Sherlock Holmes series

(On Cable TV, February 2021) Watching older films can often be an exercise in picking apart what was new then, even if it’s not new now. The character of Sherlock Holmes, at this point in the early twenty-first century, has been endlessly remixed, examined, criticized, parodied or dismissed: There are nearly as many movies adapting Sherlock Holmes as there are faithful adaptations, no matter which kind of Holmes you prefer. In this light, The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes appears to be one more entry in a crowded group. But it does have the distinction of having been the first in many ways — most notably, the first to have poked at the sexuality of the character even if the answer isn’t all that satisfying. (The film makes much about Holmes being gay or repressed, which seems less interesting than portrayals of Holmes being Adlersexual — that is, uninterested in any women other than the striking Irene Adler.)  It also takes a somewhat lighthearted tone to the character (heck, even in portraying Queen Victoria), something that must have resulted in a few dropped monocles back then, but appears painfully limited now that we’ve had feature-length man-child parodies of the character. There’s also a curiously unbalanced feeling to the script, which can be explained if you read about its tortured production history and how a much longer episodic film was chopped up in what appears on-screen. As with nearly all of writer-director Billy Wilder’s movies, even the most mediocre ones, it’s not uninteresting to watch: it’s got good scenes, good dialogue, a pleasantly loopy third act and another clever take on the character. But for all of its strengths and its impact at the time of its release, The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes does pale in comparison with the later takes on the character, often going much further than this one in exploring Holmes’ quirks.