a bona fide genius, or he has somehow deciphered the code that generates a genius' idiosyncratic behaviors. I can't say which. I can say that I really believe his Holmes. Brett may as well BE Holmes.

My second favorite aspect of Brett's Holmes is the level of humor. Great care was taken here to make each little "quip" more situationally true to the character. His humor is really more an expression of how he so uniquely relates to those around him - and is frequently not acknowledged by the other characters - being that they are fairly unaware. We, as the audience are in-on-the-joke, which is nice, and it's usually a pretty funny one.

I guess I just want to say that I think a great deal of this series. Jeremy Brett is the best, and here, has given us so much! He actually died while still "in service" to the roll. Not to sound too stupid about this, but I think there was something very appropriate in that. It's like he waited until he had gained perfection before moving on.

Bravo!

For better or for worse, the Granada "Sherlock Holmes" made Jeremy Brett the canonical Holmes for those who watched the series in the 80s and 90s. At least some devout Holmesians have declared themselves sharply anti-Brett, and even those who don't agree can occasionally sympathize: as the series went on, Brett's performance became increasingly mannered, full of twitches and tics. The mannerisms, however, are fully restrained in these early episodes, and Brett was certainly at his best before going over the Falls. However, perhaps the most significant contribution here is not Brett's but David Burke's. As the first of Granada's two Watsons, Burke is a trifle hot-headed, admiring but not subservient, fit, and masculine. (Like Brett, he is also about 15-20 years too old, but that's par for the course for just about any Sherlock Holmes adaptation.)

The episodes included here largely adhere to the canon. Here, as throughout the series, the writers employ the conceit that Watson-the-writer might have deliberately downplayed his own intellect in order to better showcase Holmes's; as a result, Watson regularly gets some of Holmes's lines. (One of the side effects of this approach is that Granada's Watson does make a believable "author.") "A Scandal in Bohemia" is the best of the set; "The Solitary Cyclist" is the least satisfactory (especially the not-altogether-believable fight sequence).

But, good heavens, this DVD is of poor quality. Sound wobbled on a regular basis, and I had to turn the volume all the way up in order to hear all of the dialogue. Perhaps worse still, the picture was sometimes fuzzy and, in a couple of places, marred by scratches and dropouts.

The other reviewers here have had their say about the quality of the production in its entirety, which I wholeheartedly agree with.

What has been mostly overlooked in the other reviews is the image quality of the conversion. It is passable most of the time, but in low light scenes there is obvious artifacting that creates a busy, static-laden blocky buzz that for me at least is very distracting.

In my opinion unnecessary costs were cut in the production of this DVD (inferior encoding to MPEG-2) that reduce my rating by 1 star.

Grainy transfer from 16 mm, bad sound on two of the four episodes, and an absolutely unviewable trailer really do ruin this DVD. I wanted this to be great, but with such obviously bad source material, and no attempt to clean it up, you can't expect much.

This is no way to treat such a beloved series. I am VERY disappointed.

Readers of Conan Doyles Sherlock Holmes stories know a rather different Holmes then those who only know the charactor through his recurrent TV and film career. The original charactor was half philinthrope, half misanthrope. A virtually passion free (except momentarily when flattered) pure reasoning machine, whose humanity -- like his energy -- appears in flashes.

Compare that to the typical dramatized "Holmes," who is more policeman then detective, and who, inexplicably -- considering his lack of tolerance for human foolishness -- chooses as his one true friend, a bumbling dolt.

Granada Television's production, on the other hand, presents the real thing. And Jeremy Brett, -- at least in the first two thirds of the series (as is represented in the four episodes on this disc plusmany more) catches the Holmes character to perfection. The scripts are true to the original, too. Not only in story, but in spirit. The productions are nearly perfect.

If you have never actually read The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes then go over to Amazon's book section right after you have ordered this disc. In fact, read the stories FIRST, and then watch what you saw with your mind's eye become real on the screen. If this is to be your introduction to the 'real' Holmes, I'm jealous. Reading it and seeing it will be like enjoying some of life's other greater pleasures for the first time. Truly.

Even though I'm not too thrilled with the selection of episodes for this DVD, it's still a must for any fan of the TV series or the literary Sherlock Holmes. Jeremy Brett was made to play the complex and enticing character of the master detective, and Burke's Dr. John Waston is equally compelling. The DVD quality is very good, especially when compared with the VHS versions. The sound, however, leaves much to be desired. Near the middle of "The Solitary Cyclist" and at the very end of "The Navel Treaty", the sound begins to fluctuate dramatically, going from high to low and then to high again. It's a pity the sound was so bad, since the video quality is really quite good. If it weren't for the bad sound, this package would definitely be one worthy of five stars.

Sherlock Holmes fans will enjoy the DVD a lot, so if you really like the stories, it's worth the time and money to purchase this package.