SHERLOCK HOLMES SERIES(1954)
The greatest criminal investigator from Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
makes his TV debut!! With Sherlock, played by Ronald Howard,
Dr. Watson, played by Howard Marion-Crawford, and Inspector
Lestrade, played by Archie Duncan!!
The picture quality of the DVD is ok, no subtitles(of course), black
and white(of course) and sound quality not great, kinda hard to
follow the whole thing!! Definitely not re-mastered!!
However, this is still a blast from the past, and a part of American,
as well as Sherlock Holmes, history! With considerable more humor
than most Holmes stories, this is well worth the watch!!
EPISODE 1: THE CASE OF THE CUNNINGHAM HERITAGE(Oct. 18, 1954):
This first episode gives us an insight to the first meeting of Holmes
and Watson and how they ended up sharing a flat together!!
As for the story: A man is found dead, and his fiance standing over
him with the knife that killed him!! Lestrade takes the whole thing
at face value and hauls the woman off to jail, but Sherlock is sure
that there's more to this than meets the eye!!
This is a pretty good first episode, coulda been better with a little
more time to develop!! A-
EPISODE 2: THE CASE OF LADY BERYL(Oct. 25, 1954):
Carl Oberstien is killed, and Lady Beryl confesses to the murder!!
Holmes of course gets to the bottom of the whole thing, much to
Lestrade's chagrin!!
A guest star here is Paulette Goddard(The Phantom[TV-1961])!! A
EPISODE 3: THE CASE OF THE PENNSYLVANIA GUN(Nov. 1, 1954):
A man is killed in a nearby castle, complete with moat and all!! Seems
pretty cut and dried, as there was no way into the house as the gate
was up which meant that the moat was full!! A
EPISODE # 4: THE CASE OF THE TEXAS COWGIRL(Nov. 8, 1954):
A rodeo girl from Texas(with a completely over the top accent) shows
up at Sherlock's door to ask for help with a dead body in her room!! Of course,
Holmes is more than game to help out, with Watson being the reluctant one
here! This one, to me, gets really tiring really fast!! B
EPISODE # 5: THE CASE OF THE BELLIGERENT GHOST(Nov. 15, 1954):
Watson gets hit by a ghost! Ok, the real story, the good doctor meets up with
a man named Higgins and helps him back to his place, where upon the man is
dead!! He then goes to the local pub and has a drink, then leaves and runs into
the fellow again, and Mr. Higgins hits Watson!! This piques Holmes' curiosity and
he goes back to the guys place to put all the pieces back together!! A
EPISODE # 6: THE CASE OF THE SHY BALLERINA(Nov. 22, 1954):
Watson gets accused of murder by Lestrade!! All due to a mix up of hats, coats &
identity!!
Guest starring Natalie Schafer(Gilligan's Island) A
EPISODE # 7: THE CASE OF THE WINTHROP LEGEND(Nov. 29, 1954):
A man comes to Holmes with concern over an ancient legend, which foretells
that if one of the family members finds a silver coin, his/her death is imminent!!
This is especially good!! A+
EPISODE # 8: THE CASE OF THE BLIND MAN'S BLUFF(Dec. 6, 1954):
A blind man is out for revenge against the men that were responsible for
the death of his wife and child!! Good though predictable!! A
EPISODE # 9: THE CASE OF HARRY CROKER(Dec. 13, 1954):
This is about an escape artist framed for murdering a chorus gal!!! A
EPISODE # 10: THE MOTHER HUBBARD CASE(Dec. 20, 1954):
A man and his daughter come to Holmes to find a missing man who was
to meet with the man to ask for his daughter's hand in marriage!! The man
disappears after helping a young girl find her way home at night!! Shades of
Arsenic And Old Lace!! Very disturbing episode!! A
EPISODE # 11: THE CASE OF THE RED HEADED LEAGUE(Dec. 27, 1954):
This one's about a red-headed man who gets duped into working for
a league of all red-headed men!! They hire him to copy the Encylopedia
Brittanica word for word, saying they'll pay him handsomely for his work!
He comes into work one day to find the place shut down, and the owner
of the building having no idea who his employers were!! Thusly he winds
up at Holmes' door asking for help!
