Who likes the Ronald Howard as Holmes TV series?

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Who likes the Ronald Howard as Holmes TV series?

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1DirtPriest
tammikuu 9, 2010, 12:55 am

I like them a lot. They do a faithful portrayal Holmes and Watson. Mr. Crawford as the good doctor is among the very best. Personally, I like the faint whiff of Seinfeld giving the episodes a little humor. Or is it humour? They seem fairly available, my friend bought the set a few years ago and his girlfriend got him another 3 dvd set. She didn't know he had them, and they were passed on to me. I'd like to garner some opinions on these for no other reason than something to chat about.

2benjclark
tammikuu 9, 2010, 10:39 am

I've not seen them, so now I have something to find and look forward to. Are they set at the canonical time?

3Enodia
tammikuu 9, 2010, 2:35 pm

i thought they were okay for what they were, ie; early the TV generation.
Howard is alright as Holmes, but H. Marion Crawford as Watson really was the gem of the series i think.
when they stuck to the stories they were at their best, such as in 'The Red Headed League' ("There we were!"... lol).

one of our Christmas traditions is to play 'The Christmas Pudding' along with Jeremy Brett's 'The Blue Carbuncle' on the solstice. it just isn't Christmas without them! (well, and 'The Grinch' too).

4DirtPriest
tammikuu 10, 2010, 1:27 am

They are pretty authentic, especially considering they were filmed in the early '50's. There's a scene in one where everyone hurries out of 221B and Watson runs back in the room to shut off the gas lamps. Most of them are closely based on the stories but are slightly altered, maybe for some sort of copyright law. For example, one of the episodes 'The French Interpreter', 'The Pennsylvania Gun' is an abbreviated version of The Valley of Fear'. I haven't had the time to crack in to this complete set, all I have seen thus far is a dvd with six episodes that my friend had before he got the complete set. I think he found it at one of those dollar stores that everyone makes fun of but buys wrapping paper or pencil leads or plastic bowls at. We have one in town that has a huge candy aisle, handy when I get a craving for Grandma's Chocolate Cremes. What a bargain at a buck for a fair sized bag of decent treats. Anyway, They should be quite easy and cheap to buy from an online retailer. If it helps, my set is from Mill Creek Entertainment and has introductions on each disc by Christopher Lee.

5LolaWalser
helmikuu 14, 2012, 3:20 pm

I got this collection last week for practically nothing and was very pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed it (bad transfers and all). The only thing I dislike is the music theme, much too melodramatic.

The three principals work beautifully together (Howard, Crawford, Duncan as Lestrade), and I loved seeing Eugene Deckers and Delphine Seyrig (!) repeatedly.

I'm on the last third of the series and The Case of the Perfect Husband (with Michael Gough!) definitely pushed this into Avengers territory. Nobody really matches Mrs. Peel in a catsuit, but the quirky colourful minor roles, the outrageous storylines, the deadpan, sometimes bizarre humour are all there.

6Enodia
helmikuu 14, 2012, 4:46 pm

"Nobody really matches Mrs. Peel in a catsuit..."

NOBODY!!!
(pant, pant)

7LolaWalser
Muokkaaja: helmikuu 14, 2012, 9:27 pm

Not even Mrs. Gale? ;)

Another Avengers-y Holmes episode: The Case of the Careless Suffragette. Women's lib and Russian anarchists, bombs that go "BOOM" and those that go "phutt", a noble title descending through the female line (just this once), lion assassins, and a bevvy of odd faces.

Then there's the one where someone plants a baby on our two bachelors, and they try to put it to sleep with "Rule Britannia".

The Case of the Eiffel Tower scores on this rapprochement too, if only because Watson is persuaded to bring the girls ("But, but, Holmes! Cancan girls! Dancers! FRENCH dancers!") over to their table, "for England". Very Steed-like.

I'll miss this when it's over.

8cosmicdolphin
helmikuu 15, 2012, 6:06 am

I enjoyed listening to them like 'Radio Dramas' on my Ipod.

9uncultured
helmikuu 16, 2012, 6:30 pm

Found the whole series as a "watch it now" on Netflix recently--think they're pretty great. They do a great job of atmospheric setting (who doesn't enjoy gaslight fiction, if not for the gaslit ambiance?), especially in "The Winthrop Legend" and "The Thistle Killer"...some of the shots actually seem fairly modern. Agree with everyone praising Watson--I think the actor isn't quite so buffoonish as Nigel Bruce was in the Rathbone movies, and Howard, while not quite as good as Rathbone or Jeremy Brett, is still quite engaging. The sound is a little blare-y at times and the video quality is ho-hum, but still found them pretty darn enjoyable!

10larrymarak
joulukuu 9, 2012, 10:39 pm

Yes, lots of fun. Done just after the Rathbone Bruce series of films, and attempting to keep the same ambiance. The Paris story is great fun.

11cosmicdolphin
joulukuu 10, 2012, 5:25 am

It's not bad. Most of the DVD transfers are bloody awful. I heard one of the networks was taking a shot at remastering it.

12LolaWalser
joulukuu 10, 2012, 11:41 am

I read somewhere that this was never shown on the UK television! Could that be right? I know it was partly produced and apparently wholly filmed in France, but still. Seems a bit odd. Maybe it wasn't broadcast in the same period?

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