The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes (1970) A European film on paper with a virtually all British cast and written and directed by Billy Wilder and filmed in the UK but it's very much a Hollywood studio product which means it comes with a large dollop of hokum in this case the premise that Holmes is not gay and beneath the crusty exterior of a misogynists beats a heart just ripe for plucking by the right gal. The first 25 minutes or so first lay the ground work by demolishing any notion that Holmes and Watson have a thing: Holmes is offered a Strad violin to make a baby with a Russian ballerina in a post performance visit to her dressing room and he first demurs with the excuse he is English but when this doesn't do it he plays the homo card and rings in Watson. Meantime, Watson is backstage doing the can-can with a bevy of beauteous dancers and when word is passed the girls drop off one by one and are replaced by male dancers throwing Watson into a tantrum as he screeches his denials. So the scene is played for yucks and homos are always good for a laugh in the Hollywood of the period. It's not about PC it just wasn't funny and was irrelevant to the story that follows. But it does introduce Watson as a stooge and fall guy for Holmes and in fact he does several pratfalls, that is when he's not screeching at Holmes for something or other. So the story finally begins with a beautiful woman that Holmes must travel to Scotland with as husband and wife for security and at the end when she disappears he is suitably stricken. A lot of other stuff happens that's all good clean fun Hollywood style and done with great craftsmanship and flair but it's the old kid's stuff that you've seen over and over.
Review of The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes
