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Voidsville Follies

Works by Arthur Conan Doyle (3)

Sherlock Holmes Baffled

Arthur Marvin (cinematographer/director)
Arthur Conan Doyle (author)
American Mutoscope and Biograph (production)

Language: Silent, released in May 1900
Minutes: 1

1 trick, 1 minute, 0 interest

Featured elements:

: detective; fantasy; home invasion

Sherlock Holmes [1916]

Arthur Berthelet (director)
William Postance (director/lead)
H.S. Sheldon (writer)
William Gillette (author/lead)
Arthur Conan Doyle (author)
Ernest Maupain (lead)
Marjorie Kay (lead)
Edward Fielding (lead)
Stewart Robbins (lead)
Grace Reals (lead)
Mario Majeroni (lead)
Essanay (production)

Language: Silent, English titles, released in May 1916
Minutes: 115

This film exists as supporting evidence for three well-established postulates in film theory:

Early attempts to bring stage successes to silent film were disastrous. Here we waste nearly two hours watching paint dry.
A superhero without a worthy nemesis is a superdud. Moriarty doesn't enter until 45 minutes in, so over a third of the film is just Watson, Sherlock, and his little concubine Billy.
Sherlock Holmes is a boring smug prick.

Featured elements:

: child labor; Chinatown; crime; criminal mastermind; detective; female avenger; fighting; heroic defender; kiddie act; melodrama; rescue; revenge; servitude; sidekick

Sherlock Holmes [1922]/Moriarty

Albert Parker (director)
J. Roy Hunt (cinematographer)
Earle Browne (writer)
Marion Fairfax (writer)
William Gillette (author)
Arthur Conan Doyle (author)
John Barrymore (lead)
Gustav von Seyffertitz (lead)
Carol Dempster (lead)
Roland Young (lead)
William Powell (lead)
Hedda Hopper (lead)
Anders Randolf (lead)
Reginald Denny (lead)
Louis Wolheim (lead)
David Torrence (lead)

Language: Silent, English titles, released in Mar 1922
Minutes: 85

Although himself a bit of a latecomer to screen and never hit big at the box office, make no mistake: Professor Moriarty was the forerunner of film's criminal masterminds. Wherever a mastermind is symbolized by a web, Moriarty is at the centre. His 1916 film debut made him look like a loser, and quickly brushed him aside. But here he is central to the story (in the UK, the film was titled Moriarty), and properly acknowledged as a menacing force that Holmes must struggle to reckon with. Sure, the film is slowed down by a hokey romance thrown in so that the good guy gets the girl in the end, but Moriarty stays hardcore and unstoppable.

Featured elements:

: action; alienation; breaking class; Chinatown; college; crime; criminal mastermind; detective; falsely accused; family; female avenger; fighting; flashback; forbidden love; forsaken; heroic defender; hitmen; melodrama; noir; rescue; revenge; Scotland Yard; sidekick; suicide; undercover agent; unstoppable menace

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