More Russian Holmes babbling
Jan. 31st, 2009 04:41 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
elabyThis is mostly an excuse to use one of my new icons XD
But! I wrote more braindump about the Russian Holmes movies. This time, it's the Acquaintance (Study in Scarlet/Speckled Band), Bloody Inscription (Study in Scarlet), and King of Blackmailers (Charles Augustus Milverton) movies.
I'm not going to go into as much detail about these as I did about The Final Problem/Empty House movies, but I will give you short plot overviews and highlights (that is, scenes I loved XD). All of these movies have at least one or two things that are utterly brilliant, on top of being just generally good adaptations of the stories.
The first movie was called The Acquaintance, and it showed Holmes and Watson's first meeting and then ran into The Speckled Band. The first half was the best; I've seen much better adaptations of The Speckled Band (Granada's, for example), though this one was decent enough. Watson met Holmes in Baker Street instead of at St. Bart's (er, I think it was St. Bart's in the story O_o) and the first we see of Holmes is a chemical explosion behind a screen. Holmes pops up, collar undone, sleeves rolled up, and all jubilant about his sheer awesomeness. Watson is amused and impressed, at least once Holmes explains the significance of his hemoglobin test. Things are fairly normal until Watson starts to notice all the weird crap that goes on at their lodgings (eyeball in a glass of water! XD) and comes to the conclusion that not only must Holmes be a criminal, but a mastermind. Watson tells Stamford all of his suspicions in an adorable attempt at being circumspect, and is finally driven to confront Holmes. For some reason Watson chooses to challenge Holmes to a boxing match as a venue for this. Holmes, being Holmes, knocks him flat (though it does take a while) and explains that he's a consulting detective, in response to which Watson goes *facepalm*
The rest of the story isn't particularly noteworthy. Watson proclaims that Dr. Roylott is too dangerous and Holmes can't go alone, so Watson's going to go with him, which was adorably proactive if unlike canon. Another part that was unlike canon was that Watson disbelieved Helen Stoner, saying that "you should never trust what a son says about his stepmother or what a daughter says about her stepfather." Riiiight O_o
The only other point of interest in this movie is the end, where Holmes says he has two tickets to the Magic Flute. Watson promptly starts singing the music from it, and they both crack up laughing.
The next movie on the DVD, based on A Study in Scarlet, is the one I liked better (which is interesting because I'm not a big fan of the plot of that story – I like it for the meeting and the interaction). It featured the Gregson & Lestrade duo, interestingly played with Gregson as the reasonable one and Lestrade as a little twerp. He's so slimy that he's pretty hilarious, though. There were several wonderful parts – Holmes examines Watson's watch, as in the story, though in this one Holmes is less obtuse about his observations' impact. When Watson says he was expecting an analysis of the watch's owner, Holmes asks "Are you sure you want me to?" There is considerably more tension here than in the later movies, in keeping with the first part of this DVD where they didn't completely trust each other yet. This is somewhat mitigated by the fact that Holmes next performs his deduction trick on a passerby, who he makes incredible observations about and then reveals that it's Mycroft. He's so amused with himself that he falls onto Watson's shoulder laughing, and Watson can't stay mad.
Another fantastic part is when Watson decides to sneak off in the middle of the night to ambush the killer, who he expects will return to the scene of the murder to retrieve the ring he dropped. Why he does this without Holmes I have no idea; he must have wanted to impress him or show him he could be a detective on his own or something. Anyway, he gets clobbered, and Holmes comes to the rescue. There are moments in most of these movies that catch me totally off guard with how intimate H&W are, and this is one of them – riding home in a cab, Holmes holds Watson with Watson's head on his chest, occasionally checking the handkerchief he has pressed to the wound on Watson's head (see my icon!). H&W from the books would never do this (at least not in public, my god!) but nevertheless you can well imagine my squee. This is in such contrast to the radio plays (in which Holmes's idea of comfort is "I heard about your bereavement. My condolences.") and the Granada series, in which Watson gets the crap beaten out of him much more seriously and all Holmes does is pat his shoulder. Those may be more accurate, but I can tell you which is more satisfying XD
This scene is also a source of very amusing dialogue. Holmes tells Watson he knew Watson was gone because he couldn't hear him snoring ("I'm afraid you do have that habit, my friend.") He also pats Watson and tells him not to lose heart, and asks how he feels, to which Watson replies "Like a complete idiot."
