Silent Sherlock: Three Classic Cases (PG)

Silent Sherlock

Sherlock Holmes is witty and watchable as Arthur Conan Doyle’s 1920’s silent-era mysteries come to life in this stunning restoration.

Numerous actors have portrayed Sherlock on the big screen over the course of the past century, but nobody comes close to Eille Norwood, who played the super sleuth in 45 shorts and two features between 1921 and 1923. The entire collection of films have been beautifully restored, and the first fruits of that invaluable effort are at The Rex.

We begin with A Scandal in Bohemia, where Holmes is approached by the King of Bohemia at his rooms in Baker Street, wearing a mask, although Holmes’s powers of deduction allow him to rumble the king at once. He wants Holmes to pinch an incriminating photograph taken of him with a young woman.

Next up is The Golden Pince-Nez, a dead man is found with this object in his grasp, and Holmes brilliantly senses exactly what sort of person would have worn these spectacles. And in The Final Problem, Holmes climactically confronts his arch-nemesis, Moriarty himself, for their colossal hand-to-hand combat. Three classics not to be missed.