The
Sherlock Holmes Vault Collection
(1900 - 1937/Film Detective Blu-ray Box Set)
Picture:
C+ Sound: C+ Extras: B Films: B-
Before
the arrival of spies, superheroes and loud action films, the two most
successful and most filmed heroes on screen from the silent era to
early sound era of world cinema were Tarzan and Sherlock Holmes.
Eventually having a key actor become the definitive player of that
role for big Hollywood Studios (Johnny Weissmuller for MGM, Basil
Rathbone for 20th, then Universal,) many other actors before and
since gave it a good go and some did better than might be remembered.
In
the 1930s, two British actors had success in the role in films that
are special and free of the many post-Rathbone series films in that
they do not have to reference them, compete against them or overcome
their shadow. Arthur Wootner made five Holmes films, while Reginald
Owen, after a film playing Watson, played Holmes as well. Owen's
sole Holmes film and three of Wootner's have been collected in a
loaded new box set from the great label Film Detective that
confidentially calls itself The
Sherlock Holmes Vault Collection.
These films are much talked about by fans, but rarely seen. This
set should finally help change that.
The
Owen and one of the Wootner films were issued on DVD back in at least
2005 (reviewed elsewhere on this site)
and WOW did they look bad, but I said this about them:
''Silver
Blaze
(aka Murder
At The Baskervilles,
but not a [direct] film of The
Hounds Of The Baskervilles
book) has Arthur Wootner as Holmes in the final of five films he did
as the character, while A
Study In Scarlet
[rich red-headed members of a club start getting killed off] has
one-time Dr. Watson Reginald Owen as Holmes. Wootner is more
successful than Owen, who seems awkward in the role. Both make for
interesting comparisons to Rathbone and what might have been. The
problem is that they are not as clear or direct as Rathbone, whose
theatricality, voice, statue and snap succeed where they failed.
Some of each film feels a bit more British by comparison to the
Hollywood product, but they just do not make it.''
I
vaguely remembered if I saw then before, but they did not stick with
me much since, though I still remember them feeling more British than
even the Rathbone films and since then, far superior to the extremely
commercially successful Robert Downey, Jr. films which I am no fan of
despite the talent involved.
Seeing
more of the Wootner work, I can see why he was the most successful
until Rathbone and that he did pull off a better job of playing the
character than I could gather from that single film copy. Better
than Jeremy Brett too, who is a fine actor, but I never bought him as
Holmes.
The
three Wootner films here are Sherlock
Holmes' Fatal Hour
(1931, aka The
Sleeping Cardinal,
Is
Moriarty behind a bizarre gambling scheme?)
The
Triumph Of Sherlock Holmes
(1935, a fan favorite where Holmes tries to retire, but a crazy event
stops this from the classic The
Valley Of Fear)
and Silver
Blaze
(1937) with Sherlock
Holmes and the Missing Rembrandt
and The
Sign Of Four: Sherlock Holmes Greatest Case
(both 1932) are the two films that were not available for this set,
but are hopefully not lost forever. Four
has some kind of print floating out there somewhere, but we do not
know its condition as we post.
Wootner
(The
Fighting Pimpernel,
The
Terror,
Genevieve)
and Owen (Platinum
Blonde,
Of
Human Bondage,
Mary
Poppins,
Hitchcock's Above
Suspicion,
the 1938 A
Christmas Carol)
are definitely choices for Holmes that make sense, no matter the
results and they were doing something original while still competing
with some sometimes amazing actors (John Barrymore, William Gillette)
who came before them and then had to come up with early sound
interpretations that were not merely them reading lines on a stage.
They also offer purely British discourses (and pre-WWII at that) that
are priceless, so these are the many reasons to revisit these
ambitious films which made the most of their budgets and achieved
more than even the makers may have realized at the time.
Now
for playback performance. The 1080p 1.33 X 1 black & white
digital High Definition image transfer can show the age of the
materials used and are not in the best of shape, but this is far
superior a set of transfers to the old DVD set from 2005 and anywhere
else I have seen any clips of these films. Originally shot on 35mm
film, it looks like these are surviving 16mm reduction prints with
many issues, but hopefully the films have not been lost on 35mm
forever (as discussed above) and the Owen film seems particularly on
the faded side. Damage is on all the films and though these are in
poor condition beyond the fixing up and expense Film Detective went
through to save them, this is still the best way to see these films
for now. Fortunately, some shots in each print looks better than my
letter grade, giving you an idea of how good these must have looked
when first issued theatrically.
The
sound on all the films are lossy Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono, which is
usually disappointing for a Blu-ray release, but the soundtracks here
need some more work and maybe better tracks can be eventually found,
so any more restoration and lossless tracks would only be a very thin
improvement. They'll do for now, but the combination reminds us of
how problematic the copies of old films were on TV until home video
and film restoration became the norm and we still
have tons of work to do to save our world film heritage, especially
for older films like these that are orphan films (with no big studio
to save them) or not considered a priority for saving. Like all
Holmes fans, ALL Holmes films are a priority to save!
Extras
in this nice-looking
slipcase packaging include (per the very well-worded press release):
''... a host of newly restored Sherlockian shorts, including Slick
Sleuths
(1926, a CineColor Mutt & Jeff cartoon, but this copy is down a
generation and a black and white copy; hopefully a color copy is out
there somewhere), Sherlock
Holmes Baffled
(1900), A
Black Sherlock Holmes
(1918), Sure
Luck Holmes
(1928, a fine Felix The Cat animated short), Cousins
of Sherlocko
(1913), The
Copper Beeches
(1912) and ''The
Case of the Blind Man's Bluff''
(1954), a Sherlock Holmes bonus TV-episode starring Ronald Howard.
Then you get Elementary
Cinema: The First Cinematic Adventures of Sherlock Holmes,
an original documentary by Ballyhoo Motion Pictures; Sherlock
Holmes and the Blue Carbuncle,
a radio broadcast recreation from Redfield Arts Audio; and exclusive
introductions with filmmaker and film history icon, Samuel M.
Sherman. To top it off, each of the four discs includes its own
audio commentary from esteemed film experts and enthusiasts,
including author Jennifer Churchill; author and film historian Jason
A. Ney; writers/producers Phoef Sutton and Mark Jordan Legan; and
authors/screenwriters, Peter Atkins and David Breckman; original film
posters replicated as postcards, and booklet inserts with original
essays from author Don Stradley and author/screenwriter C. Courtney
Joyner.''
That's
great (!!!) and this is supposed to be a Limited Edition, but there
are even more extras tied into this set that are also available, as
seen in the image if the set we have included with this review. For
even more
classic Holmes feature films that have been saved, issued on Blu-ray
and belong on the same shelf with this solid set, going back to some
key silent classics, try these links for the following Blu-ray
releases:
Basil
Rathbone/Nigel Bruce Blu-ray set from MPI
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/10830/The+Complete+Sherlock+Holmes+Col
1914
and 1929 (German) Hound
Of The Baskervilles
adaptations
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/15406/Der+Hund+Von+Baskerville+(1929+w/1914+versi
The
1916 William Gillette classic
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/13902/The+Bat+(1959)/A+Bucket+Of+Blood+(1959/Cor
and
the 1922 John Barrymore classic
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/11361/The+Collector+(1965/Image+Blu-ray)/Final+Destin
-
Nicholas Sheffo