This movie also has the Baker Street Irregulars, who are delightful no matter where they show up. They all remove their hats like little choreographed dancers, and when a tiny one asks Holmes for a cigar, he replies "Smoking is bad for you. See how thin I am?" *makes sucked-in-cheek face* "This is because I smoke!" Seeing Watson try to herd a dozen small dirty boys out of the front hall is also not to be missed.
And speaking of Watson, the "lady" who answers their advertisement about the ring kicks him between the legs while making her escape. He just kind of falls over on the landing, but what makes this scene interesting is that when he calls for Holmes, he shouts "Sherlock!" O_o;; It was very random, and unexpected. It, at least, gives him an excuse to cling to Holmes after they attempt to chase the impostor down.
The last of the movies I have is the Charles Augustus Milverton one (called the King of Blackmailers or something like that), which was, as you can imagine, delightful. It's actually on the same DVD as The Final Problem. There was no handholding in the bits where there's handholding in the story, but there was handholding nonetheless, and it was so unexpected that I was like o_o :D!
When they're talking to Milverton at Baker Street, Watson gets all indignant about the horrible things Milverton puts people through, and he stands up and gives him a "how can you sleep at night?" sort of speech. Now, Milverton is scary and dangerous, and apparently Holmes knows this, because he reaches across the table and squeezes Watson's hand, in a "please sit back down before he kills you" gesture. (I have an icon of this as well, if you'd care to look :3) Watson's still in the middle of his speech, and he just kind of looks at Holmes's hand and trails off and sits back down XD I really wasn't expecting it, because that was a married sort of thing to do if ever I saw one. It was adorable. You know, that's how I would describe just about every interaction between Holmes and Watson in these movies – adorable.
There was one more scene that I loved, just because the interaction was so wonderful. It was another thing that surprised me – usually in adaptations of canon, even more so than in the stories themselves, Watson takes so much crap from Holmes without expressing any kind of dismay or even annoyance (David Burke's Watson gets pissy on occasion, which is nice to watch). Even in the Russian "Hound of the Baskerville," Watson didn't seem angry that Holmes had deceived him, just happy to see him and a little confused. But in "Blackmailer," the whole scene where Holmes tells Watson about his plans to break into Milverton's house is charged with tension. Before this, we see Watson attempting to case Milverton's house, and he briefly encounters Holmes in his disguise as the plumber wooing Milverton's maid. Watson is giving Holmes his report back at Baker Street, and he mentions this suspicious figure he thought might have been onto him... and Holmes collapses laughing and repeats something he had said at the time in his "randy plumber" voice. Watson just stares at him, at first in disbelief, and then with the most profound expression of hurt. Then he gets up and goes silently upstairs to his room. Holmes, meanwhile, is kind of like "?" and calls out that even worse, he's engaged to the maid now (very smooth, Holmes). Upon hearing this Watson comes out of his room and says something along the lines of "I can't believe you!" and goes back in and slams the door. He finally comes back downstairs to scold Holmes about the girl's feelings and try to persuade him not to go, like he does in the story. He didn't, unfortunately, threaten to go to Scotland Yard if Holmes didn't let him come XD But the scene was incredibly good nonetheless.
Oh, one more thing about that scene! When Watson is telling Holmes about his surveillance of Milverton's house, he starts going into "writer Watson" mode, and describing the atmosphere and grounds and surrounding wall in flowery detail. Holmes eventually goes "Watson. The wall. Just tell me about the wall." XD And Watson's like "Oh, right. Sorry." It was SO canon Watson.
