Part of Australia’s Silent Film Festival at the State Library of NSW it was standing room only for the Australian premiere of the restored SHERLOCK HOLMES starring William Gillette. Our accompanist was the accomplished Mauro Colombis.
This film was long considered regrettably lost until the magical discovery and identification of a complete duplicate negative in the vaults of La Cinematheque Francaise last year. Great news! It has been a major ‘missing link’ in the history of Sherlock Holmes on screen. Produced at Essenay Studios in 1916 ( so , the middle of World War 1), Gillette at the time was regarded as the foremost interpreter of Holmes on stage, having played him approximately 1, 300 times since his 1899 debut. Gillette was a forerunner of some of our other favourite Holmes for example Rathbone, Barrymore, Brett and now Cumberbatch. This newly restored version, thanks to the work of Flicker Alley, the San Francisco Silent Film Festival and the La Cinematheque Francaise, is the only surviving appearance of Gillette as Holmes on film. The original film was a nine-reel feature and, when it was released in Europe, it was reissued as a four-part serial, each part having its own title.
In the tradition of serials each chapter is begun with a quick rewind of the previous week’s events. It is a screen adaptation of the play that Gillette wrote himself, interweaving snippets of Conan Doyle Sherlock Holmes stories including A Scandal in Bohemia and The Final Problem, with stolen letters, blackmail, secret hiding places and dastardly villains conning beautiful innocent young women.
Iconic famous set scenes include Holmes’ tensely dramatic confrontation with Professor Moriarty, the escape from the Stepney Gas Chamber and the various detailed tour-de-force deductions and searches for clues that Holmes makes. The actors playing Watson, the evil Madge Larrabee, the safecracker Sid Prince, Billy the page, and Forman (Holmes’s secret agent), all came from the Broadway company.
In some ways the film is a Victorian melodrama and extremely corny at certain points but overall it is enormously impressive.
The setting for 221 Baker Street (their home) is fabulously atmospheric and cluttered and Moriarty’s office is quite impressive with its state-of-the art gadgets for the time. Gilette as Holmes , with his famous hawklike profile, is magnificent in a superb, commanding and finely nuanced performance. (It was Gillette who first wore the iconic deerstalker).
He is shown as a tall, elegant, wealthy , upper class Holmes ,with his plush smoking jacket, his spats, cutaway and waistcoat and dressing gown. When he surreptitiously examines the Larrabees’ safe and piano for hidden important clues, he reveals an extraordinary delicacy of touch also evident in the way he handles cigars, revolver or test tubes (or violin). He was also famous for his calm inscrutability.
He lives almost in a world of his own – Dr Watson, Billy the Page, Mrs Hudson etc seem to be quite unimportant to his reflected genius. (Edward Fielding as Dr Watson gives a tremendous performance, one wanted to see more of his involvement).
Ernest Maupain, the French actor portraying Professor Moriarty, from the Sarah Bernhardt Company,does not really look like the Paget illustrations or as described by Doyle but gives a splendid performance as a monomaniacal villain. He is still referred to as Professor but has no real links with academia as such. He is an eerie, commanding spider like villain in his lair, an archetypical evil Genius who manages to elude Holmes.
Mario Majeroni as James Larrabee is a traditional handsome mustache-twirling melodrama villain. Grace Reals as Madge Larrabee was also suitably wicked and conniving. Marjorie Kay as our sweet heroine Alice Faulkner with her huge expressive eyes was fabulous and the costumes were stunning! The police are almost like the chorus of police in The Pirates of Penzance.
A great time was had by all.
Special mention must be made of the Sydney Passengers – the Sydney Sherlock Holmes Society – of which several members attended and there were some great discussions afterwards.
The restored version of William Gillette as Sherlock Holmes screened as part of the Silent Film Festival at the State Library on Sunday 29th November 2015. Running time 2 hours ( approx ) no interval.