I recently ran across some Sherlock Holmes movies with Jeremy Brett as Holmes. There is much to be compared between this Holmes and Watson to Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce, whom I consider to be the very best actors for the roles. This time Dr. Watson seems to be as intelligent as Holmes, caring, but he is no lovable Nigel Bruce. Brett's Holmes is morose and unenthusiastic (unlike Basil Rathbone). Why does Holmes even want to be a detective here? He's a deep thinker and investigator, but he doesn't love it. Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce made their films (and radio shows) quite exciting, and this is too routine in comparison. However, this has plenty of suspense and vampire attacks (or were they?).
This isn't exactly a travesty to "The Sussex Vampire", but it had so many twists and turns and additional characters that it left me confused (especially at the end). The show is way too long and slow-moving. The addition of John Stockton was necessary, but the movie should have been shorter. It isn't exactly a travesty to the original story, but they had to add more stuff since the story is quite short, if not the shortest Holmes story Sir Arthur Conan Doyle wrote! The cast was great, particularly Richard Dempsey as Jack, the disturbed elder son of John Ferguson. By far the youngest to have a sizable role, his stage presence was equal or better than the adults, especially his father (John Ferguson), who seemed nice and caring but had a violent temper. What happens to the dysfunctional Ferguson family in the end isn't faithful at all to the original story, but it is still very interesting and is well made to make up for its flaws.
This isn't exactly a travesty to "The Sussex Vampire", but it had so many twists and turns and additional characters that it left me confused (especially at the end). The show is way too long and slow-moving. The addition of John Stockton was necessary, but the movie should have been shorter. It isn't exactly a travesty to the original story, but they had to add more stuff since the story is quite short, if not the shortest Holmes story Sir Arthur Conan Doyle wrote! The cast was great, particularly Richard Dempsey as Jack, the disturbed elder son of John Ferguson. By far the youngest to have a sizable role, his stage presence was equal or better than the adults, especially his father (John Ferguson), who seemed nice and caring but had a violent temper. What happens to the dysfunctional Ferguson family in the end isn't faithful at all to the original story, but it is still very interesting and is well made to make up for its flaws.