I am looking forward to the third season of Sherlock with Benedict Cumberbatch this weekend. My oldest -- ratfink that she is -- has already seen the first episode, but I don't think she's seen this one yet, so that makes us tied!
The Man Who Disappeared (based on "The Man with the Twisted Lip") was filmed as a pilot episode for a proposed British television series. For various reasons the series was never developed, although it did give John Longdon (Blackmail and several other early Hitchcock films) a chance to play the Great Detective. Filling in Doctor Watson's shoes was character actor Campbell Singer, who played Inspector Claude Eustace Teal in one episode of Roger Moore's The Saint. Rounding out the cast are Hector Ross, Minka Dolega, Beryl Baxter, and Walter Gotell -- of these, the most recognizable is Gotell who played Russian General Gogol in six James bond films, as well as well as a SPECTRE agent in From Russia with Love.
This episode was helmed by Richard M. Grey, who evidently had a fairly non-distinquished career as a director -- only three credits on IMDB, of which this was his last. No scriptwriter was credited. The show was produced by Viennan-born Rudolph Cartier (born Rudolph Kacser), who had a solid career as a producer, director, and writer (he produced and directed all three Quatermass series for British television, for example).
Anyway, here's a Sherlock to wet your whistle while waiting for this coming Sunday.
https://archive.org/details/SherlockHolmes-TheManWhoDisappearedfailedPilot
I have to say I prefer the slower paced Sherlocks of an earlier time.
ReplyDeleteYeah...you've DVR'd or are going to watch the season premiere of SHERLOCK on demand? I enjoyed it, having not realized they were fiddling with the schedule of THE GOOD WIFE, but at least that let me see SHAMELESS before SHERLOCK (as fine a lineup as one will find right now...THE RUINS OF BABYLON on IFC makes a pleaseant dessert).
ReplyDeleteI knew this sounded too familiar! And it seems that reshuffling to get out of the way of the Super Bowl and to a lesser extent the Grammies and certainly other football is going to further mess up my Sunday lineup! Ah, well. Still, THE GOOD WIFE, SHAMELESS, SHERLOCK, BABYLON and perhaps a SIMPSONS isn't too bad a haul for any night.
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