On paper, SHERLOCK HOLMES AND THE DEADLY NECKLACE (1962, West Germany, original title Sherlock Holmes und das Halsband des Todes) sounds like a perfect film. It's an entry in the krimi genre, films I normally love; it stars the great Christopher Lee as Holmes and Thorley Walters as the dependable Watson; Hammer's main man Terence Fisher directs; the script is by none other than Curt Siodmak, who wrote many of the Universal classics of the 1940s like THE WOLFMAN and SON OF DRACULA. What could possibly go wrong with this combination?
Plenty, as it happens. This film is nothing more than a turgid potboiler, an overly talky enterprise in which nothing much of interest happens from beginning to end. Holmes puts on a few disguises, a couple of murders take place, and there's a general hunt for Professor Moriarty (annoyingly pronounced Moriarity in the English version) but it's all very laidback, genteel and more than a little dull. The film is weirdly anachronistic - Watson has his own car here but the police have never heard of fingerprinting - and most unforgiveably of all, Lee himself is dubbed by somebody else in the English version! It's a hard film to sit and remain awake through, let alone enjoy.
Plenty, as it happens. This film is nothing more than a turgid potboiler, an overly talky enterprise in which nothing much of interest happens from beginning to end. Holmes puts on a few disguises, a couple of murders take place, and there's a general hunt for Professor Moriarty (annoyingly pronounced Moriarity in the English version) but it's all very laidback, genteel and more than a little dull. The film is weirdly anachronistic - Watson has his own car here but the police have never heard of fingerprinting - and most unforgiveably of all, Lee himself is dubbed by somebody else in the English version! It's a hard film to sit and remain awake through, let alone enjoy.