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The Secret Life of Sherlock Holmes
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13791 |
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Section : |
THE ARTS
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| Issue
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12 / 1988 |
2,796 Words |
| Author
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Herb Greer
Herb Greer is an American writer and playwright who lives in
Britain and on the Continent. |
My heart warmed at the prospect of a new Sherlock Holmes play. I was read the stories by my grandmother from the age of four or five, and began to read them myself at six; my taste for their special Victorian sharpness has never died, having survived innumerable films (ranging from good to emetic), literary spoofs, radio plays, and a number of television adaptations. Like most of my generation I regarded the portrayal by Basil Rathbone as the definitive Holmes—in hindsight less because of the character he made of him (which, missed certain central elements of Arthur Conan Doyle's Holmes) than because Rathbone caught the timbre and tone of the stories so well, especially in his urgent, razor-edged voice. The enduring quality of this great literary icon is such that, despite all the previous horrors committed in the Holmes name, the news of another play about him does not inspire gloomy anticipation and the groan of "not again!" On the contrary, one goes down to Charing Cross Road and Wyndham's Theatre in a mood of hope and optimism.
Sherlock Holmes has been a rich source of stage and screen entertainment almost since he was created. A number of plays were based on the character. The most famous of these, the adaptation by William Gilette of Conan Doyle's own theatrical script, is a splendid and robust melodrama which is as much fun to play as it is to watch. The list of Sherlock Holmes films is enormous—much too long to summarize here. But the Basil Rathbone versions (despite the eventual and absurd attempt to update Holmes into the Second World War) remain the best in that medium when they were at their best.
Back from the Dead
What, then,
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