Eille Norwood's Sherlock Holmes
Posted: Thu Jan 07, 2010 6:54 pm
Does anyone have any information about the commercial availability of Eille Norwood's Holmes films? The recently released DVD set Sherlock Holmes: The Archive Collection has Norwood's version of The Man With The Twisted Lip (1921), and Grapevine Video has available a public domain disc that has Lip and The Dying Detective(1921) and The Devil's Foot (1921). I will be ordering the latter this week.
But these are hardly all that is left--miraculously, nearly all of Norwood's films appear to have survived. Norwood played Holmes more times than anyone else onscreen, and, according to FIAF's 2003 Treasures disc, the BFI has the following titles in their vaults, all adaptations of Doyle's original stories:
His Last Bow (1923)
Silver Blaze (1923)
The Blue Carbuncle (1923)
The Cardboard Box (1923)
The Crooked Man (1923)
The Disappearance of Lady Frances Carfax (1923)
The Engineer's Thumb (1923)
The Final Problem (1923)
The Gloria Scott (1923)
The Missing Three Quarter (1923)
The Mystery of Thor Bridge (1923)
The Sign of Four (1923)
The Speckled Band (1923)
The Stone of Mazarin (1923)
The Three Students (1923)
Black Peter (1922)
Charles Augustus Milverton (1922)
The Abbey Grange (1922)
The Boscombe Valley Mystery (1922)
The Bruce Partington Plans (1922)
The Red Circle (1922)
The Golden Pince-Nez (1922)
The Greek Interpreter (1922)
The Musgrave Ritual (1922)
The Naval Treaty (1922)
The Norwood Builder (1922)
The Red Circle (1922)
The Reigate Squires (1922)
The Second Stain (1922)
The Six Napoleons (1922)
The Stockbroker's Clerk (1922)
A Case of Identity (1921)
A Scandal in Bohemia (1921)
The Beryl Coronet (1921)
The Copper Beeches (1921)
The Empty House (1921)
The Noble Bachelor (1921)
The Priory School (1921)
The Red-Headed League (1921)
The Resident Patient (1921)
The Solitary Cyclist (1921)
The Tiger of San Pedro (1921) (An adaptation of Doyle's "Wisteria Lodge")
The Yellow Face (1921)
The Hound of the Baskervilles (1921)
Several of these films are adaptations of stories that may have never been adapted before or since for film and TV, including "The Engineer's Thumb," "The Gloria Scott," "The Missing Three Quarter," "The Three Students," "Black Peter," "The Reigate Squires," "The Stockbroker's Clerk," "A Case of Identity," "The Beryl Coronet" and "The Yellow Face." I'm especially eager to see the last one, whose conclusion has been called one of the noblest in English literature.
I don't know how many of the Norwood films held by the BFI are complete or what condition they're in, but surely these films are worth further investigation and deserve release on DVD, all the more so since Norwood was the first great Sherlock Holmes of the screen. We do know that The Sign of Four is complete and in good shape, since it was publicly screened this year at Le Giornate del Cinema Muto. Here are the excellent program notes, written by Jay Weissberg:
So while changes were made and extra action was added to the original, they were mostly at the service of streamlining and enhancing Doyle's story and remain true to its spirit. Especially revealing are Doyle's praise of Norwood and his only complaint, about the 1920s anachronisms. This negates the idea bandied about by those who think Doyle didn't care about how his character was handled--when Doyle saw that faithful adaptations of his stories were possible he became concerned with their veracity. Anyway, I'll move on and conclude by noting that Norwood's version of "The Final Problem" is also complete and in good shape, since it was also screened this year in Italy. Here are excerpts from Mr. Weissberg's notes:
But these are hardly all that is left--miraculously, nearly all of Norwood's films appear to have survived. Norwood played Holmes more times than anyone else onscreen, and, according to FIAF's 2003 Treasures disc, the BFI has the following titles in their vaults, all adaptations of Doyle's original stories:
His Last Bow (1923)
Silver Blaze (1923)
The Blue Carbuncle (1923)
The Cardboard Box (1923)
The Crooked Man (1923)
The Disappearance of Lady Frances Carfax (1923)
The Engineer's Thumb (1923)
The Final Problem (1923)
The Gloria Scott (1923)
The Missing Three Quarter (1923)
The Mystery of Thor Bridge (1923)
The Sign of Four (1923)
The Speckled Band (1923)
The Stone of Mazarin (1923)
The Three Students (1923)
Black Peter (1922)
Charles Augustus Milverton (1922)
The Abbey Grange (1922)
The Boscombe Valley Mystery (1922)
The Bruce Partington Plans (1922)
The Red Circle (1922)
The Golden Pince-Nez (1922)
The Greek Interpreter (1922)
The Musgrave Ritual (1922)
The Naval Treaty (1922)
The Norwood Builder (1922)
The Red Circle (1922)
The Reigate Squires (1922)
