I Am Sherlocked

A quick glance around the internets these days, and you'll discover that many a person is all hot and bothered over Benedict Cumberbatch and the BBC's Sherlock, the series which modernizes the adventures of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's classic detective and his companion, Dr. Watson. But that is the not the first time an attempt to modernize the classic literary character had been made. That happened during the run of the first, arguably, wildly popular media adaptation of the characters, the Sherlock Holmes film series from the late '30s to mid '40s, staring Basil Rathbone as Holmes, and Nigel Bruce as Dr. Watson.

All together the series comprises 14 films made between 1939 and 1946— made alongside a popular radio program staring the two leads as well. The first two films in the series were made at 20^th Century Fox, then a gap in the series occurred, resuming in 1942 at Universal. Though the films made at Fox were big budgeted A pictures, Universal launched their line as a B series Although a B series with high production values, sharing some of the same personnel as their bread and butter monster movies.

Those two Fox films, The Hound of The Baskervilles and The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes were both set in the period appropriate Victorian Era. When Universal launched their series, with World War Two well underway, they decided to bring Holmes into the modern era. Borrowing quite loosely from the Doyle stories for most of the films. The first of Universal's efforts, Sherlock Holmes and The Voice of Terror, opens with a card explaining that “The timeless appeal of Sherlock Holmes can fit into any era.” In Voice of Terror Holmes and Watson are fighting the Nazis.

The Holmes vs the Nazis feel would continue into the next two films, Sherlock Holmes and The Secret Weapon, and Sherlock Holmes in Washington. This was dropped from the series with the fourth film , the films kept a modern setting, but added a Gothic Victorian feel. Houses lit by candle light, and noir touches to the look. These may have been produced as B films, most with a run time of roughly 70 minutes, but they are very high quality B films.

The series has long been a favorite of many a film buff, and I am definitely one of them. I owned a few of the films on VHS tapes as a kid, and loved them. Never intended to be over analyzed or anything, just meant to entertain and provide a nice get away for an audience dealing with the horrors of wartime. The film's short length made them perfect programmers for the early days of television. Sometime in the 1950s, Universal lost the rights to the series off to a syndicator, that promptly began doing a slice and dice job on the film's original negatives.

In the 1970s, four of the films in the series fell into the public domain. The quality of the prints used for the VHS releases varied widely. Some looked great, some looked horrible, and some were fair. The films had changed ownership so many times that come the early '90s, the film elements were in very rough shape.However, the Rathbone/Bruce series needed not only restoration work, but rescuing.

The two 20^th Century Fox films had survived just fine, but the other 12 are an entirely different story. The Universal openings had been hacked off, and the negatives trashed. Sequences had been cut, trimmed, and tossed. Worse of all, the film itself had begun to deteriorate due to poor storage, and a few of the films were literally saved from extinction in the nick of time. The massive undertaking began in the early 90s by the UCLA Film and Television Archive.

With funding from UCLA, Hugh Hefner, and Warner Brothers, the 12 Universal titles were fully restored over a 10 year period. In some cases, where original negatives had survived, the work was easy. In others, sections of 16mm prints had to be blown up and used to restoration. When all was said and done, new 35mm negatives on modern film stock had been made, insuring the series will be around for many more decades to come. In the early 2000s, the efforts were brought forth on DVD, and the restoration was met with great praise.

Then, in 2011, a most unexpected surprise happened. The new 35mm elements were used to make full 1080p HD masters, and the entire 14 film series was released on blu-ray. The films do look amazingly good in HD, not all are perfect, due to some of the elements that had to be used for restoration, but by in large it's a real joy to see these films looking so clear and sharp. It speaks volumes to the enduring appeal of the Rathbone/Bruce films that not only did they receive a massive restoration, but they've now been brought into the 21^st century on blu-ray for the masses to enjoy. A wonderful series that stands as one of my absolutely favorites. Well worth seeing if they've never glanced across your eyes before.