The Film Detective has assembled a beautiful collection of classic Sherlock Holmes movies — and more, much more — for release on Dec. 14 as both four-disc Blu-ray and DVD sets.
Titled The Sherlock Holmes Vault Collection, we kick off the proceedings with writer/director Leslie S. Hiscott’s The Fatal Hour, the 1931 film adaptation of two short stories from Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. These short stories (ultimately there were 56 written) were combined for the first sound feature-length film, which was released theatrically one year after Conan Doyle’s death.
The two in question were his 1893 short story “The Adventures of the Final Problem,” which was significant on two counts — it introduced Moriarty and Holmes dies — and the short story published ten years later, “The Adventure of the Empty House,” which brought Holmes back to life (public pressure to keep the series going).
In The Fatal Hour, Sherlock Holmes is played by Arthur Wontner (his sound film debut … he would reprise the role of Holmes on four additional occasions during the 1930s), Watson was portrayed by Aussie character actor Ian Fleming (not to be confused with the creator of the 007/James Bond adventures) and the role of Moriarty went to Norman McKinnel.
This newly-restored presentation of The Fatal Hour comes with a commentary option provided by author Jennifer Churchill (“Movies are Magic”), the first segment (of three) of the featurette titled “The Adventures of Sam Sherman,” a radio recreation and silent short films, Baffled (1900) and both cut and uncut versions of the 1918 silent short film, A Black Sherlock Holmes.
The next film in this magnificent collection is writer/director Leslie S. Hiscott’s 1935 film, The Triumph of Sherlock Holmes, which was an adaption of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s 1915 novel, “The Valley of Fear.”
Once again Arthur Wontner and Ian Fleming are Holmes and Watson, however Lyn Harding (Goodbye, Mr. Chips, The Constant Nymph, Fire Over England) takes over the role of Moriarty.
Bonus features include commentary with film scholar Jason A. Ney, part two of “The Adventures of Sam Sherman” featurette, the 1912 silent short film, The Copper Beeches and the 1954 Brit TV episode, The Web: Blind Man’s Bluff.
Next in the series is Silver Blaze, which was also known as Murder at the Baskervilles. Wontner, Fleming and Ney are all back as Holmes, Watson and Moriarty respectively, however direction was taken over by Thomas Bentley.
The film was released in England in 1937, but there was little interest in bucking heads with 20th Century-Fox and their big budget Sherlock Holmes productions of The Hound of the Baskervilles and The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, starring Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce. However, when Fox decided not to proceed with the series, and before going over to Universal, Astor Pictures jumped at the opportunity to distribute Silver Blaze in the United States in 1941, however they retitled it Murder at the Baskervilles to take advantage of the publicity generated by Fox.
Bonus features include commentary featuring Phoef Sutton and Jordan Legan, the final segment of “The Adventures of Sam Sherman” the Felix-the-Cat cartoon, Sure Luck Holmes and the 1913 silent short film, Cousins of Sherlocko.
The fourth film in this collection is director Edwin L. Marin’s 1933 film release of A Study in Scarlet, starring Reginal Owen as Sherlock Holmes and Warburton Gamble as Watson.
Bonus features here include commentary with Peter Atkins and David Breckman, the Mutt & Jeff cartoon, Slick Sleuths, and the documentary titled Elementary Cinema.
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