I could swear that in the version of this film that I saw there was a reference early on to something like a darning needle. It makes the tag line, "Oh Watson, the needle" more of an inside joke than a veiled reference to Holmes' cocaine habit.
EACH DAWN IS THE BEGINNING OF A NEW LIFE.
The only scene in which the earlier needle reference might have been used is when Stapleton pours a vial of poisonous liquid into a glass which he hands to Sir Henry to drink. In the version I think I saw (notice I say I THINK I saw) Stapleton fills a syringe with the same poison and is about to inject it into Sir Henry when Holmes suddenly bursts in.
I hate to sound stubborn, but I have a pretty good memory for details, and I really do believe there was a previous reference to some kind of needle prior to the tag line.
EACH DAWN IS THE BEGINNING OF A NEW LIFE.
I can't remember another needle reference in this story, but there is another Holmes film (with Moriarty in it) where Holmes is stalling for time (Moriarity is about ready to shoot him) and Holmes says were the situation reversed, he would kill Moriarty far more creatively - by draining all his blood out of his body.
Moriarty responds with "Ah - the needle to the end, eh, Holmes?" and then proceeds to drain Holmes' blood. He has a operating table in his hideout) Of course he is rescued in time. Could this be the moment you remember?
It is very possible. I remember seeing the film you are referring to, but do not remember Moriarty's witty quip.
Thank you for the information.
By the way, my favorite Moriarty is Henry Daniell. I believe he played the nefarious professor in "The Woman in Green."
Speaking of Moriarty, when I was a teen I read all of the Sherlock Holmes stories and novels. I remember Moriarity appearing in just one story, "The Final Problem," in which Holmes "dies" (only to be resurrected shortly thereafter in "The Adventure of the Empty House.") Was there more than one Holmes story with Moriarity in it? It is possible, that at 64 years of age I am victim of one of the problems of growing older, namely, memory loss.
EACH DAWN IS THE BEGINNING OF A NEW LIFE.
LOL!
Well, Moriarity is indirectly in The Valley of Fear. (another novella) Holmes mentions him, and he is responsible for the death of one of the characters near the end of the story, but it is all rather off screen. To be honest, Fear is not one of my favorite stories - haven't actually read it in years, but just recently listened to the BBC radio production of it (I believe it was made circa 1998 or 1999 and starred Clive Merrison and Holmes and the late Michael Williams (Dame Judy Dench's husband) as Doctor Watson.
If you can track the collection down, I think you would enjoy it very much - I do - I work in an accounting office, so there are times when I am on the computer doing more mundane things where I can listen away to the BBC series (and the 50-odd episodes I have of Rathbone and Bruce - and two other series' as well - one with John Geilgud as Holmes and the other with John Stanley as Holmes.)
The radio shows with Rathbone and Bruce (made during the same time the movies were) have Moriarity showing up several times - a number of the shows were written by Denis Greene and Anthony Boucher and were successful enough to be converted into short story form by Ken Greenwald (he did The Lost Adventures of Sherlock Holmes) and Paul Jeffers who did another collection called The Forgotten Adventures of Sherlock Holmes.
I thought LOST was the better collection - that one includes a sequel (kinda) of Scandal in Bohemia (Holmes and Watson meet Irene Adler Norton's daughter) and the April Fool Adventure - a very early case which tells one version of how Holmes first bested Moriarity on a case, and includes an adaptation of story that takes place during the three years Holmes was gone - presumed dead (The Great Hiatus, some Holmesians call it) and one other where Moriarity tries to steal a rare painting.
I can't decide on my favorite Moriarity - sometimes I would love to scramble all the actors together and pick my favorite actor from each incarnation (In my case, Downey and Law go out with the shells) Of all the Moriarity's I have seen, I think my favorite has go to be John Houston, who appeared in Sherlock Holmes in New York - he was the best part! Roger Moore played Holmes in that one (seemed a bit young) and Patrick Macnee was Watson - I love Pat Macnee, but to me he played the dear Doctor much like Nigel Bruce.
I'm still tied on Holmes - Basil Rathbone was my first Holmes - (God that voice) but Jeremy Brett's interpretation (not to mention how close he got to stick to Holmesion Canon) was really excellent, too - and Edward Hardwick's Watson was top notch! But I really LOVE the BBC radio shows....
Okay - blathered long enough.
"The Valley of Fear" was a crashing bore. Even worse, it rambled. The "old west" chapter in "A Study in Scarlet" was likewise soporific. It was, in the words of one critic, "Like Brett Harte's writing at its worst." It is interesting to note that A. Conan Doyle had a boiling hatred of the Mormons and seemed to take out his feelings in this chapter.
Doyle also despised foreigners and homosexuals, yet he came to the aid of an Indian student named Edalji who was falsely accused of animal mutilation. Doyle also came to the defense of a known homosexual. It seems that just like his creation, Doyle put aside his personal feelings in the name of justice.
