The Man with the Twisted Lip

Fellow Agatha Christie fans may agree with me, when I say I see parallels between this outing for Holmes and Watson, and Poirot's 'The disappearance of Mr Davenheim.' Lots of parallels between the two.

I am a fan of this episode, I really like the story, it darkens as it deepens. Also there was an energy, an exuberance in these early episodes, it's slick and fast paced. Great performances all round, from the supporting cast, Eleanor David and Clive Francis are on fine form. Francis steals it.

As always the production values are sublime, the costumes and sets, even the opening credits, the music player being robbed etc. There is a depressingly grim realism about the scenes in the opium den, the accompanying music works well, so dark.

The Man with the Twisted Lip is a scholarly beggar earning a good living in the city of London. Even Holmes has come across him several times.

The story begin with Dr Watson going to an opium den to find an errant husband only to bump into Holmes who is in disguise in the same drug den. He is also looking for altogether another missing husband. Neville St Clair, a genteel respectable businessman in the city whose wife spotted him in this very drug den a few days earlier.

Holmes fears that St Clair is dead and the police think that the scholarly beggar is the prime suspect.

Unfortunately this is an adaptation that does not leap out from the page to the screen. It seemed laboured and slow. It saddens me to say that I expected more from the legendary Alan Plater.

This was a difficult short story to portray on the screen without giving much of the twist away. It was still easy to work out.

I can't explain the idea behind The Man With The Twisted Lip since that in itself would give the whole thing away. I only wish the story had been better developed as the idea was an original one.

Jeremy Brett and Edward Hardwicke as the intrepid Holmes and Watson are called in on a missing persons case in which foul play is suspected. More than suspected because the woman who requested aid from Holmes and Watson actually saw her husband from the second story of an opium den in a seamy part of London. But by the time she got up there, he was gone and articles of clothes were later found in the Thames.

A rather scholarly beggar is arrested for the crime of murder, but it all doesn't add up. In other words it all isn't quite so elementary, even Dr. Watson is suspicious.

Eleanor David is the woman who hires Holmes and Clive Francis has an interesting role as the beggar with a knowledge of the classics.

I think Sir Arthur Conan Doyle had the kernel of a good idea, but he didn't develop it all that well. Still Baker Street purists will like it.

There are a number of really excellent episodes in the first two series of Granada's mostly excellent Sherlock Holmes adaptations , but for me this episode is one of the best of the best.

I honestly can't fault it, from the writing to the acting to the direction and haunting score.

It's absolutely perfect.

I saw all of the various Sherlock Holmes starring Jeremy Brett when they first came to American television. However, these came to us thirty or more years ago and since I loved them so much, I decided to rewatch them. Despite having seen them before and having read the stories (also long ago), I find that often the mystery seems new to me. Occasionally, I see one which I remember well...and "The Man With the Twisted Lip" is very memorable...so memorable that the mystery is hardly a mystery. But if you've never seen it, it's a very good episode.

A respectable woman somehow finds herself in a most disreputable part of London....and it's filled with thieves, opium dens and 'professional woman'. SO imagine her surprise when she sees her husband in an upstairs window of one of these grubby apartments. She tries to get inside to see him but is prevented by the owner. Thinking her husband is in trouble, she seeks the police. At first, they think she's either mistaken or a nut...but there ARE clues that he was there but the police seem powerless since no one will talk...not the owner nor the nasty looking beggar with the twisted lip. So, she enlists the help of Holmes...who goes undercover to find the man...if he's still alive.

This is one that is very well written and entertaining...even if the mystery seems easier than normal to deduce. Well worth seeing and a most unusual mystery.