But! I wrote more braindump about the Russian Holmes movies. This time, it's the Acquaintance (Study in Scarlet/Speckled Band), Bloody Inscription (Study in Scarlet), and King of Blackmailers (Charles Augustus Milverton) movies.
I'm not going to go into as much detail about these as I did about The Final Problem/Empty House movies, but I will give you short plot overviews and highlights (that is, scenes I loved XD). All of these movies have at least one or two things that are utterly brilliant, on top of being just generally good adaptations of the stories.
The first movie was called The Acquaintance, and it showed Holmes and Watson's first meeting and then ran into The Speckled Band. The first half was the best; I've seen much better adaptations of The Speckled Band (Granada's, for example), though this one was decent enough. Watson met Holmes in Baker Street instead of at St. Bart's (er, I think it was St. Bart's in the story O_o) and the first we see of Holmes is a chemical explosion behind a screen. Holmes pops up, collar undone, sleeves rolled up, and all jubilant about his sheer awesomeness. Watson is amused and impressed, at least once Holmes explains the significance of his hemoglobin test. Things are fairly normal until Watson starts to notice all the weird crap that goes on at their lodgings (eyeball in a glass of water! XD) and comes to the conclusion that not only must Holmes be a criminal, but a mastermind. Watson tells Stamford all of his suspicions in an adorable attempt at being circumspect, and is finally driven to confront Holmes. For some reason Watson chooses to challenge Holmes to a boxing match as a venue for this. Holmes, being Holmes, knocks him flat (though it does take a while) and explains that he's a consulting detective, in response to which Watson goes *facepalm*
The rest of the story isn't particularly noteworthy. Watson proclaims that Dr. Roylott is too dangerous and Holmes can't go alone, so Watson's going to go with him, which was adorably proactive if unlike canon. Another part that was unlike canon was that Watson disbelieved Helen Stoner, saying that "you should never trust what a son says about his stepmother or what a daughter says about her stepfather." Riiiight O_o
The only other point of interest in this movie is the end, where Holmes says he has two tickets to the Magic Flute. Watson promptly starts singing the music from it, and they both crack up laughing.
The next movie on the DVD, based on A Study in Scarlet, is the one I liked better (which is interesting because I'm not a big fan of the plot of that story – I like it for the meeting and the interaction). It featured the Gregson & Lestrade duo, interestingly played with Gregson as the reasonable one and Lestrade as a little twerp. He's so slimy that he's pretty hilarious, though. There were several wonderful parts – Holmes examines Watson's watch, as in the story, though in this one Holmes is less obtuse about his observations' impact. When Watson says he was expecting an analysis of the watch's owner, Holmes asks "Are you sure you want me to?" There is considerably more tension here than in the later movies, in keeping with the first part of this DVD where they didn't completely trust each other yet. This is somewhat mitigated by the fact that Holmes next performs his deduction trick on a passerby, who he makes incredible observations about and then reveals that it's Mycroft. He's so amused with himself that he falls onto Watson's shoulder laughing, and Watson can't stay mad.
Another fantastic part is when Watson decides to sneak off in the middle of the night to ambush the killer, who he expects will return to the scene of the murder to retrieve the ring he dropped. Why he does this without Holmes I have no idea; he must have wanted to impress him or show him he could be a detective on his own or something. Anyway, he gets clobbered, and Holmes comes to the rescue. There are moments in most of these movies that catch me totally off guard with how intimate H&W are, and this is one of them – riding home in a cab, Holmes holds Watson with Watson's head on his chest, occasionally checking the handkerchief he has pressed to the wound on Watson's head (see my icon!). H&W from the books would never do this (at least not in public, my god!) but nevertheless you can well imagine my squee. This is in such contrast to the radio plays (in which Holmes's idea of comfort is "I heard about your bereavement. My condolences.") and the Granada series, in which Watson gets the crap beaten out of him much more seriously and all Holmes does is pat his shoulder. Those may be more accurate, but I can tell you which is more satisfying XD
This scene is also a source of very amusing dialogue. Holmes tells Watson he knew Watson was gone because he couldn't hear him snoring ("I'm afraid you do have that habit, my friend.") He also pats Watson and tells him not to lose heart, and asks how he feels, to which Watson replies "Like a complete idiot."
