Date and Time for this Past Event
- Saturday, Nov 4, 2023 3:30pm - 5:30pm
Details
AFI’s Silent Cinema Showcase returns with another selection of newly restored screen classics and rare gems from the silent era.
Long thought lost, the 1916 version of SHERLOCK HOLMES was rediscovered in the vaults of the Cinémathèque Française in 2014. The film stars the definitive stage Sherlock of his era, William Gillette, in his only movie role. Gillette is estimated to have played the detective in 1,300 productions since his 1899 debut, with the actor and playwright popularizing a range of characteristics not found in the original stories, but now cherished in the public imagination, most notably the deerstalker cap, the curved pipe and the phrase, "Elementary, my dear fellow" (much later, in the talkies, this line would be addressed directly to Watson — ad infinitum — in the Basil Rathbone-Nigel Bruce pairings). The mystery here blends elements from Arthur Conan Doyle's "A Scandal in Bohemia," "The Adventure of the Copper Beeches," "The Final Problem" and "A Study in Scarlet," in a tale of a young woman being held captive by a husband-and-wife team of swindlers seeking blackmail material. It also boasts the first screen appearance of Holmes' arch nemesis, Moriarty. DIR Arthur Berthelet; SCR H. S. Sheldon, from the play by William Gillette, based on characters by Arthur Conan Doyle. U.S., 1916, b&w with color tinting, 116 min. NOT RATED
