Customer Reviews

Sherlock Holmes: The Sign of Four

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Those two stars out of five go to the brilliant acting abilities of Mr. Brett and Mr. Hardwicke, the only things next to the dog that kept this film from being more disappointing that it already was. But before I start, please remember, Grenada may have soiled the Sign of Four, but this is truly their only blunder. They do great justice to the rest of the series.

First of all, the film's beginning. Next to the murder and mystery, The Sign of Four is most well known for the introduction to our favorite detective's rather surprising vice. The occasional (I say occasional because throughout the majority of the Sherlock Holmes stories it is indeed on occasion. In The Sign of Four, Watson says something of "three times a day for a month.") use of the narcotic, cocaine. They exclude that completely. I have been told that they do infact include it somewhere in the Grenada television series, but I was exceedingly disappointed to not see it in this film. On the note of cocaine, the last few lines of the novel were very clever. After Inspector Jones takes all the credit for the work of Holmes and Watson, Mr. Watson says something along the lines of, "You have done all the work in this business. I get a wife out of it, Jones gets the credit, pray what remains for you?" For me, said Sherlock Holmes, "there still remains the cocaine-bottle." Instead, Mr. Holmes simply falls asleep.

Besides that let down, this film manages to make one of the, if not THE most suspenseful chase scenes in all of English literature very, very boring. No, "Pile it on, men, pile it on!" cried Holmes, looking down into the engine-room, while the fierce glow from below beat upon his eager, aquiline face. "Get every pound of steam you can." or, "See here," said Holmes, pointing to the wooden hatchway. "We were hardly quick enough with our pistols." There, sure enough, just behind where we had been standing, stuck one of those murderous darts which we knew so well." Just a slow, average boat chase for this film.

Another great, and extremely important part left out by the film version of the Sign of Four, was the Watson/Mary Morstan subplot. This is absolutely, and I say this without a doubt in my mind, the most adorable scenes in the entire Sherlock Holmes collection, yet they left it our for fear of getting the amount of wives Watson had incorrect. Watson himself admits to being un connoisseur des femmes. Or, they could simply have NOT killed her off in their series instead of adding to the ruin of film adaptation of the greatest Holmes novel in existence. (After the Valley of Fear, of course. And not including the short stories, which in my mind, are far superior to the novels.)

If you want finer examples of the exceptional Grenada series, go with 'The Master Blackmailer,' 'The Hound of the Baskervilles' or any of the series episodes from Return or Adventures. I assure you, you will not be disappointed with those. And please, do not bother with Rathbone's Sherlock Holmes. I'll say what I said in the beginning of this rant, Grenada may have soiled the Sign of Four, but this is truly their only blunder. They do great justice to the rest of the series.

What a treat! This two-hour film for television gives us even more fun than the many fine one-hour Holmes mysteries that Granada television made with Jeremy Brett. There is a delicious air of the bizarre that hangs over this tale, in which a young woman seeks Holmes' help to discover who has been sending her valuable pearls in the mail since the disappearance of her father. Throughout, we are treated to an almost Dickensian cast of odd characters, including a slightly incompetent police inspector, a wooden-legged sailor, a hookah-smoking fop, a keen-nosed dog, and the beloved Baker Street Irregulars (street boys who act as Holmes' eyes and ears.) Filmed with panache and period detail, this version sweeps us away in the adventure and remains overall quite true to the Conan Doyle novel upon which it is based. (True, in the novel Watson ends up marrying the client, but this film does not rule out the possibility.)Brett is brilliant as Holmes, whose powers of deduction (and disguise) are razor sharp.

All the Jeremy Brett renditions of Sherlock Holmes are good. This particular story of a treasure that brings death from a one legged man and a pygmy is more interesting. We follow Holmes as he meets a young woman that catches Dr. Watsons eye but has a odd story to tell of her fathers death. We then find that the meeting of an acquaintance of her father has the police arresting the wrong man. Holmes with the aid of the Baker Street Boys searching the Thames leads to the capture and confession of the true culprit but an incredible telling of the whole history of the treasures change of hands through theft and murder. The DVD copy has a clean picture and the sound is good. It is well worth owning.

The Sign of Four is it self is a very fantastic and bizare case from Sherlock holmes series. The film is well directed by Mr. Peter Hammond. He successfully created the necessary surroundings. Especially in the room and palace like house of Sholto and sons company, as per the story much more expected.
The film is giving full 100% justice to Sir Doyale's writing including dialogs. Brett and Edward Hardwicke with as usual doing well in the film. Tongo character is well makeuped and is as per storyline. Other characters are good. When you first look to Mary Morstan character you feel that it is the appropriate actress for that. It has given me the satisfaction at my best. Worth to purchase and see. If and If not the fans of Brett/Holmes. Thanks for Granada TV.

The late Jeremy Brett's portrayal of Sherlock Holmes is so real, so vital, and so thoroughly mesmerizing that I can never imagine another actor playing the part. The man literally oozes charisma, and his aristocratic, finely chiselled looks perfectly match the Holmes I've always envisioned. Brett also captures the nuances that make Holmes such a memorable creation: the moodiness, the nervous bursts of energy, the unexpected moments of humour, and all his other maddening (but wonderful) eccentricities. Brett also has the perfect speaking voice for Holmes - a perfectly enunciated, slightly fruity, upper class Etonian accent. The death of Jeremy Brett in 1995 robbed us of Holmes' finest interpreter and a fascinating actor.

