Customer Reviews

The Return of Sherlock Holmes: The Musgrave Ritual [VHS]

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This episode is a gem! Reflecting all the superb production values that Grenada infuses into this series, it also elevates them into high art as they dovetail with this installment. Again, the script is ever so faithful to Conan Doyle and there is no finer interpreter of Sherlock Holmes than the late Jeremy Brett. The Musgrave Ritual being an ancient recitation passed from generation to generation, has lost all significance to the Musgrave survivor(outside of being a rite-of-passage ritual wheeled out when necessary) until Brunton the butler grasps its significance! What a co-incidence Brunton sallies forth the very moment Mr. Holmes and Dr. Watson pay a visit to Holmes' old college chum, Musgrave! And what happens next is a puzzling chain of disappearances, and the discovery of the long-forgotten meaning behind the words of The Musgrave Ritual. A meaning that culminates in a grand blend of triginometry, fishing poles, oak trees, Map deciphering and Sherlock Holmes' uncanny mind-meld into the previous night's activities and motives which brings forth even more startling answers from the incredible amateur detective! We also get a peek at the Master's tussle with that ghastly "7% solution" and Watson's dismay at its presence (Edward Hardwick again becoming a flawless Dr. Watson). Patrick Gowers' music haunts the scenery and Arthurian legend permeates every aspect of this grand, grand, wonderful Victorian baffler. All hail Jeremy Brett! All hail Sherlock Holmes!

This production is an inspired and highly entertaining adaptation of Conan-Doyle's story - 'The Musgrave Ritual'. Granada Television made the excellent choice of Baddesley Clinton as a filming location; and Jeremy Brett and Edward Hardwicke are as brilliant as usual. This episode is in fact hard to fault in any way; the performances and photography are excellent. Brett's interpretation of the role is intelligent, dynamic, and artistically creative. The Musgrave Ritual is a good story which has been stylishly produced and adapted in a manner which is sympathetic to the spirit of the original story. Full of yearning Victorian nostalgia for the late Tudor period, all in all it makes one wish to visit an English country estate - hugely entertaining! - Lyndon Smith.

When Sherlock Holmes drops in on an old school chum, Reginald Musgrave, he finds his visit anything but boring. When the butler disappears and the maid has an unexplained nervous breakdown, Holmes begins to investigate. The Musgrave family has been unwittingly keeping a secret for hundreds of years, and it lies at the very heart of this mystery!

Every once in a while, an actor comes along who not only plays the role of Sherlock Holmes, but actually redefines the role. In 1984, veteran actor Jeremy Brett (1933-95) actually did it yet again! This fifty-minute episode, the Musgrave Ritual, was episode three of the third season, and originally aired on July 23, 1986. (By the way, if you like Jeremy Brett, you can see him in an entirely different role in My Fair Lady (1964) as Freddie Eynsford-Hill!)

I loved this tape and think that any fan of Sherlock Holmes, or just plain fan of mysteries, will love it, too. My family and I highly recommend it to you!

I rate on several levels, and this episode rates excellent on 1)plot 2)acting 3)location and photography. The setting of the mystery is beautiful; the "new" side of Holmes' character is amusing (I had to laugh at his behaviour) and the Musgrave Ritual's reward after the wonderful suspense of the hunt was truly a unique treasure. I enjoyed Holmes' human side - Jeremy Brett's portrayal of him as almost embarassing Dr. Watson, and Edward Hardwicke's facial expressions - tolerant, weary, amused, forgiving - truly a "brick" and a friend to Holmes. I find his portrayal of Dr. Watson is convincing as a medical man, intelligent in his own right without any inferiority.

This is one of my favorites! It is just like the conan Doyle book with the mysterious ritual. Brett's acting is perfect for the role! Edward Hardwicke is perfect for Dr. Watson. This is a treasure as it is imitated perfectly from the book. A great film!

"The Musgrave Ritual" was never a great story - essentially an overblown treasure hunt. From that thin plot is fashioned a great ep. that fleshes out Holmesian mystique, obsessive love, greed, social resentment and intellectual exploitation. And all of this from a weekend in the country...

Holmes & Watson are invited to the country estate of Reginald Musgrave, a stuffy and somewhat dim scion of a family that traces itself to prominent cavaliers of the civil war era. While Watson is fascinated by the old place, Holmes's interest (when he isn't taking a hit of heroin, or coming down from one) are with Brunton, Musgrave's butler. Though an apparently loyal servant, Brunton has the intellectual fortitude of a headmaster and, unfortunately for Musgrave's chambermaid, the libido of Don Juan. When Musgrave catches Brunton rifling through some private, yet apparently worthless family papers, he resolves to fire the butler. Instead, Brunton disappears without a trace the next morning, his bed unmade, his belongings untouched. The chambermaid, however, falls into a deep, manic depression. The only clue seems to be the papers that drew Brunton's interest - an obscure bundle of verses that sounds like a treasure map (Musgrave, typically dim, understood this, yet generations of Musgraves have followed it to futility). Can Holmes piece together the clues?

You almost wish he wouldn't. Devotion to its settings, the nuanced characters and Brett's performance are more interesting than the story itself. And, once Musgrave reads from beguiling map, the story's pretty much set. Until then, we have Holmes's bizarre behavior after shooting up (Brett has the detective suffering a laugh attack; the next day, when finding Brunton's bed empty and unmade, Holmes naps in it), while Brunton's supposedl paramour suffers pangs...of something. Even the ironic ending, when the human cost of the greed within floats to the surface for all to see, overshadows the story and makes this a worthy watch.

Poised between the early years of this series, which featured faithful and respectful adaptations of Conan Doyle, and the later years in which the stories were sometimes painfully altered (often to pad them out or to work around Brett's declining physical condition). The original story is a reminiscence of Holmes' early days as recounted to Watson afterwards; the adaptation puts Watson into the story and takes the further liberty of showing us Holmes high on cocaine. It's fun but not in the same class as the earlier episodes. ("The Musgrave Ritual" was adapted to rather better effect by Bertram Millhauser some 40 years earlier in Basil Rathbone's great "Sherlock Holmes Faces Death," which is unfortunately no longer available.)