Sherlock Holmes and the Deadly Necklace

                
Director: Terence Fisher
Year: 1962
Rating: 6.0
This is a German production though I am not sure if it falls into the Krimi sub-genre of crime films since it is based on Doyle and not on Edgar Wallace (which most are). The version I have was dubbed into English. There are some familiar names involved though - Christopher Lee (also dubbed by someone! Though not badly), Senta Berger (be still my beating heart), Leon Askin whose name might not be familiar but his portly figure would be if you watched Hogan's Heroes as General Burkhalter and director Terence Fisher who somehow found time between all his assignments for Hammer. Shot in black and white with good foggy atmosphere. A very solid Homes film. Though Lee is dubbed he gives a nice performance. He didn't get a chance to play Sherlock again until two TV movies in the early 90s - but does play Mycroft in the 1970 The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes - something I have been meaning to see.



This is a bit of a mix and match - they take parts of The Sign of the Four and more of The Valley of Fear and then add I think an original part not connected to Doyle. It isn't really a comfortable fit but does any one really care. It is Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson (Thorley Walters, who oddly played Watson in Sherlock Holmes' Smarter Brother) vs Professor Moriarty (Hans Söhnker). And did I mention a very young Senta Berger. It is an intricate cat and mouse game as they try and get one step ahead of the other. Moriarty is a respected archeologist - per the police who will not believe Holmes - and in Egypt he had his men steal the Necklace of Cleopatra. But two were caught by the police and the third held on to the necklace and came back to England. This is the Sign of Four. This person is now living in a manor with his lovely wife (Senta) in fear of his life (The Valley of Fear).



Nothing splashy here, low budget I would guess and the dubbing doesn't help but for Holmes fans a decent entry. I should mention that the scriptwriter is Curt Siodmak - ya the guy who wrote the scripts for some of Universal's great horrors - Black Friday, The Invisible Man Returns, The Wolf Man, Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man and many more. He had left Germany when Hitler came to power (as did his brother director Robert Siodmak) and now I guess he was able to come back to Germany for this film. One of the greats. Not so much here but still.