Sherlock Holmes: Incident at Victoria Falls

This is the 2nd of 2 very long TV movies/miniseries featuring two wonderful actors: Christopher Lee as Holmes and Patrick Macnee as Watson. (The following year a 3rd, "Sherlock Holmes in New York", promoted Macnee to Holmes.) Like the first, it has faults and virtues, although ultimately weighted on the side of the latter. As a side note, when shown on TV in this country, this film and its companion were each cut by about a quarter-hour.

However loosely – and it's very, very loosely – this film is related to an old Basil Rathbone film, "Terror by Night". This involves transporting a fabulous diamond, the "Star of Rhodesia", with Holmes overseeing security. "Incident at Victoria Falls" also involves a fabulous diamond, the "Star of Africa". This latter is an actual diamond, although much larger than the gem displayed in the film. That was the Cullinan Diamond, over 300 carats (well over a pound!) in the rough. The Cullinan was eventually cut in to 9 large gems and a goodly number of smaller items. These are all now part of the Crown Jewels.

The film's "Star of Africa", already cut and polished, is – like the Cullinan – going to be transported from South Africa to Britain, where it will be presented to Edward VIII. Mycroft Holmes sends his brother Sherlock to provide security with a plan involving a glass duplicate of the "Star". Yeah. You all know how this turns out: we get to play "diamond, diamond, who's got the diamond?" for the next couple of hours. But it's all in good fun, only slightly spoiled by the banality of the script – I found myself on a number of occasions saying the next highly predictable line before the character who had it. On the bright side, we only get a glimpse of Holmes wearing a deerstalker instead of being constantly treated to that particular wardrobe malfunction.

As for the rest of the cast, there are few that would be much recognized on this side of the Pond. As to characters, it will turn out that one of them is a ringer – not really a fair cop, since we're given no clue that there's anything suspicious about him or her. In the cast, several well-known historical names appear … such as King Edward (played by the estimable Joss Ackland), Lillie Langtree (played by a fine actor, Jenny Seagrove), Theodore Roosevelt (played by the well-known Claude Akins), and Gugliamo Marconi (played by an unknown, Steven Gurney).

The settings for the film are scenic, and the action usually brisk. The train trip from Capetown to Victoria Falls is a lot of fun, enlivened particularly by Claude Akins, who plays Teddy Roosevelt with appropriate and effective swagger and bluster.

The script writers may have assumed the viewer would already know of the relationship between Langtree and Edward VIII – but in any event, this fact never appears in plot or dialogue – not to mention the fact that Ms. Langtree's participation in the story contains elements entirely antithetical to her actual character.

The story takes a number of twists and turns, although Holmes's vade mecum, detection by deduction, sometimes falls by the side of the road. In this respect, the film falls short of the standard set by the great Basil Rathbone … not to mention the even greater Jeremy Brett.

Well, no film is perfect. This one is a good evening's entertainment, over 3 hours long. While the cast is generally average, Lee and Macnee give the entire film centrality and impetus. The trick here is not to mind the various little problems and go along for the ride. It's a pretty good one, especially the railroad.

Incident at Victoria Falls brings Christopher Lee already shows a slight sign of depletion, even so made an usual Sherlock performance, allied by the funny Dr. John Watson (Patrick Macnee), the screenplay is acceptable, although overlong between comings and goings, also has another element to enhance the plot, attach famous character on the story as the former US's President Theodore Roosevelt (Claude Akins) and also the legendary Marconi (Stephen Gurney), Sherlock has a mission to bring to England the huge diamond "Star of Africa" trying misleading the security and try out avoid the upcoming robbery, sadly it happens before Holmes put his bold plan on action, now the duo have try found out among dozen suspects the criminal mastermind, on a fabulous landscape at Victoria Falls, where one by one has been killed under suspicious circumstances, despite the picture is overlong had a rush conclusion, it's sounds odd, due had enough time to savour a best ending, average production!!!