Now, as to who is my favorite Holmes/Watson duo, I have to admit it is Ronald Howard and H. Marion Crawford in the TV series of the 50's. Howard brought out a side of Holmes that even Basil Rathbone and Jeremy Brett overlooked: Holmes' sense of humor. Crawford made Watson a credible and intelligent man (after all, he was a medical doctor, and by all accounts, a good one.) Nigel Bruce's faffling in the Basil Rathbone films made the good doctor appear to be a bumbling idiot (except in 1944's "The Spider Woman" in which Watson's medical knowledge helped Holmes get on the trail of the real villain.)
The worst Holmes/Watson duo was Stewart Granger as Holmes and Bernard Fox as Watson in a TV version of "The Hound of the Baskervilles." Granger played Holmes as crabby, fussy old man; Fox was just a caricature of his own comic self.
Nice talking to you!
EACH DAWN IS THE BEGINNING OF A NEW LIFE.
I have also recently been enjoying the Ronald Howard Holmes version - some stories were beyond silly - like the Case of the Texas Cowgirl, but I enjoyed most of them.
Not sure I agree with your opinion of Christopher Plummer, though - I think at the time, and given the circumstances of the rest of the script - the girls murdured, the one girl going mad in Bedlam, he was just trying for a Holmes with more feeling for his fellow man-and woman. Even Watson had accused him at times of having almost no heart. Like Howard's sense of humor, I think Plummer wanted to approve he DID have one.... but he wasn't gay. I think if anything Holmes was asexual.
Jeremy Brett always thought that early in his life Holmes was betrayed or severely let down by a woman (though not his mother) and it affected his life from there on out.
Nice talking to you, too!
The only Sherlock Holmes movie I've seen where the gay question comes into play is Billy Wilder's The Secret Life of Sherlock Holmes,where they spoof it with Watson in a sexchanging chorus line. In Jeremy Brett's biography,he claims his favourite screen Sherlock was Christopher Plummer.When I read the original short stories way back in the late 1970s,I was left with the impression that the whole female question was something read into it by other authors.Although Watson doesn't seem to be aware of Sherlock's sex life,who's to say he didn't get around? Sherlock just wasn't the marrying type.I've read the various timelines created by others,and there seems to be great gaping holes in which something may have happened.
shareFinally, someone has the courage to mention the Howard/Crawford pairing! I was beginning to think that the vast majority felt they weren't even worth consideration as Holmes and Wstson! Especially, Crawford, as he seems to resemble Watson's character as I see him, in some of the short stories of Conan Doyle I've just read. Also, the introduction to the story by Watson is found in at least, some of the Holmes's short stories. Thank you for your contribution. Regards, mustangp51b
shareI thought of another needle, but it is in another in the series.
One of their films is a very loose adaptation of The Musgrave Ritual - called Sherlock Holmes Faces Death (look near the opening for Peter Lawford - he has such a small part he doesn't even get billing, and I don't think it was Lawford's idea - he had two lines)
In that movie, the killer kills two members of the Musgrave family by ramming a long needle into the base of their skull and into their brain. EWW.
Holmes only resorted to morphine or cocaine when he wasn't involved in a case. His mind reeled at stagnation, and once he had his tactile deductive brain wrapped around the solution of a crime he stopped using the drugs.
This habit of Holmes is brilliantly used in a novel (and film) called "The Seven Per Cent Solution," in which Holmes is unable to kick the habit. None other than Sigmund Freud helps cure him.
Some people have intimated that Holmes and Watson were the first "Baker Street Irregulars," meaning that they had a homosexual relationship. I suspected this in only one film, "Murder by Decree" in which an effete Holmes (Christopher Plummer) looks like he is about to kiss Watson (James Mason) on the lips.
EACH DAWN IS THE BEGINNING OF A NEW LIFE.
In this same film, doesn't Holmes see a darning needle sticking out from a chair, just before the actor, Harry Cording, sits on it? After which, Cording's character becomes highly irate, saying "...I'm a hard man to cross!" Regards, mustangp51b
shareNo - I believe that is House of Fear -- but I am forever getting those two titles mixed up - both take place in an old country house.
(Now I have to go check...)
I think that is a bit of an "inside joke", a way to get around not being able to reference Holmes' drug usage in a film at that time.
http://www.rateyourmusic.com/~JrnlofEddieDeezenStudies
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.
Looked like a vial to me. I mean, he pulled the top of it off with his teeth. I assumed it was a vial with a cork. Incidentally, why would a physician have a vial of poison in his bag anyway? And how did Stapleton know he wasn't giving Baskerville a nice glass of cod liver oil or something else innocuous.
shareI'll post the same reply here as I did in the other thread:
Actually Stapleton took a vial out of Watson's medical bag, not a needle. We see him extracting the cork from the vial with his teeth, then pouring the poison into Sir Henry's drink.
Also, with Watson being absent when Stapleton added the poison, any reference to it would have been meaningless to him.
The needle is definitely a reference to cocaine. Doyle has written that Watson didn't approve of Holmes' cocaine use. In this scene Watson shows a slight air of irritation, shaking his head a couple of times as he takes the bag.
I think it is a fine in-reference, but the timing here was wrong. Holmes used cocaine only when a period of some time had gone by with no mysteries of interest to occupy his mind, not immediately after having solved a case.
There is a reference to a knitting needle in another film in the series, "Sherlock Holmes Faces Death".
Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain.