Customer Reviews

The Sherlock Holmes Collection

5 star:		(16)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

"The Sherlock Holmes Collection" contains the only six surviving episodes of the BBC's 1968 TV series "Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes". The great Peter Cushing stars as Holmes and Nigel Stock plays Dr. Watson. The six episodes feature five stories:

The Hound of the Baskervilles (a two-part episode)
The Sign of the Four
The Blue Carbuncle
A Study in Scarlet
The Boscombe Valley Mystery

The main reason to get this set is Peter Cushing. It's great to see him playing one of his favorite characters at the prime of his career. Cushing had already played Holmes in Hammer Films' THE HOUND OF THE BASKERVILLES in 1959. Cushing's TV Holmes is a bit calmer
than his Hammer Holmes. The mannerisms and behaviour of the literary Holmes are still present, though.
Unfortunately the episodes themselves do not live up to the star of the series. It's obvious the BBC did not spend the money necessary to bring Doyle's stories to life properly. Most of the scenes in the episodes are indoors and filled with dialogue. It's sometimes like watching a play. The action and atmosphere of Doyle seem to be avoided due to budgetary reasons. A prime example is The Sign of Four. This is one of Doyle's best works, but here it is condensed down to a Cliff Notes version. The Sign of Four should have been a two-parter as well.
Nigel Stock does a decent job as Watson, but the supporting players in the episodes tend to overact badly. In later interveiws, Peter Cushing would express his disappointment with how the series turned out. The BBC made a total of sixteen episodes, but only these six survive, because in those days the BBC would erase or re-use their tapes!
Overall, the picture and sound quality are fine (the episodes are in color). Even though these are not the best presentations of Doyle's detective, this series is a must for Peter Cushing fans and for Sherlock Holmes lovers.

Well done, atmospheric Holmes adventures with Peter Cushing and Nigel Stock. I'm sorry the rest of this 60's series is lost, since I believe I read that Cushing actually did about 16 episodes for the series. The loss is ours, but it makes having this small collection of the survivors that more precious. If you are a Hammer Film fan then you are pretty sure of what you're getting with Cushing's performance as the master slueth. I enjoyed his big screen turn as Holmes in The Hound of the Baskervilles, but the performance at times seemed a bit too energetic, almost too frenetic at times, as though Cushing were trying hard to point out how unusual Holmes was. In these later years portrayals, Cushing's Holmes seems to move with a slow intellectual grace that is more befitting the Detective. Nigel Stock is also a recognizable face from Hammer, and other British productions. He plays Watson very well here, using the right combination of patience and awe at Holmes' quirks and genious insites.

Picture quality is very good, and sound is likewise better than expected, with five tales told in Victorian times, and with enough suspense and humor to please any Holmes fan.

The series is worth watching for the Holmes of Peter Cushing, as well as Nigel Stock's take on Watson. The guests are unfamiliar aside from Gary Raymond and Frank Middlemass. The main flaws are the slow pace and low budget sets, as well as color, which never seems suited to the Victorian settings.
The biggest surprise here is a complete verison of "A Study in Scarlet", which one book claimed only had a few scenes that still existed. The changes in the story were minor, a minus being in not keeping the first meeting of Holmes and Watson, a big plus being the deletion of the dull flashback from the book.
"The Hound of the Baskervilles" is a bit disappointing, it suffers from the two part telling and, being fairly faithful to the novel, has far too little Holmes. Two other flaws, a cave floor creaks badly and the story ends abruptly.
"The Boscombe Valley Mystery" wasn't one of Doyle's best and is probably the weakest in the collection here, due in part to the poor supporting cast.
"The Sign of Four" stuck fairly close to the novel, except for the end. Only the Arthur Wontner verison actually had the nerve to allow watson to marry.
"The Blue Carbuncle" has the most padding to fill the time, but does feature a good scene where Watson gets a laugh at Holmes' expense after a faulty deduction.
Those who think Cushing was too short to play Holmes should reread "The Three Students" and "The Abbey Grange", where Holmes gives himself gives his height at six feet, the same as Cushing. (Arthur Wontner was an inch shorter by the way.)
Even with the flaws this is easily the best television Holmes collection out there and is second only to the better Rathbone films.

