Sherlock Holmes **** (1916, William Gillette, Marjorie Kay, Ernest Maupain, Edward Fielding) – Classic Movie Review 5816

William Gillette (July 24, 1853 – April 29, 1937) gives the defining and definitive performance in the role for which he is best remembered – playing Sherlock Holmes – in director Arthur Berthelet’s 1916 silent film. It is the only preserved film record of his iconic portrayal of Holmes. He lustily re-creates his famous performance on stage.

All surviving prints were thought to be lost until on 1 October 1 2014 it was announced that a copy had been rediscovered in the Paris film archives of the Cinémathèque Française, which has restored it. The print found is a nitrate negative of the expanded nine-reel French serial version, with French-language inter-titles that were translated back into English in consultation with William Gillette’s original manuscripts, preserved at the Chicago History Museum.

The French had it all the time. It was where it was supposed to be. But it was mixed up with other Holmes material at the Cinémathèque and wrongly labelled. Now it is a famous lost and found film.

Originally released as a seven-reel feature, the TCM print now runs 116 minutes.

Produced by Essanay Studios in Chicago, it is adapted from Gillette’s 1899 stage play version, Sherlock Holmes, based on Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s stories A Scandal in Bohemia, The Final Problem and A Study in Scarlet.

Also in the cast are Marjorie Kay as Alice Faulkner, Ernest Maupain as Professor Moriarty, Edward Fielding as Dr Watson, Stewart Robbins as Benjamin Forman, Hugh Thompson as Sir Edward Leighton, Ludwig Kreiss as Baron von Stalburg, Mario Majeroni as James Larrabee, William Postance as Sidney Prince, Chester Beery as Craigin, Frank Hamilton as Tim Leary, Fred Malatesta as ‘Lightfoot’ McTague, Grace Reals as Madge Larrabee, Miss Ball as Therese, Burford Hampden as Billy, Marian Skinner as a suffragette and Edward Arnold as the crippled Henchman in Striped Cap.

The original first Broadway performance of William Gillette’s play version, Sherlock Holmes, was produced by Charles Frohman opened at the Garrick Theatre on 6 November 1899 and ran to June 1900. Gillette revived the play numerous times over the years, playing the role on stage more than 1,300 times over 30 years, and also voiced the character twice on radio.

Gillette gave Holmes his trademark curved pipe after having trouble saying his lines with the straight-stem pipe he has in the books. His use of the deerstalker cap (which first appeared in some Strand illustrations by Sidney Paget) and the curved pipe became enduring symbols of Holmes.

The restoration of the film was overseen by the San Francisco Silent Film Festival board president Robert Byrne in collaboration with the Cinémathèque Française. The French premiere of the restored film took place in January 2015 and the US premiere followed in May 2015.

It was remade as Sherlock Holmes (1922), another lost and found film, with John Barrymore in the lead.

Charlie Chaplin played Billy during one of the play’s runs in London in the late 1900s.

© Derek Winnert 2017 Classic Movie Review 5816

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