Holmes was also competent as a straight-up boxer, as demonstrated in this Sidney Paget illustration from “The Solitary Cyclist”, in which Holmes dispatches the oafish and odious Mr. Woodley.
I never could figure out though how Holmes managed to stay in fighting trim while going through long periods of chair-bound inaction and never going to the gym (never mind his periodic cocaine binges).
My own pick for the best Holmes is the classic characterization by Basil Rathbone. Most of Rathbone’s movies as Holmes were, to be kind, mediocre.* The character however was what I pictured Holmes to be from the stories.
*Holmes movies with Rathbone were further degraded by Nigel Bruce’s doddering Dr. Watson. Bruce also “hosted” a forgettable Holmes series on radio.
Except that House was very much a variation on Holmes, far more than your examples: the observational genius, the eccentricities and musical ability, the disconnection from humanity (bordering on misanthropy), the drug use, the best friend and confidant with the initials JW, even the name (House… Holmes… get it?). They even name-checked 221b and Irene Adler. Not to mention that Hugh Laurie looks like the classic Sherlock, tall and lanky with a long face and hollow cheeks.
*House *was easily as much Sherlock Holmes as the Guy Ritchie movies.
I am distressed to find myself siding with the popular choice, Jeremy Brett. But there really isn’t any other possible answer.*
*With the possible exception of Leonard Nimoy, who I saw play Holmes on stage in a recreation of William Gillette’s play in the seventies. He was FABULOUS as Holmes.
Observational genius, never leaves his house, can’t even get along with his assistant, has an Irene Adler character*, plays rock and roll. Don’t remember drug use, other than soda pop by the case.
Daryl Zero: I always say that the essence of my work relies fundamentally on two basic principles–objectivity and observation, or the two obs, as I call them. My work relies on my ability to remain absolutely, purely objective, detached. I have mastered the fine art of detachment. And while it comes at some cost, this supreme objectivity is what makes me, I dare say, the greatest observer the world has ever known.
*To me, she will always be a singular unforgettable event, the only time I ever took leave of my objectivity. Perhaps the most able blackmailer of her time, she was at once the worthiest opponent and the greatest ally, and the only woman I have ever… the only woman, period.
See, that’s what I’d pretty much say about Basil Rathbone.
To me, it’s like this: picture JFK. Now picture a guy doing a great JFK impression. And now picture an exaggerated parody of JFK. And now picture a guy portraying JFK with a stutter and a southern accent; seems like a weird choice, but it could be interesting and memorable. Feel free to pitch a film where JFK is bald and bespectacled and only ever whispers; maybe you’re an offbeat director trying to make some kind of a point, and, what the hell, maybe it even winds up being entertaining.
Which is my point: there’s a lot of odd ways to play JFK instead of just acting like JFK, and then there’s — getting it right by just acting like JFK. And I know it isn’t the same thing, but, try as I might, to me, it is: there’s Basil Rathbone, and there are guys who shoot for some other effect instead of just acting like Sherlock Holmes.
Well, I’d include Peter Falk as Columbo, whose super-power was the opposite of Holmes’ - he deluded his opponents into thinking he was clueless, which is just as brainy in its own way.
I liked Benedict Cumberbatch’s Holmes up until the last series. I kind of hope they leave it there.
Don’t know that I ever really thought it through before, but I guess that Rathbone’s Sherlock Holmes is the Moriarty of my childhood: he has a whip-crack voice he uses, in between sneering like a villain, to spell out how he thinks he’s the smartest guy in the room — which, if he were a villain in a stage play for kids, would be there to cue his impending comeuppance; but the whole point is that he does keep solving crimes that baffle Scotland Yard, and knows it, and wants to make that clear.
That’s why he’s in this line of work! He’s, like, an archetype in reverse!
Oh, some guys have a relaxed confidence; and some are modest (some from humility, some from mere politeness); some are matter-of-fact, some are robotic. But this guy? The Holmes of my childhood? This guy carries himself like an aristocrat who laughs like he’s riding for a fall, only he really does have you now!
I didn’t realize it until I looked him up again, but Rowe also played Sherlock Holmes as an adult. Sort of.
He’s the actor playing Sherlock Holmes in the “film within a film” in 2015’s Mr. Holmes. He’s, in effect, playing “Younger Sherlock Holmes” to Ian McKellen’s Old Sherlock Holmes.