Though this seems to be just a piece of fluff, there really is a good story
behind the whole thing!! A
EPISODE # 12: THE CASE OF THE SHOELESS ENGINEER(Jan. 3, 1955):
Watson talks Holmes into a quiet day in the country, and they wind up
on a case of counterfeiting!! They come upon a man carrying a woman
and help them to their flat, and find out that they were running from
a couple of dudes counterfeiting coins!! A
EPISODE # 13: THE CASE OF THE SPLIT TICKET(Jan. 10, 1955):
A man is approached by a woman to split a sweepstakes ticket with
her!! He has his doubts, but when another man throws his hat in the
ring, he decides what the heck, he'll give it a shot!! The three's numbers
actually win, but all of a sudden the other dude disappears!! So he goes to
Sherlock for help!! A-
EPISODE 14: THE CASE OF THE FRENCH INTERPRETER(Jan. 17, 1955):
An interpreter is kidnapped so he can help a couple of low lifes get some
answers from another dude that appears to have been kidnapped! It's all
about money, and trying to get him to sign some documents to give them
control over his fortune!! He goes to Holmes and Watson to get help for
the man!! A
EPISODE 15: THE CASE OF THE SINGING VIOLIN(Jan. 20, 1955):
A young woman is being victimized by her step-father in an attempt to
get her fortune!! Her fiance goes to see her, but the sf won't let him see
her, saying she has gone completely mad! He heads to see Holmes for
help and is promptly shot and killed!! Holmes immediately goes into
action!! A
EPISODE 16: THE CASE OF THE GREYSTONE INSCRIPTION(Jan. 27, 1955):
A young lady comes to Holmes for help in finding her fiance who went to
visit Sir Thomas Greystone to show him a great discovery he made about
14th century Britain!! Only he never came back, and the good professor
swears that the young man never showed up there! A
EPISODE 17: THE CASE OF THE LAUGHING MUMMY(Feb. 7, 1955):
An old friend of Watson's who's an archaeologist is on the same train
with him and Holmes and invites them to visit, where he shows them his
"laughing mummy"!! Sherlock solves the issue of the laughing mummy,
but uncovers a larger mystery about the mummy!! A-
EPISODE # 18: THE CASE OF THE THISTLE KILLER(Feb. 14, 1955):
There's a serial killer on the loose in London, and Holmes gets on the
case! This one was really easy to figure out!! A
EPISODE # 19: THE CASE OF THE VANISHED DETECTIVE(Feb. 21, 1955):
The missing detective is Holmes himself!! Watching Watson and Lestrade try
to track him down is a lot of fun!! The real case: an escaped convict has broken
out of jail and vowed to kill the judge who sent him to prison!! A
EPISODE # 20: THE CASE OF THE CARELESS SUFFRAGETTE(Feb 28, 1955):
This one's a real light affair, with the emphasis on a young lady who's part of
the movement for women's right to vote!! She's upset because a vote in
parliament for women's rights was voted down!! So she handcuffs herself to
a building close to one of the members of parliament, which just happens
to be Sherlock's home!! Turns out that she had hired a man to help her make
a bomb to cause a ruckus, and it ends up killing said parliament member!! A-
EPISODE # 21: THE CASE OF THE RELUCTANT CARPENTER(Mar. 7, 1955):
There's a man going around setting fires, his motive, to hold the city hostage
for ransom!! Along the way, he plants a bomb somewhere in the city, but he
gets killed and there's no way to find out where said bomb is!! A
EPISODE # 22: THE CASE OF THE DEADLY PROPHECY(Mar. 14, 195):
In Belgium at a school for boys, a young boy seems to be foretelling the deaths
of people!! In his sleep, he sleep walks to a church and writes a name on the steps,
and later that person dies!! The schoolmarm goes to Sherlock for help!! A
EPISODE # 23: THE CHRISTMAS PUDDING(Apr 4, 1955):
A condemned man tells Holmes that he will kill him before his death!! A
EPISODE # 24: THE NIGHT TRAIN RIDDLE(Apr. 11, 1955):
Watson talks Holmes into a short holiday, taking a train to, well, they never say!!
Of course this wouldn't be much of an episode without a mystery, so as they are
travelling along, the train gets stopped, and a boy has disappeared!! The lady in
charge of the boy comes to Holmes to help her find him!! A
EPISODE # 25: THE CASE OF THE VIOLENT SUITOR(Apr. 18, 1955):
Aunt Lottie gives advice to the lovelorn(a la Ann Landers), and one of the people
Lottie helps is a young girl who's about to marry a very mean dude!! He tells her
that she shouldn't marry the dude, the dude come to Lottie and persuades Lottie
to tell the girl that there was a terrible mistake and that she should go ahead with
the marriage as planned!! Lottie goes to Holmes for help after finding out the whole
truth about the man!! A
EPISODE # 26: THE CASE OF THE BAKER STREET NURSEMAIDS(Apr. 25, 1955):
A knock at the door and suddenly Holmes and Watson are mothers!! Ok, obviously
more to the story: the pops is a famous scientist/inventor who's gone missing!!
Sherlock immediately goes on the search!! A-
EPISODE # 27: THE CASE OF THE PERFECT HUSBAND(May 2, 1955):
On the event of her first wedding anniversary, Mrs. Partridge's husband informs
her that he's going to kill her the next evening at 9:00!! She first goes to the police
but quickly realizes that they won't believe her, so then she goes to Holmes for help!