This movie also has the Baker Street Irregulars, who are delightful no matter where they show up. They all remove their hats like little choreographed dancers, and when a tiny one asks Holmes for a cigar, he replies "Smoking is bad for you. See how thin I am?" *makes sucked-in-cheek face* "This is because I smoke!" Seeing Watson try to herd a dozen small dirty boys out of the front hall is also not to be missed.
And speaking of Watson, the "lady" who answers their advertisement about the ring kicks him between the legs while making her escape. He just kind of falls over on the landing, but what makes this scene interesting is that when he calls for Holmes, he shouts "Sherlock!" O_o;; It was very random, and unexpected. It, at least, gives him an excuse to cling to Holmes after they attempt to chase the impostor down.
The last of the movies I have is the Charles Augustus Milverton one (called the King of Blackmailers or something like that), which was, as you can imagine, delightful. It's actually on the same DVD as The Final Problem. There was no handholding in the bits where there's handholding in the story, but there was handholding nonetheless, and it was so unexpected that I was like o_o :D!
When they're talking to Milverton at Baker Street, Watson gets all indignant about the horrible things Milverton puts people through, and he stands up and gives him a "how can you sleep at night?" sort of speech. Now, Milverton is scary and dangerous, and apparently Holmes knows this, because he reaches across the table and squeezes Watson's hand, in a "please sit back down before he kills you" gesture. (I have an icon of this as well, if you'd care to look :3) Watson's still in the middle of his speech, and he just kind of looks at Holmes's hand and trails off and sits back down XD I really wasn't expecting it, because that was a married sort of thing to do if ever I saw one. It was adorable. You know, that's how I would describe just about every interaction between Holmes and Watson in these movies – adorable.
There was one more scene that I loved, just because the interaction was so wonderful. It was another thing that surprised me – usually in adaptations of canon, even more so than in the stories themselves, Watson takes so much crap from Holmes without expressing any kind of dismay or even annoyance (David Burke's Watson gets pissy on occasion, which is nice to watch). Even in the Russian "Hound of the Baskerville," Watson didn't seem angry that Holmes had deceived him, just happy to see him and a little confused. But in "Blackmailer," the whole scene where Holmes tells Watson about his plans to break into Milverton's house is charged with tension. Before this, we see Watson attempting to case Milverton's house, and he briefly encounters Holmes in his disguise as the plumber wooing Milverton's maid. Watson is giving Holmes his report back at Baker Street, and he mentions this suspicious figure he thought might have been onto him... and Holmes collapses laughing and repeats something he had said at the time in his "randy plumber" voice. Watson just stares at him, at first in disbelief, and then with the most profound expression of hurt. Then he gets up and goes silently upstairs to his room. Holmes, meanwhile, is kind of like "?" and calls out that even worse, he's engaged to the maid now (very smooth, Holmes). Upon hearing this Watson comes out of his room and says something along the lines of "I can't believe you!" and goes back in and slams the door. He finally comes back downstairs to scold Holmes about the girl's feelings and try to persuade him not to go, like he does in the story. He didn't, unfortunately, threaten to go to Scotland Yard if Holmes didn't let him come XD But the scene was incredibly good nonetheless.
Oh, one more thing about that scene! When Watson is telling Holmes about his surveillance of Milverton's house, he starts going into "writer Watson" mode, and describing the atmosphere and grounds and surrounding wall in flowery detail. Holmes eventually goes "Watson. The wall. Just tell me about the wall." XD And Watson's like "Oh, right. Sorry." It was SO canon Watson.
