I liked this silent Sherlock Holmes film for many reasons and feel is it significantly better than the much more famous (but pretty terrible) silent Holmes film starring John Barrymore (which was not the least bit accurate in its portrayal of the fictional detective). The most important reason I liked the film is that it's actually based on a Conan Doyle story and it sticks pretty close to it. While the Basil Rathbone films were popular, for example, the plots bore almost no similarity to the original stories. Second, the characters were amazingly normal and underplayed in the film. You DON'T see Holmes acting like an action hero or wearing the Deerstalker hat (something he DIDN'T wear in the stories except when traveling--which was pretty seldom). Third, it was an interesting Conan Doyle story to begin with and made for a very different film. Overall, it's quite entertaining--especially, if like me, you enjoy silent films and long for a silent about Holmes that doesn't totally suck--like the Barrymore version!