Guest starring here is non-other than Alfred Peenyworth of Batman fame, Michael
Gough(Batman, Batman Returns, Batman Forever, Batman & Robin)!!
This is really good!! A
EPISODE # 28: THE CASE OF THE JOLLY HANGMAN(May 9, 1955):
A woman comes to Holmes with a story about her husband who hanged himself!!
No money, no insurance[because he killed himself] and very much in need!! Holmes
says he'll help her out, and proceeds to look for answers!! Outside his flat as the
woman leaves, a man is watching her, and starts laughing maniacally!!! Hmmmm!! A
EPISODE # 29: THE CASE OF THE IMPOSTOR MYSTERY(May 16, 1955):
Mr. Holmes has been giving out terrible advice, and people are really upset, including
Inspector Lestrade! Turns out there's an impostor running around masquerading as
the good detective and causing havoc!!! A
EPISODE # 30: THE CASE OF THE EIFFEL TOWER(May 23, 1955):
A famous criminal is run over and killed, and Lestrade finds a mysterious note on
his body!! He takes it to Holmes, and ends up taking the group to Paris and the
Eiffel Tower!! A
EPISODE # 31: THE CASE OF THE EXHUMED CLIENT(May 30, 1955):
A man dies and his assets go to his next of kin! However, in the will, the deceased
put in a clause saying that Sherlock Holmes is to look into his death and make
sure that he hadn't been murdered!! Sure enough, turns out that he'd been poisoned
and Holmes gets on the case to find out how!! A
EPISODE # 32: THE CASE OF THE IMPROMPTU PERFORMANCE(June 6, 1955):
A convicted man uses his last request to call upon Sherlock to prove his innocence!! A
EPISODE # 33: THE CASE OF THE BAKER STREET BACHELORS(June 20, 1955):
Another case of an innocent man being blamed for something that he didn't do!!
He's running for Parliament, and he recently went to a marriage agency to find a
wife! While it all seemed up and up, soon the woman is blackmailing him for breaking
her arm!! A
EPISODE # 34: THE CASE OF THE ROYAL MURDER(June 27, 1955):
While enjoying a time with royalty through an invite after helping the king, another
man gets killed, poisoned in fact!! The chief suspect, the king himself!! This gets the
two detectives thrown into jail!! This makes it tough to solve the case!! A
EPISODE # 35: THE CASE OF THE HAUNTED GAINSBOROUGH(July 4, 1955):
A Scottish nobleman comes to Holmes with a crazy tale about him trying to sell
off a painting by Gainsborough, but every time a ghost comes along to ruin the
sale!! A
EPISODE # 36: THE CASE OF THE NEUROTIC DETECTIVE(July 11, 1955):
So this one's about some jewel thieves that are stealing quite
important stuff!! Crown jewels and all that!! And Holmes is acting
quite squirrely, and Watson believes that he might have something
to do with all the thefts!! A
EPISODE # 37: THE CASE OF THE UNLUCKY GAMBLER(July 18, 1955):
A young lad shows up at Holmes' door to ask for help in finding
his missing father!! His father: well he has a gambling problem and
he owes a lot of money to many people who aren't that friendly so
he's gone into hiding!! This is really weak!! B
EPISODE # 38: THE CASE OF THE DIAMOND TOOTH(Sept. 19, 1955):
Watson finds a diamond tooth while walking along the river!! Later
on, a dead man is found near where he found the tooth!! A
EPISODE # 39: THE CASE OF THE TYRANT'S DAUGHTER(Oct. 17, 1955):
The last episode of the series, this one's about a woman whose
step-father has been killed!! The main suspect is the woman's fiance
who has been told that he will in no way get to marry his daughter!! A
From a reviewer at IMDb.com:
I found the full set (39 episodes) on 3 DVDs in a pawnshop for $1. It was worth
every penny. Indeed, it might have been worth $2. :-) The actors portraying Holmes
and Watson are excellent--well-defined personalities and very likable. The rest are
appealingly comic. The episodes are mostly non-canon, and often silly, with many
non-sequiturs and plot holes. However, since the series does not take itself seriously,
these faults are forgivable. One might say that when an episode is good, it is very
good, and when an episode is bad, it is so bad that, seen with the right spirit, it is
also good. The fuzzy black-and-white photography, the very inexpensive sets, and
the repeatedly-used stock clips (e.g. the Tower, the carriages coming and going)
add to the patina of awful greatness. Really, I'm not trying to be supercilious--you
will enjoy the series for its fine portrayal of Holmes & Watson, not to mention poor
Inspector Lestrade. Lose no time--search the shelves of your local pawnshop
today! - brnlbb