The Second Stain (1922)
The Six Napoleons (1922)
The Stockbroker's Clerk (1922)
A Case of Identity (1921)
A Scandal in Bohemia (1921)
The Beryl Coronet (1921)
The Copper Beeches (1921)
The Empty House (1921)
The Noble Bachelor (1921)
The Priory School (1921)
The Red-Headed League (1921)
The Resident Patient (1921)
The Solitary Cyclist (1921)
The Tiger of San Pedro (1921) (An adaptation of Doyle's "Wisteria Lodge")
The Yellow Face (1921)
The Hound of the Baskervilles (1921)
Several of these films are adaptations of stories that may have never been adapted before or since for film and TV, including "The Engineer's Thumb," "The Gloria Scott," "The Missing Three Quarter," "The Three Students," "Black Peter," "The Reigate Squires," "The Stockbroker's Clerk," "A Case of Identity," "The Beryl Coronet" and "The Yellow Face." I'm especially eager to see the last one, whose conclusion has been called one of the noblest in English literature.
I don't know how many of the Norwood films held by the BFI are complete or what condition they're in, but surely these films are worth further investigation and deserve release on DVD, all the more so since Norwood was the first great Sherlock Holmes of the screen. We do know that The Sign of Four is complete and in good shape, since it was publicly screened this year at Le Giornate del Cinema Muto. Here are the excellent program notes, written by Jay Weissberg:
Arguably the best of the surviving Sherlock Holmes silent features, The Sign of Four shows off the Stoll Film Company’s capacity for producing high-budget dramas with visual flair, in contrast to their posthumous reputation for stolidly conceived literary adaptations. The film is also an excellent example of Maurice Elvey’s skills not just as director but writer, reworking the Conan Doyle novel in a way especially sensitive to cinematic narration. Variety’s critic Gore heaped praise, enthusing, “This new Stoll picture…is one of the best screen melodramas this firm has made. Keeping well to Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s story, the film runs smoothly and is full of grip and thrill. Maurice Elvey has seized every opportunity the story gives and the result is a ‘Sherlock Holmes’ story which is fine entertainment of the strong, sensational type.”
Elvey first tackled the Holmes tales with the 1921 series The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes and, in the same year, the feature The Hound of the Baskervilles. In line with Stoll’s shrewd policy of tie-ins, The Sign of Four was released to coincide with the final episodes of The Last Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, Stoll’s follow-up series directed by George Ridgwell. While Elvey doesn’t stick quite as close to the original as Gore implies, he’s nevertheless faithful to the spirit of the book, capturing a lightness of tone often absent in earlier film adaptations. This is true not simply for Holmes himself (more on that below), but for the general tone, conveyed through often wry intertitles which occasionally spill into distinctly non-Conan Doyle territory.
The film is well-paced and beautifully edited, not merely in the famous chase sequence on the Thames. While Conan Doyle wraps up his narration with an extended flashback that puts all the characters in place, Elvey minimizes the traditional flashback structure (there are a few scattered about), integrating the strands and choosing a superimposition device that keeps the action moving forward while explaining Holmes’ logic. Gore was so taken by this method that he singles it out for praise: “Another effective innovation is when the detective is explaining things to his friend Watson, the explanation aided by ‘ghost’ effects instead of the usual irritating ‘flash backs’. Some new camera effects are also used for the first time, including a great improvement on the usual ‘fade out.’”
One of the key results of the superimposition device is that it enables the audience to clearly follow Holmes’ line of reasoning while keeping the focus on the great man himself, furthering the identification with the character that’s such a vital element of the stories. The reader/viewer is encouraged to think they too can be master sleuths, provided they cultivate the necessary qualities as spelled out in the novel of The Sign of Four: observation, deduction, and knowledge. Watson makes this link explicit by asking himself “What would Holmes do?”, prompting the viewer to mentally answer back in the style of their idol, while Elvey furthers the pact between Holmes and his audience of would-be detectives by having Holmes turn to the camera and exclaim, via an underlined intertitle, “This is going to be exciting.”