I have all the Jeremy Brett versions of Sherlock Holmes on DVD but after seeing the 1959 film THE HOUND OF THE BASKERVILLES with Peter Cushing wanted this set to see more of Cushing's portrayal of Holmes. Most viewers will not be disappointed with the Holmes portrayed by Peter Cushing. His acting is superb adding a bit of dash and difference to the Holmes stories.

One should take note, however, that THE HOUND OF THE BASKERVILLES of this BBC TV set IS NOT the one of the 1959 movie also starring Christopher Lee. All features within this 3 disc set are from BBC TV. While interesting to see they can be a bit ragged in places and some of the sets leave a bit also to be wished for.

Overall if one enjoys Holmes and the Holmes' stories there cannot be any disappointment in these discs. It's unfortunate that only these handful of stories survive from those years.

Though I yet prefer the Jeremy Brett series as being more professionally done, these discs are good and enjoyable to watch. Unfair perhaps, but forty-plus years of improvement in film does make a difference. But Peter Cushing has left us with a capital performance where Sherlock Holmes is concerned, while the role of Dr. Watson is more than ably performed as well.

Semper Fi.

Let me start by saying that the episodes are all wonderful...the acting is superb and Peter Cushing shines like the star he was...I could tell you all about the different elements of mystery and drama on these discs but you already know that if you know who Peter Cushing is..if you do not then buy this collection from Amazon..it is worth every penny..I am a Peter Cushing fan and have watched probably every movie he has graced with his presence..he is at his best here as Sherlock Holmes.If you want to see more movies with Peter Cushing in them check out Hammer Films...he's in quite a few of them...

If you love Jeremy Brett as Sherlock Holmes, then you should see Peter Cushing's version of the great detective. The Hammer color version of The Hound of the Baskervilles with Peter Cushing is a well-known classic; less well known in the USA is Cushing's BBC Holmes. Cushing's 1968 BBC TV version has the same restless. twitchy manner and mental energy as Brett. Cushing is even more gaunt then the early Brett, though Cushing is not quite tall enough to be an ideal Homes. The Hammer influence is everywhere from the screenplays to the atmospheric elements, yet it never overpowers the sherlockian tradition.

I also like Douglas Wilmer's BBC TV Holmes and I hope that series will also soon be available in the USA. Cushing and Wilmer offer distinctly different yet satisfying versions of Holmes that provide a bridge between the 1930-45 Wontner and Rathbone versions and the Jeremy Brett portrayal. Personally. I think Brett is best, but they each highlight different aspects Holmes' rich character.

Just a note to clear up some points technically speaking for all of you, since there is so much anguish about the series by the viewers.

This is from an old 1960s BBC TV series, shot the same way and with the same budget as Dr. Who and everything else done by them, these are NOT 'movies'. This means, they were by necessity shot in the studio, on stage, with TV cameras like an American Soap Opera is done to this day. They were recorded therefore, on one inch video tape and switched live, which is done to save tons of money on editing, and uses really good, professional, stage actors who can learn the entire script in one go, and just do it. When exteriors and locations are required they use a film camera, probably 16 mm, to film those scenes, again, like on Dr. Who and everything else the BBC TV networks need to do. If it were not for this technique you would not have had any of this sort of television in England at all. They could NOT afford to film all there TV series like we have always done here in commercial America. The British taxpayers and the TV set licensing system they use actually pays for the main costs of production. See what I mean? So don't compare these types of shows with full budget feature motion pictures, or even American commercial TV series, which are shot on 35mm film and edited for air. This is theatre in the true sense.

I encourage you to get this series because they have added a bonus feature which is VERY expensive to buy on its own direct from A&E Biography, the 1995 documentary on Holmes produced on the death of Jeremy Brett that year. It is really good, and we show it at our annual Holmes Society meeting each January 6th, Holmes' birthday. A&E charges upwards of $30 for this doc (if you can find it); it's about 16 years old now.

