Sherlock Holmes and the Deadly Necklace (1962)

Surprisingly incoherent and boring

Good start, but then it gets ruined

In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

Blistering performances.

Am a huge fan of Sherlock Holmes and get a lot of enjoyment out of Arthur Conan Doyle's stories. Also love Basil Rathbone's and especially Jeremy Brett's interpretations to death. So would naturally see any Sherlock Holmes adaptation that comes my way, regardless of its reception.Furthermore, interest in seeing early films based on Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes stories and wanting to see as many adaptations of any Sherlock Holmes stories as possible sparked my interest in seeing 'Sherlock Holmes and the Deadly Necklace' (aka 'Valley of Fear', although it bears very little resemblance to that story), especially one featuring Holmes' arch-nemesis Moriaty.There are better Sherlock Holmes-related films/adaptations certainly than 'Sherlock Holmes and the Deadly Necklace', the best of the Jeremy Brett adaptations and films of Basil Rathone fit under this category. It's also not among the very worst, although one of the lesser ones overall, being much better than any of the Matt Frewer films (particularly 'The Sign of Four') and also much better than the abominable Peter Cook 'The Hound of the Baskervilles'.'Sherlock Holmes and the Deadly Necklace' is not terrible. It just could have been much better. The best thing about it is Christopher Lee, who is an excellent imposing Holmes. Thorley Walters is equally very good as Watson, with signs of bumbling traits but also those of dignity and loyalty. In fact, the cast in general make the film watchable. Lovely Senta Berger, Leon Askin and suave but menacing Hans Sohnker are the standouts in support. Evidence too of some nice expressionistic images created by the photography, suspense (especially with Holmes and Moriaty) and intelligent dialogue. Unfortunately, there is a good deal wrong. The dubbing is atrocious, there was absolutely no need for it and sounded cheap and ill-fitting, robbing us of Lee's wonderful, distinctive voice. The production design instead of being handsome is pretty flat, the editing is choppy at times and Terrence Fisher's direction (who did a lot of good to great films and who directed the infinitely superior 'The Hound of the Baskervilles') is only workmanlike at best.Dialogue mostly doesn't flow enough and hurt by the dubbing, the costumes are not always that attractive (am in agreement with those who found Lee's in the countryside sequence horrendous). Then there is the story which is convoluted to the point of incoherence and too often tediously paced. Overall, watchable but disappointing. See it for the cast but for a good story there are far better Sherlock Holmes adaptations. 5/10 Bethany Cox

"Sherlock Holmes and the Deadly Necklace" is, among the twenty- something films by Terence Fisher that I have seen, one of his less accomplished works. A bit better than the boring "Night of the Big Heat", this is a production with motivations I don't fully understand: for a start I do not know why they decided to make a Sherlock Holmes movie starring Christophe Lee in German (although there is an English language version, the official version is in German, which is the one I opted to watch), with Lee's real voice absent in all versions. Then I cannot reason why in 1962, with moneys coming from German, French and Italian production companies, they decided to shoot an adventure movie in black and white. The decision seems even more uninspired given the uneven quality of Richard Angst's cinematography, ranging from attractive expressionistic images (as the scene where Holmes saves his life using a police whistle) to flat compositions (as the Baker Street apartment). Maybe the budget was low, but they had several names in the cast that were not highly expensive, but neither cheap to hire. And thirdly there is not a well-defined concept of what they wanted to do: producers, composer, writer and director seem to point into different directions. The German producers probably assumed it as one of the many cheap detective movies they were making by the dozen, composer Martin Slavin opted for a playful score, writer Curt Siodmak kept loyal to Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's three main creations (Holmes, his nemesis Moriarty and his mate Dr. Watson) and Fisher… well, he had to keep everything going. However it would be unfair to deny that there are a few hints that suggest the intention of making some kind of photo-novel or a black-ink-on-cheap-white-paper comic book, and that would explain why the filmmakers could not care less what language characters spoke, the anachronisms (the more obvious being ladies' hair styles), Slavin's jingling-jangling cues, extensive use of maquettes, and a few disheveled art direction and wardrobe decisions, starting with the key prop, a very ugly and cheap looking necklace that supposedly once adorned Queen Cleopatra's neck. I am also sure that Lee never wore an uglier costume in his entire long career than the horrendous checkered suit he wears in the countryside sequence. The actor does his best as Doyle's creation (obviously not imagining the estrangement that dubbing would produce, resulting in an involuntary Brechtian effect of rejection to his participation in the movie), so we tend to go for the villains, played with gusto by Hans Söhnker as Moriarty and Leon Askin as his chauffeur-assistant Charles. But what we see is what we get, so we better not complain. We are warned very early into the film that we are going to watch a rather sloppy product, when the same shot of a longshoreman working on dock is repeated twice within minutes. Compared to this, Fisher's next project starring Pat Boone is a masterpiece.

There are several criminal aspects to this sub-krimi German co-production, first among them being the fact that the filmmakers neglected to get Christopher Lee and Thorley Walters in to loop their own dialogue. It's somewhat jarring to watch an actor with so readily identifiable a voice as Mr Lee speaking, yet the words come out of his mouth spoken by what sounds like a Transatlantic drawl. Or an American dubbing artiste doing a poor Lee imitation.If one can get past this surreal experience however there is fun to be had. Lee and Walters are ideally cast as Holmes and Watson, at times certain shots looked like Sidney Paget illustrations come to life. Hans Sohnker does a creditable job projecting a sinister air as Moriarty, despite the handicap of dubbing even more atrocious than that of the English-speaking cast. He's no Eric Porter or even George Zucco, but better than some lesser efforts. The direction, however, co-credited to the masterly Terence Fisher of many a Hammer classic fame, is somewhat workmanlike. Perhaps Fisher's heart wasn'tin it, or he was held back by his Teutonic cohort, but it's not in the same league as his and Lee's earlier essaying of "The Hound of the Baskervilles".The supporting cast are more than adequate, with the lovely Senta Berger in an early role adding some class and beauty to a female cast of East End slatterns played by burly hausfraus. It really is a shame though that Lee's icily incisive portrayal of the great detective, perfect for the role in every way, was only seen in this film and a couple of early '90s productions. Still, there's always the consolation of being the only actor (so far as i know) to have played bot Sherlock and Mycroft Holmes, as well as Sir Henry Baskerville. That's got to count for something.By the way, i saw this under the title "Sherlock Holmes and the Deadly Necklace" (somewhat reminiscent of the Basil Rathbone series, the middling entries of which it is on a par). The alternate title of "The Valley of Fear" is somewhat misleading, as apart from characters such as Holmes, Watson and Professor Moriarty this film has very little in common with the Conan Doyle novel of the same name. However, for a Holmes fan wanting a diverting hour and a half on a rainy afternoon, this more than does the trick.

I really loved the screenplay and the plot of the story but the acting,especially on the part of Moriarty,wasn't very convincing.True,Christofer Lee as Holmes was very good(except for the deerstalker hat and cloak on the country side looked like the costume from the ballet "The Great Detective)and this is the film that truly captures the image of Watson:at first reculant to Holmes' theories(like the scene where he wants Watson to attack him with a dagger while he's armed with a new instalment of the Times)but soon realizes the absolute genius of it.Another thing,this story is completely cannon!!! *****SPOILER ALERT!!!!!!!********* Moriarty is not captured at the end which means this could be set after The Valley of Fear and before The Final Problem(even though in this,he says he has never heard of Moriarty but is completely aware of him in the Valley of Fear. ********************************** Again the rest of the cast was hammish and Moriarty was truly god awful but still a good film and a good subject for a remake.8/10