The Six Napoleons

The Six Napoleans is one of the best known Sherlock Holmes stories, possibly because it is an exquisitely clever work. It has been made many times, and this, by far and away is the best version. The acting is sublime, particularly the serious performance by Eric Sykes, who shines through, not just a comic actor. The Italian side of the story is fantastic, adding a wonderful tone of theatre and drama, it adds to the story. I've read it many times, and in my mind's eye, this is exactly how I picture it. I love the touches of humour throughout, there is a great mixture of humour and drama. I love the scene where Holmes, Watson and Lestrade are waiting to catch the killer, it is very humorous. I love the whole idea of the black Borgia pearl too, such a great story.

Wonderfully theatrical, the quintessential version. 9/10

The Six Napoleons is easily one of the best of "The Return of Sherlock Holmes" series, and one I have seen five times over the past three weeks, finding something new to love and admire every time. For instance if you love Holmes, Watson and Lestrade together you are in heaven as their scenes in The Six Napoleons are the best and funniest of the entire series especially the humbug exchange, the build up to the final denouncement and the scene where Lestrade shares his theory about the busts smashing. The story may not be the most interesting in hindsight, but what is done with the story here is what makes the episode so remarkable. The Six Napoleons is well paced, suspenseful, funny, exciting and always compelling, while there are some absolutely brilliant episodes other than this one not many have all five of those qualities and so well in the way The Six Napoleons has. Once again, it is superbly made, evocative in atmosphere and meticulous in detail. The music is hauntingly beautiful, and the writing is droll and intelligent. Jeremy Brett, Edward Hardwicke and Colin Jeavons couldn't have been more perfect as Holmes, Watson and Lestrade, Brett is commanding, Hardwicke is composed and quietly intelligent and Jeavons is a comic joy(his Chiswick explanation is yet another little thing I loved about the episode) and gives perhaps his best performance of the episodes he starred in. The supporting cast also give good performances, in Jeffrey Gardiner's case as Sandeford, great. Overall, such a fun episode. 10/10 Bethany Cox

This is a fine episode in which the oft dim-witted Lestrade gives us a rare glimpse of his and the police's admiration of and cooperation with the master sleuth. In response, Holmes demonstrates, in a momentary but wholly rewarding scene, how this unaffected, genuine praise deeply moves him.

It is an illustration of Mr. Brett's particular talent of how, within a few seconds of barely perceptible eye and facial transformations, he is able to convey the degree to which the respect of the police touches him as if he has longed for the acknowledgment. Just as briefly, Brett switches back to the colder, ruder Holmes. I replayed the scene over and over to fully capture an accomplished thespian showing us how it's done.

What does a murder on a journalist's front steps have to do with the destruction of busts of the Emperor Napoleon? Lestrade is baffled, as usual, but Sherlock Holmes is determined to get to the inside information, so to speak.

In this dramatization of one of my favorite ACD stories, Jeremy Brett is the consummate Holmes, before his untimely decline. I'd rather have seen the Burke/Watson in this whimsical tale but the Hardwicke/Watson is as solid as usual. I particularly like Watson's pally relationship with Lestrade.

We forget, in the shadows of Brett and Burke/Hardwicke, Colin Jeavons also redefined Lestrade with his precision of speech and the fact that he's not the buffoon usually portrayed. It's just that he's not Holmes' intellectual equal (nor even Watson's).

Bit the light-hearted pursuit of the destroyer of busts, with its marvelously funny conclusion, is ruined by the addition of superfluous material included to make the adaptation darker.

Part of this is ACD's fault. His original story produces a rabbit from a hat at the end with no foreshadowing. This is hardly fair play for a mystery. I suppose the writer(s) who produced this drek also supposed murder should have its down side.

Those parts of this episode that depict the ACD story as written are superb, with a good part for Eric Sykes. The rest, I fear, is only worth fast forwarding through. I invariably go through this episode in about half its running time by skipping the garbage.

The episode does contain one of my favorite scenes in the second series, with Holmes, Watson and Lestrade sitting around of an evening. Without the extraneous background material it would have been my favorite episode.

Holmes' conclusion to the case is still a pure delight. They should have stopped the show with Lestrade's speech. Instead, they went on. Too bad. What a waste.

I can hardly believe it. I actually guessed where the end solution was going before Holmes announced it to Watson and Lestrade, suspecting all along the reason for the smashing of the six Napoleons.

All the proper atmosphere is here, and of course the acting is top notch. Particularly enjoyable in this episode is the relationship between Lestrade and Holmes, each playing cat-and-mouse games with each other with Holmes always coming out ahead.

The back story is interesting too--all the mayhem that was involved before the Napoleons began being smashed. Jeremy Brett seems to be enjoying himself immensely as the great detective.

I wonder how Sir Arthur Conan Doyle would feel about his works being done on this TV series.