Happily, however, Brett has left us with a large legacy of performances as the great detective. The British Granada television series, filmed between 1984 and 1994, is now available on video (and occasionally on DVD) and includes many stand-out episodes. The present video is one of several feature-length episodes filmed for the series, and was made in 1987. This was around the period in which Brett's health started to decline (he suffered from a combination of heart disease and depression), but personally I have always felt that he transcended the effects of his illness, and in some ways his performances as Holmes were even more compelling because of it. At times he would have to husband his vocal resources as breath control became a problem, but his portrayal remained compelling right up until the end. Here he looks fine for the most part, and if anything, his slightly red-rimmed eyes and sallow complexion suit the character of Holmes, who was hardly the picture of robust good health himself.

Brett is ably supported by Edward Hardwicke as a sympathetic and intelligent Watson. This is the confidante whom Conan Doyle always envisioned, not the bumbling twit that one remembers from the Nigel Bruce caricature of the 1930s and 1940s.

The rest of the cast is uniformly good, with John Thaw excellent as the nominal villain, Jonathan Small, and Ronald Lacey hilarious in the dual roles of the eccentric (and appallingly hair-styled!) Sholto brothers.

As always in this ten-year series, the direction is top-notch, and the period atmosphere is beautifully evoked. There is also some clever use of shadow and mirrors that add a touch of class to the visual effects.

With great performances and direction to match, why, then, have I not given this adaptation five stars?

My reservations lie with the story itself. The Sign of Four lacks the suspense of say, The Hound of the Baskervilles or the darkly compelling Dying Detective. To be sure, it is a very interesting story with all the usual Conan Doyle flourishes (exotic background, eccentric personalities and a hint of romance), but it all comes to a conclusion much too soon with the anti-climactic narrative from Jonathan Small that occupies the last ten minutes or so of the episode. Nevertheless, there is still much to enjoy along the way in this witty evocation of Doyle's novel. In short, I recommend this episode with the proviso that dedicated Sherlockians also check out many of the other programmes in the series.

I think that this is one of the best of the Sherlock Holmes movies. Jeremy Brett seems to capture the character of Holmes better than many an actor. The atmosphere of this film is dark, and mysterious -- it keeps you on the edge of your seat. The movie's plot is engaging, and even if you have read the story, you can't be sure how it will end. Brett is still fresh in the role of Holmes, and seems to absorb the character's personality. This piece remains true to Conan Doyle's style, and preserves the mystery of a foggy London street. This is, thus far, the best of the Jeremy Brett classics I have seen.

This is a teriffic movie, and I find it intriguing that people who claim to have read the book rate this so poorly. Strangely, they complain that Jeremy Brett's illness partly ruins his performance as Holmes. Anyone who has read the original canon knows that illness and Holmes went hand in hand: even though Watson describes him as having an "iron constitution," the man was frequently sick from overwork, drug and tobacco abuse, lack of sleep, and simply from not eating. Brett's illness actually works well with the series - almost as if his real life was mirroring that of the fictional detective - with one exception: Brett gained weight whereas Holmes, when ill, became very, very thin.

This iteration of Sign of Four is a beautifully crafted piece. The period detail can still alarm me with its quality, even after repeated viewings. Viewers are absolutely immersed in the Baker Street of the late Victorian period.

The scenes of Sherlock's physical investigation of crime scenes are well rendered, faithfully presented the "real" Holmes in action, as described by Doyle. We even get to hear some of Sherlock's more quotable aphorisms which seem to be lifted from the actual text. Also, we see a bit of the detective's less pleasant social habits and misogyny - a bit of his darker side.

The only thing that makes this interpretation of the book suffer is that it is **TOO** faithful to the original work. The long passage near the end of Johnathan Small's monologue has always dragged this story a bit and makes screen representations difficult. It's not that the film interpreted it poorly - it's that this passage simply violates the traditional climactic structure of a standard two hour film. This was typical of the Holmes novels, where Sherlock would be "off-screen" for long periods.

This second Sherlock Holmes novel, in which Watson falls in love with the client but still attempts to reunite her with the fortune that will separate them forever, has been rather unlucky in its screen adaptations. The first, in 1932, was a hyped-up vehicle for Arthur Wontner featuring fistfights, motorboat chases, and a peroxide Mary Morstan. This one was made in the middle of the Granada TV series and has two crippling problems. The first is Jeremy Brett, at the beginning of the illness that would take his life, and consequently losing his looks, voice, and presence. The second problem is that the central romance has been eliminated -- and without it, the whole point of the story (Watson's chivalry) is entirely lost. Stick with the pre-1987 titles in this series.

This may be my favourite of the magnificent Granada series starring Jeremy Brett, most of which I love; it's definitely the best of the two-hour versions. Watson doesn't get the girl, but the sentimental look on his face when he comments "What a very attractive woman!" at the end is a nice touch, considering that marriage for Watson wasn't really an option in a TV series. Jeremy Brett is brilliant as always; I love the way he speaks to Toby, the dog, and the expression on his face as he comments "It was I who opened it" to the weird Athelney Jones. The chase down the Thames is classic. Holmes is possibly a bit more arrogant and inconsiderate in this adaptation than he was in the book, but Brett was able to do that; sometimes his Holmes shows unexpected flashes of compassion, sometimes he's wonderfully intolerable! This is a good introduction to the series, though one of the shorter classics like "The Red-Headed League" or "The Second Stain" might be even better to whet the appetite.

The earlier Jeremy Brett Sherlock Holmes films were masterpieces of film style and literary adaption. This fine version of a rather strange novel includes many quirky, almost Dickensian characters and keeps you hanging on throughout the twisted plot.