And exciting it is, culminating in a thrilling pursuit on the Thames. Elvey slightly changes the original by adding a car chase (Conan Doyle complained in his memoirs about such updates), though the extratextual modification is organically integrated and allows the director to indulge in even more London sightseeing than would strictly be possible via the river. It’s worth quoting Elvey’s description of the shoot:
“Twenty-nine separate days, spread over a period of some weeks, were occupied in obtaining ideal effects… The screen does not reveal the difficulties under which we worked, nor does it indicate the material used in obtaining what I required. Though only one yacht and four launches appear in the picture, seven yachts were requisitioned. The Thames is a tidal river, and the varying times of the tides and the varying speed and roughness of the water rendered taking difficult. Particularly did we discover the latter fact when using the light motor racing boats, brought in from Monte Carlo for the purpose. Heavy seas were often running in the lower reaches, but patience was eventually rewarded.”
In her work on Stoll, Nathalie Morris discusses Elvey’s emulation of American methods, partly necessitated by the company’s desire to stoke an ever-increasing U.S. demand for Sherlock Holmes product in a style considered most sellable in the States. There’s something of an irony here, considering Stoll’s foundation in 1918 as a company created to present “British films by British producers, breathing the British spirit”, but as Morris states, Stoll’s methods were to promote Britishness via American models, initially through marketing strategies and production methods but occasionally, as with The Sign of Four, even emulating a certain perceived U.S. studio style. Elvey himself temporarily moved to America, and Fox, one year later.
With 45 series episodes and two features (plus stage adaptations), the star Eille Norwood became as identified with Holmes as William Gillette, and though it’s now impossible to make comparisons, Norwood certainly feels right. Conan Doyle himself was delighted with the actor, stating in his memoirs: “He has that rare quality that can only be described as glamour, which compels you to watch an actor eagerly even when he is doing nothing. He has the brooding eye which excites expectation and has also a quite unrivalled power of disguise.” Here in The Sign of Four he also enjoys Holmes’ dry wit, revealing an almost pixieish humor that makes the outwardly strict man of science so appealing. One major change in casting from the previous Stoll incarnations was Arthur Cullin as Watson, considered a more plausible romantic partner(!!) for the comely Isobel Elsom (then married to Elvey) than their regular Watson, Hubert Willis. Cullin was no stranger to the role, essaying Holmes’ right-hand man in Samuelson’s 1916 The Valley of Fear, opposite H.A. Saintsbury.
So while changes were made and extra action was added to the original, they were mostly at the service of streamlining and enhancing Doyle's story and remain true to its spirit. Especially revealing are Doyle's praise of Norwood and his only complaint, about the 1920s anachronisms. This negates the idea bandied about by those who think Doyle didn't care about how his character was handled--when Doyle saw that faithful adaptations of his stories were possible he became concerned with their veracity. Anyway, I'll move on and conclude by noting that Norwood's version of "The Final Problem" is also complete and in good shape, since it was also screened this year in Italy. Here are excerpts from Mr. Weissberg's notes:
The tone of The Final Problem sets it apart from all other episodes in Stoll’s three Sherlock Holmes series. From the very opening there’s an urgency, a desperation in Eille Norwood’s Holmes that comes as something of a shock after his usual masterful calm, or playful excitement. Unusually for Norwood, known for being a stickler for the original text, he increases the character’s exterior tension, conveying a sense of dread from the very start of the tale even though the finale is already well known. Before now no one had dared film the emotional story climaxing with the death of the world’s most popular detective, and not until Granada Television’s 1985 episode in their series The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes did anyone take up the challenge again...
...Audiences in 1923 naturally knew their beloved hero wasn’t really dead, but even so his fall at the end of The Final Problem generates a powerful emotional tug. It’s a tribute to Conan Doyle’s economy of style that it takes a shorter time to read the story than watch the film, though the latter certainly doesn’t drag. The scriptwriters made a number of changes from the original, turning Watson into an eyewitness to all events and including a scene of the police rounding up Professor Moriarty’s gang, but most noticeable is a change of setting: Stoll couldn’t very well send a film crew to Reichenbach Falls, so they moved Holmes’ demise to the cliffs at Cheddar Gorge, which George Ridgwell makes suitably dramatic. The Final Problem marked not only the master detective’s demise, but the end of the three series by Stoll. As saddened as audiences must have been, there was a nice consolation: The Sign of Four would be released just a few months later.
It was, IMO, a real dog of a picture.