Resume:

First watch: 2019 / How many: 1 / Source: DVD / Rating: 6.5

1910. At the behest of King Edward VII Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson set off for Cape Town. The Star of Africa, the largest diamond in the world, is being shipped to England and Holmes is to ensure that it reaches the King safely. In South Africa Holmes discovers that not only is a plan afoot to steal the diamond but the perpetrators are willing to resort to murder to achieve their ends.

An original Sherlock Holmes story, i.e. Not adapted from a book or short story by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, and it's a mixed bag. On the positive side we have Christopher Lee whose portrayal of Sherlock Holmes is fantastic, giving him a great sense of intelligence and gravitas. The scenery and cinematography are great too, making you feel you really are in Africa in 1910. And yes, some of the scenes were actually filmed at Victoria Falls!

The plot is reasonably interesting though this is where the problems start to come. The film clocks in at over three hours due to the myriad of sub-plots filling up the time. Some of these are needed for the main plot but some are just padding or could have been less elaborate.

The fact that the writer throws in characters like President Roosevelt and Lillie Langtry, shows just how padded some of the sub-plots are. Those particular characters didn't have to be somebody famous but the writers did it just to create a sub-plot out of their fame and for a bit of a wow factor. (Incidentally, Lillie Langtry was 57 years old in 1910 and is 30-something in the movie, so the writer didn't do their research very well).

Overall it's interesting enough to be watchable but with a more focused plot and a decent degree of editing it could have been great.

Am a huge fan of Sherlock Holmes and get a lot of enjoyment out of Arthur Conan Doyle's stories. Also love Basil Rathbone's and especially Jeremy Brett's interpretations to death. So would naturally see any Sherlock Holmes adaptation that comes my way, regardless of its reception.

Furthermore, interest in seeing early films based on Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes stories and wanting to see as many adaptations of any Sherlock Holmes stories as possible sparked my interest in seeing 'Sherlock Holmes: Incident at Victoria Falls', especially with such an interesting idea for a story.

There are better Sherlock Holmes-related films/adaptations certainly than 'Sherlock Holmes: Incident at Victoria Falls', the best of the Jeremy Brett adaptations and films of Basil Rathone fit under this category. It's not one of the worst either, it is better than all the Matt Frewer films (particularly 'The Sign of Four') and also much better than the abominable Peter Cook 'The Hound of the Baskervilles'.

'Sherlock Holmes: Incident at Victoria Falls' is not terrible certainly. The always dependable, even legendary, Christopher Lee, is excellent as Holmes, regardless of any reservations about him being too old. Patrick MacNee is both bumbling and loyal, without being too much of a buffoon or an idiot. The chemistry between them really lifts the proceedings, lots of fun and charm in it. The rest of the cast are fine, Claude Akins in particular enjoys himself as Roosevelt (yes you saw it).

Parts of the mystery are intriguing and there are a few exciting set pieces. Some of the dialogue is fun and thought-provoking. It is very nicely filmed with evocative and handsome production design.

However, 'Sherlock Holmes: Incident at Victoria Falls' does suffer from a very stodgy pace, highly indicative of the story struggling to sustain the long length of the adaptation (judging by the execution of the story it felt too long and too padded) and a far too over complicated story. The ending is one of the most convoluted and head-scratching for any Sherlock Holmes adaptation.

Too much of it feels like it goes nowhere, with some overlong scenes or shots, and too aimless, and too many elements came over as underdeveloped and vague. The music sounds like it was scored and like it belonged somewhere else altogether, it was so out of kilter with everything else. The direction is pedestrian and too many of the characters add nothing, serving more of an excuse to play fast and loose with history.

In summary, worth a one time watch but underwhelming. 5/10 Bethany Cox

Like many fans on Sherlock, I will watch just about any interpretation over some 75 years that the character has been in cinema. This is a plot loosely based on the original story. The material is elevated by Mr Lee's performance. His wry take on Holmes made it enjoyable for me.