What does a murder on a journalist's front steps have to do with the destruction of busts of the Emperor Napoleon? Lestrade is baffled, as usual, but Sherlock Holmes is determined to get to the inside information, so to speak.
In this dramatization of one of my favorite ACD stories, Jeremy Brett is the consummate Holmes, before his untimely decline. I'd rather have seen the Burke/Watson in this whimsical tale but the Hardwicke/Watson is as solid as usual. I particularly like Watson's pally relationship with Lestrade.
We forget, in the shadows of Brett and Burke/Hardwicke, Colin Jeavons also redefined Lestrade with his precision of speech and the fact that he's not the buffoon usually portrayed. It's just that he's not Holmes' intellectual equal (nor even Watson's).
Bit the light-hearted pursuit of the destroyer of busts, with its marvelously funny conclusion, is ruined by the addition of superfluous material included to make the adaptation darker.
Part of this is ACD's fault. His original story produces a rabbit from a hat at the end with no foreshadowing. This is hardly fair play for a mystery. I suppose the writer(s) who produced this drek also supposed murder should have its down side.
Those parts of this episode that depict the ACD story as written are superb, with a good part for Eric Sykes. The rest, I fear, is only worth fast forwarding through. I invariably go through this episode in about half its running time by skipping the garbage.
The episode does contain one of my favorite scenes in the second series, with Holmes, Watson and Lestrade sitting around of an evening. Without the extraneous background material it would have been my favorite episode.
Holmes' conclusion to the case is still a pure delight. They should have stopped the show with Lestrade's speech. Instead, they went on. Too bad. What a waste.
In this dramatization of one of my favorite ACD stories, Jeremy Brett is the consummate Holmes, before his untimely decline. I'd rather have seen the Burke/Watson in this whimsical tale but the Hardwicke/Watson is as solid as usual. I particularly like Watson's pally relationship with Lestrade.
We forget, in the shadows of Brett and Burke/Hardwicke, Colin Jeavons also redefined Lestrade with his precision of speech and the fact that he's not the buffoon usually portrayed. It's just that he's not Holmes' intellectual equal (nor even Watson's).
Bit the light-hearted pursuit of the destroyer of busts, with its marvelously funny conclusion, is ruined by the addition of superfluous material included to make the adaptation darker.
Part of this is ACD's fault. His original story produces a rabbit from a hat at the end with no foreshadowing. This is hardly fair play for a mystery. I suppose the writer(s) who produced this drek also supposed murder should have its down side.
Those parts of this episode that depict the ACD story as written are superb, with a good part for Eric Sykes. The rest, I fear, is only worth fast forwarding through. I invariably go through this episode in about half its running time by skipping the garbage.
The episode does contain one of my favorite scenes in the second series, with Holmes, Watson and Lestrade sitting around of an evening. Without the extraneous background material it would have been my favorite episode.
Holmes' conclusion to the case is still a pure delight. They should have stopped the show with Lestrade's speech. Instead, they went on. Too bad. What a waste.