The Xango from Baker Street + Other
     
              
Director: Miguel Faria Jr
Year: 2001
Country: Brazil
Rating: 5.0
AKA - A Samba for Sherlock

This 2001 Brazilian-Portuguese film that was based on a novel by Jô Soares brings Sherlock Holmes and Watson to Rio on a case of a stolen Stradivarius violin. It is a long ways to go for a violin, but Sherlock (Joaquim de Almeida) manages to lose his virginity, get stoned, engage in a violin duel and fall in love. Watson meanwhile invents the Caipirinha and is possessed by a native spirit who knows the name of the killer, but refuses to say.



This isn't exactly the most serious of Holmes films, falling somewhere between parody and a bloody murder mystery. It doesn't really work in either case. A bit slow and episodic, it never really pulled me in. Admittedly, I prefer my Holmes done seriously and watching him wander aimlessly with very little detecting seemed pointless. In one sequence he is chasing the killer, but he has to stop and use the toilet. Brazilian beans. Another instance that struck me as pointless is when he is arrested for getting aroused on a park bench in the day and dry humping a woman. Come on. It is Sherlock Holmes, dammit.



Anyways, a valuable violin was stolen from a woman who is the mistress of the Emperor. It is embarrassing for him, but Sarah Bernhardt (Maria de Medeiros, the cutie who was Bruce Willis's girlfriend in Pulp Fiction) who is in Rio performing advises him to get Holmes to come. At the same time, a serial killer has begun murdering women and cutting out their organs. And leaving a violin string in their pubic hair. Holmes arrives with Watson (Anthony O'Donnell) and does damn all. The Brazilians wonder if they are English buggers. By chance, he saves the life of a beautiful black woman (Thalma de Freitas) and she introduces him to sex and pot. And he is semi-stoned and horny for most of the film. Not that I blame him. I was hoping for more from this.


Mademoiselle Holmes - 2024 - 2025



A few months back I came upon a Japan TV show in which the Sherlock Holmes type character was a female titled Miss Sherlock. It only lasted a year, I think due to the death of the actress who plays Sherlock. It was a decent show. This time I found a French version of a female Holmes - not Sherlock but his great granddaughter. So far there have been two seasons with six episodes each season. I am not quite sure how Sherlock came to have a French great granddaughter, but I guess he was up to something when Watson was not around to write about it. Her name is Charlie Holmes (Lola Dewaere) and she is a low-level member of the French Sûreté and more than socially inept. Then she is hit by a car and in the hospital for three days. she stops taking her medicine that controls her moods. Suddenly, she starts solving crimes. She has her Watson, a male intern, and they get it on. And of course the Moriarty family is still around. The crimes tend not to be that clever and Dewaere can be quite annoying at times. A little slow in figuring out the cases. While here though, I will recommend a very good French crime TV series -  Astrid et Raphaëlle that is on its fifth season. It has razor sharp clever mysteries and again stars Dewaere as a policewoman who recognizes the genius of an autistic archivist and partners up with her. Absolutely, great.




Sherlock Holmes: The Man Who Disappeared (1951) - 5.0



This is of interest primarily as the first attempt by British TV to produce a Sherlock Holmes series in 1951. It seems to have ended with this one. Though only 26-minutes long, it was put into theaters. It is based on Doyle's short story, The Man with the Twisted Lip. It is one of the best Holmes cases. They take the premise and expand upon it into a criminal drug case. Holmes is played by John Longden and Watson by Campbell Singer. It is fine for its time and limitations. It is up on YouTube, but fuck YouTube. There were commercials every few minutes. YT is beginning to suck. What a con. Making money on content put up by other people.