Sherlock Holmes: The Man Who Disappeared

Apparently, this short film was intended as a pilot episode for Sherlock Holmes TV series that was never bought. And, while the film seems competent enough in how it looks and sounds, the story is a mess--and fans of Conan Doyle will most likely pick up on this.

"The Man Who Disappeared" is based on the great Conan Doyle story, "The Man With the Twisted Lip". This original story, in my opinion, is one of the best stories among the many Conan Doyle stories. It is perfect or at least near-perfect. So, you wonder who was the idiot who thought to radically change the story?! Instead, the 'improvements' serve to make the story a lot LESS interesting. Plus, it seems to be very nervy to change the story--and to this great a degree. Surely Doyle would NOT have approved of this bastardization and it the new story didn't make a lot of sense.

Overall, the film is competent but undistinguished as far as the acting and direction go, but the story is very weak. It's really mostly of interest to Holmesophiles (cool word, huh?).

This film of "The Man with the Twisted Lip" was originally intended as the pilot for a series of Sherlock Holmes adventures for British television, but that was not to be. This sample is done generally competently, but it is still not difficult to imagine why more were not made.

The adaptation is fairly workmanlike and adequate, but deviates from the original story in ways that seem to contribute nothing and actually defuse some of the drama. In fact, despite the fact that the story has been made to fit a twenty-five minute running time, this production still seems to drag and move rather slowly. Most of the actors deliver their lines is a fairly uniformly stiff, uninterested manner that doesn't make things very interesting.

John Longden plays Sherlock Holmes, in a time when he would have been directly in the shadow of the famous Basil Rathbone. Longden does a pretty good job with the role, contrasting to Rathbone with a kind of still force, but that stillness only seems to add to the general feel of stagnation in "The Man Who Disappeared."

That said, the production is carried off with a certain style, with plenty of attractive location scenes. It just mainly seems to have no sense or urgency or drive.

Sherlock Holmes: The Man Who Disappeared from 1951 was a pilot episode for a TV series that didn't happen.

The Conan Doyle story gets the treatment nowadays approved by the Agatha Christie estate - pay the money, keep the title, and change anything you want.

In the beginning of the episode, a woman (Beryl Baxter) tells Hector Ross (Neville St. Clair) that he is wanted by someone - it sounds like he's being forced to do something and hasn't any choice but to comply.

Later, in Holmes' quarters, Mrs. Ross comes to report her husband as missing.

John Longren plays a balding Holmes - which doesn't matter because he wears the deerstalker cap with matching cape most of the time. He had a speaking voice similar to George Sanders - very appropriate. This Holmes, however, is different, as he breaks and enters and knocks people down the stairs.

My only question is, how dumb was he, since I had this figured out a good ten minutes or more before Holmes did.

A disappointment.

John Longden appears as Sherlock Holmes, Campbell Singer as Doctor Watson, in this three-reel version of Conan Doyle's THE MAN WITH THE TWISTED LIP.

Given all the short Sherlock Holmes stories that Doyle wrote, it was a natural source for a television series, and this was produced as a pilot for a proposed series. It was not successful, and instead the pilot was released to the theaters as a short subject.

It's a nice pilot, and the reasons for its failure are obscure three-quarters of a century later. One possibility is the location work, which must have added enormously to its cost. There's little to complain about the actual movie, which is a good version of the tale.

It's obvious that a 26 minute B-feature is not going to do justice to a Sherlock Holmes story. I was intrigued at this attempt to energize the story of 'The Man With The Twisted Lip.' Those ideas did indeed have possibilities but they were never going to work in such an abbreviated form like this. So I will just stick to the positives that I found.

While the studio shots were terrible I did enjoy the location shots. Particularly atmospheric is when Holmes trails the beggar through a cemetery to a place by the river. It does all look very dingy but with the imposing Tower Bridge in the background that makes the scene look so good. The place that the beggar has led Holmes is the Bar of Gold opium den.

I thought that Campbell Singer was expressive as Dr Watson. Mystery fans will know him from lots of TV episodes particularly 'The Saint' and 'The Avengers.' He manages a similarity to Nigel Bruce's Dr Watson by fooling around a bit. A funny moment is when he dons Holmes' deerstalker and does an impression of him.

I was not impressed by John Longden as Holmes. So I'll just keep Campbell Singer and the location shots in my memory whenever I look back on this.