Sherlock Holmes fans are being promised a most authentic depiction of the fictional detective, with the restoration of a century-old silent film series chronicling the London sleuth’s adventures.
Audiences are to be treated to a first glimpse of the restored works from the early 1920s next week at a London Film Festival screening, accompanied by a newly commissioned live score from Royal Academy of Music performers.
The premiere on Wednesday next week of just three of the short films, in what is being called “Silent Sherlock: Three Classic Cases,” is to take place in the Victorian-era grandeur of the Alexandra Palace Theatre in north London.
Photo: AFP
A wider release on DVD and Blu-Ray, and encompassing an international tour, is to follow, with the British Film Institute restoration team excited to unveil its years-long efforts.
“They’re the last silent Sherlock-related works to be restored,” said Bryony Dixon, the curator of the institute who led the project.
“The other surviving ones have already been done, so these are the things that audiences have been waiting for patiently,” Dixon told reporters at the film charity’s national archive in Berkhamsted. “Sherlock Holmes is always popular, and popular all over the world. As they say: You could just write Sherlock Holmes on a cardboard box and sell it. So it’s of interest to people and it’s time that it was seen.”
Photo: AFP
Produced from 1921 to 1923 by British film company Stoll Pictures, the 45 episodes of The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes and two feature films that are being restored all feature screen star of the era Eille Norwood.
He was author Arthur Conan Doyle’s favorite on-screen Sherlock.
Stoll’s black-and-white adaptations were made with the author’s approval while he was still penning the stories, setting them apart, Dixon said.
“People will be interested to see a Sherlock Holmes film version ... in an early stage of development for the screen,” she said. “There is a level of authenticity to this character, vis-a-vis the Conan Doyle creation, that you might not get with later Sherlock Holmes.”
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