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  1. #1
    Extraordinary Member foxley's Avatar
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    Default The Game Is Afoot: For all things Sherlockian

    Spinning out of the Who is more iconic: Sherlock Holmes, or Batman? thread, I thought I wold create a thread to discuss the world's greatest detective.

    So jump on in. Any incarnation of the Great Detective is fair game: books, films, TV shows, comics, video games...

    So there is nothing more to say except:

    The Game Is Afoot!

  2. #2
    Extraordinary Member foxley's Avatar
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    Does “very physical” mean “built like a WWE wrestler” like Henry Cavill who played Sherlock in the recent Netflix film Enola Holmes? Has anyone seen that?
    I haven't seen Enola Holmes yet, but of the actors I've seen portray Holmes, I think Christopher Lee had the right level of physicality. He had Holmes' imposing height and a fencer's build, which implies strength without being musclebound like a wrestler. (Lee, like many actors of his generation, was a trained fencer. Count Dooku's lightsaber style was designed to take advantage of Lee's fencing skills.)

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    Quote Originally Posted by foxley View Post
    I haven't seen Enola Holmes yet, but of the actors I've seen portray Holmes, I think Christopher Lee had the right level of physicality. He had Holmes' imposing height and a fencer's build, which implies strength without being musclebound like a wrestler. (Lee, like many actors of his generation, was a trained fencer. Count Dooku's lightsaber style was designed to take advantage of Lee's fencing skills.)
    There was a story where a huge, villianous doctor bent his fireplace poker into a U shape as a show of strength and intimidation. Holmes just unbent it with a single effort. He was not described as muscle bound IIRC, but rather lean but very strong.

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    Old school comic book fan WestPhillyPunisher's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by achilles View Post
    There was a story where a huge, villianous doctor bent his fireplace poker into a U shape as a show of strength and intimidation. Holmes just unbent it with a single effort. He was not described as muscle bound IIRC, but rather lean but very strong.
    That scene was displayed in "The Speckled Band", and it was Jeremy Brett who pulled off that surprising feat of strength.
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  6. #6
    Ultimate Member Riv86672's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by foxley View Post
    I haven't seen Enola Holmes yet, but of the actors I've seen portray Holmes, I think Christopher Lee had the right level of physicality. He had Holmes' imposing height and a fencer's build, which implies strength without being musclebound like a wrestler. (Lee, like many actors of his generation, was a trained fencer. Count Dooku's lightsaber style was designed to take advantage of Lee's fencing skills.)
    Basil Rathbone was a fencer as well; British Army Fencing Champion twice!
    Rathbone was 6’2” 170lbs compared to Lee’s 6’5” 176.

    I’m willing to overlook physical resemblance, but heck yeah, those two guys nailed Holmes’ height and lean physicality!

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    Old school comic book fan WestPhillyPunisher's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Riv86672 View Post
    Basil Rathbone was a fencer as well; British Army Fencing Champion twice!
    Rathbone was 6’2” 170lbs compared to Lee’s 6’5” 176.

    I’m willing to overlook physical resemblance, but heck yeah, those two guys nailed Holmes’ height and lean physicality!
    Jeremy Brett was 6 foot 1 and also had the lean physique most attributed to Holmes.
    Avatar: Here's to the late, great Steve Dillon. Best. Punisher. Artist. EVER!

  8. #8
    Extraordinary Member foxley's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by WestPhillyPunisher View Post
    Jeremy Brett was 6 foot 1 and also had the lean physique most attributed to Holmes.
    This might be another reason why I found Edward Woodward miscast. He was 5"9' and a very solid build.

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    Quote Originally Posted by WestPhillyPunisher View Post
    That scene was displayed in "The Speckled Band", and it was Jeremy Brett who pulled off that surprising feat of strength.
    Well, on TV. I was recalling the actual Conan Doyle story. But it was characteristic of Holmes, who did indeed indulge in the occasional boxing match, RDJ's Wing Chun notwithstanding. Baritsu too, which seems to have been a real martial art and apparently still is, (though rare). He was much stronger than he appeared, a theme Conan Doyle returned to a few times. Enough so that you believed it whenever he had a moment like that, or with Moriarty.

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    Quote Originally Posted by foxley View Post
    This might be another reason why I found Edward Woodward miscast. He was 5"9' and a very solid build.
    Though that very feature sold the basic point of The Equalizer. That he was a middle age man who seemed entirely harmless...and totally wasn't. Sorry Denzel, but after one million movies where you are an action type or at least believable threat to the bad guys...no one is ever going to buy that about you. He just didn't have the look as Woodward did. And the character was always more a threat from his knowledge rather than his muscles. His son OTOH...

    Suddenly remembering that probably fewer people know anything about Peter Woodward than do his dad...Peter, (Babylon Five Crusade), taught stage combat, and hosted some show back in the day about martial arts; he's evidently a martial artist of some sort. Good actor too.

    Back to Holmes though; I can't imagine Edward as that character. Even as good an actor as he was, he just didn't have the look.

  11. #11
    Extraordinary Member foxley's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by achilles View Post
    Back to Holmes though; I can't imagine Edward as that character. Even as good an actor as he was, he just didn't have the look.
    Hands of a Murderer was an odd production all round. It wasn't originally supposed to star Edward Woodward. In the early 80s, the great Ian Richardson played Holmes in two TV movies (Hound of the Baskervilles and The Sign of Four) and this was supposed to be the third one in the series. For whatever reason, that didn't end up happening.

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    Ultimate Member Riv86672's Avatar
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    Anyone ever watch the Sherlock Holmes cartoon?



    I only ever caught a few here and there.
    I remember enjoying them, actually.

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    Astonishing Member JackDaw's Avatar
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    I binge watched six seasons of Elementary recently...I wouldn’t rate it as super top rate...but I did enjoy it a lot.

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    Ultimate Member Riv86672's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by JackDaw View Post
    I binge watched six seasons of Elementary recently...I wouldn’t rate it as super top rate...but I did enjoy it a lot.
    My spouse and i loved that show.
    I’m a big Holmes fan, and she and i are both fans of Lucy Liu so we had some common ground on that one.
    I liked how they adapted various characters and story aspects from the novels.

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    Astonishing Member JackDaw's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Riv86672 View Post
    My spouse and i loved that show.
    I’m a big Holmes fan, and she and i are both fans of Lucy Liu so we had some common ground on that one.
    I liked how they adapted various characters and story aspects from the novels.
    Yes it was clever the way they transferred so much of the source material in a way that made sense in modern times, and I loved the New York setting. Arguably the central Holmes/ Watson partnership was better balanced than is often the case.

    It’s first modern take on Holmes I’ve seen...will have to give Sherlock a try sometime.

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