University of Virginia Library

A New Look At Sherlock Holmes

By Steve Grimwood
Cavalier Daily Staff Writer

Sherlock Holmes was an
oft-bored genius with effeminate
gestures and features, a high voice
that occasionally cracked, a
mysterious attitude toward the
opposite sex, and a habitual user of
cocaine.

Such is the character that Billy
Wilder builds in his film. "The
Private Life of Sherlock Holmes."
But the development of Holmes is
obscure at times, obvious at others,
and muddled at best.

The film is divided into two
distinct parts. The first forty-five
minutes consist of "the private life"
of Holmes: the worried mother
versus prodigal child relationship of
Watson and Holmes, the extreme
boredom a man of genius suffers
when his mind is idle, the inevitable
turn toward drugs.

Finally, the case arrives in the
shape of a beautiful girl with
amnesia. Jumping from canaries in
an abandoned store to the shores of
Loch Ness, the mystery is well
built. The action, though, is very
reminiscent of "The Wild, Wild
West" television series, but with a
British accent. This deprives the
story of any traces of Conan Doyle.

But it does give Wilder a chance
to explore the inner workings of
Holmes just a bit more, because
Holmes loses the case. He is duped
by the beautiful girl with whom he
had been seemingly infatuated.

At the end of the film, he
receives word that the girl has been
killed. He stands silent for a
moment, then ends the film just as
he began it — sitting in his study
shooting up coke.

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