Holmes, Sherlock Holmes

In 1976, married not a year, my wife and I settled down to watch the made-for-TV movie Sherlock Holmes in New York on our small screen black and white television. Featuring Roger Moore, Patrick McNee, and John Houston (as Moriarty), how bad could it be?

Pretty bad, I later thought!

I’ve always cringed when I thought of that movie, which was cranked out during the Holmes explosion of the 1970's while Moore was just beginning his long run as James Bond. Somewhere along the line I acquired a copy of the paperback novelization, but I never bothered to read it.

But recently I saw it again, for the first time in more than 40 years, during the annual film Sherlock Holmes festival sponsored by the Illustrious Clients of Indianapolis at the Zionsville Public Library. I was in for a huge surprise – it wasn’t that bad!

To be sure, much of the dialogue is groan-worthy, Roger Moore’s false sideburns look strange, and the sets would embarrass a community theater production. But on the other side of the ledger, the plot is clever, John Houston is always fun to watch, and the scriptwriter threw in a basketful of Easter eggs for fans not only of Sherlock Holmes, but of Nero Wolfe as well.

The bottom line is that Sherlock Holmes in New York is campy fun.

And by the way, so was the episode of “Gilligan’s Island” also included on the program. You haven’t lived until you’ve been in an audience of Sherlockians spontaneously bursting into “Just sit right back and you’ll hear a tale . . .”