oh watson the needle

Hummmm....as often as I have seen this movie, I never really paid any attention to this line. I always thought he ment "Don't forget your medical bag???? But after seeing this question (I think the line is "I'll take the needle", not to be picky) that really doesn't make sense exactly, esp. as this is the last line of the movie....

I did ask older folks if they ever heard this used as an expression....but they said they had not.... The more I thought about it, I think it might refer to a choice of a pill or a shot, and he opted for the shot (sedative????)before being asked....Unsure if injections were used outside a hospital setting in the period described.

Along those lines, it could mean "I'll take the needle" rather than go through something else....

Of course I may be 100% percent wrong about all this and will look to be a total moron.... Will continue to ask around....

"The Flagon With The Dragon Has The Brew Which Is True"

The line, "Oh Watson-- the needle!" may indeed have been an "inside joke".
Apparently the line was CUT from UK prints because some believed it was a
reference to cocaine use, and when the film was reissued in the late 70's, a
newspaper account pointed out this same thing.


HOWEVER... if you look close at the film itself, there is a very REAL in-story
reason for it being there. Stapleton dug out the needle to inject POISON into
Sir Henry's drink, before Holmes knocked the glass out of his hand onto the
floor. The needle, with the poison, and Stapleton's fingerprints on it, would
have been EVIDENCE to convict him of attempted murder! (That is, if he didn't
get killed trying to cross the Grimpen mire at night...)


As I said, it could have been an in-joke, but I feel too many people are making
more of it than it is.

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