Cheers,

Randel Smith
Texas

This is the closest you'll ever get to see the late Peter Cushing in a "stage play." Watching him portray Sherlock Holmes is watching him become the character. No matter how many of his movies you have seen (and I've seen many, many of them), you must see him in these Sherlock Holmes stories.

I got this little series with a gift card and was anxious to see it. It's quite good. It was made in the sixties (you can tell by the hairstyles) and it was well made in the BBC fashion with exterior shots filmed and the interior ones taped. The first one is a two parter of "The Hound of the Baskervilles". It is a good adaptation of the novel and worthy to stand up against adaptation of the Holmes' novel. The only downside to this collection is it's limitation to only five shows.
However, it is worthy of a look see.

A&E's release of what they call the surviving 5 episodes of the BBC-produced 1960s color Sherlock Holmes starring Peter Cushing is odd for several reasons. The first is that A&E released it on DVD instead of the BBC themselves, through their BBC/2Entertain branded DVD line. Secondly, the package actually contains SIX 50 minute episodes, since The Hound of the Baskervilles is a two-parter. The episodes themselves are characteristic of BBC video/film productions of the time, with the inherent occasional video dropouts and abrupt cutting between video and film shots. Frankly, they look far better than I expected given the BBC's usual treatment of its old programs.

Regarding the performances: Peter Cushing was, by all reports, a polite and gentlemanly man--as is his Holmes. If you are looking for the abrupt and occasionally impatient man of action found in the Doyle canon, you will be disappointed. This Holmes is so well-mannered and neat that you cannot imagine him falling victim to the lackadaisical debauchery of a consulting detective between cases. The very idea of this dapper and upright Holmes mixing a 7% solution for his needle is laughable. Cushing's gentlemanly portrayal is always enjoyable, if occasionally silly. One particular scene springs to mind where he is handed a series of objects to examine and politely thanks the giver after receiving each and every one. Nigel Stock's portrayal of Dr. Watson can best be understood if we imagine a line graph where Basil Rathbone's crony Nigel Bruce represents the bumbling end and Jeremy Brett's David Burke/Edward Hardwicke represent the serious end. Stock falls precisely in the middle. His Watson is occasionally bumbling and played for comic effect (in four out of six episodes) and serious and brave (in the two-part Hound of the Baskervilles). As with Cushing's performance, Stock is relentlessly likeable.

What else to say? As with many versions of Holmes, these adventures contain enough burning tobacco to make even the viewer sick from secondhand smoke. Perhaps that was why London was so darn foggy back then. But I digress. The episodes have the occasional awkward moments and unusual directorial choices--probably a result of limited budgets. Almost everyone knows the point in Hound of the Baskervilles where a lamp in an upstairs window signals to someone across the darkened moor. This is the only production to my knowledge that does not even show the other person signaling back. The characters just claim he is and look off screen. You could almost imagine a BBC accountant punching an old fashioned adding machine and tut-tutting "No--You can't show a light on the moor. It'll cost an extra 80 quid for the process shot!" Another instance has Holmes and Watson, obviously garbed for the 1890s, trailing a clue along what very much appears to be a 1960s street. Did they really use window treatments like that in the 19th century? But I digress again.

The sole extra is an episode of A&E's Biography of Sherlock Holmes minus the Biography credits. I guess A&E couldn't get the rights to their own credits (perhaps they belong to BBC video--okay, maybe not). In any case, the episode is filled with common facts about Holmes, yet remains fun for the sequences where David Burke reprises his Watson character to attend a dinner with the London Sherlock Holmes Society. The head of the society makes a nice speech admitting Holmes is not real and then turns things over to his real but fictional guest Dr. Watson. Do not think about the proceeding too long or your head will hurt.

The episodes are largely faithful to the stories and the series is constantly enjoyable viewing. The above caveats and deprecations aside, I give it 4 out of 5 stars. Highly recommended!