The Adventure of Sherlock Holmes’ Smarter Brother ** (1975, Gene Wilder, Madeline Kahn, Marty Feldman, Dom DeLuise) – Classic Movie Review 9229

Writer-director-star Gene Wilder’s 1975 comedy The Adventure of Sherlock Holmes’ Smarter Brother is likeable enough and acceptable if you are in a tolerant mood, and Wilder and the Mel Brooks company (Marty Feldman as Sgt Orville Sacker of Scotland Yard, Madeline Kahn as damsel in distress Jenny Hill, Dom DeLuise as flop opera star Gambetti) are difficult to dislike.

The title says it all: Sherlock’s younger brother Sigerson Holmes unravels some clues on behalf of the great man, but because he’s played by Gene Wilder it’s all thanks to chance not skilled judgment. And that’s the way the laughs seem to come too in Wilder’s patchy scattergun script for this comedy mystery adventure.

Douglas Wilmer, a rather good Sherlock Holmes on Sixties British TV (in the 1964-1965 TV series Sherlock Holmes), appears poignantly in the same role, and there is good support from Thorley Walters as Dr Watson, Leo McKern as Moriarty, John le Mesurier as Lord Redcliff and Roy Kinnear as Moriarty’s Assistant.

Wilder’s first film as writer-director-star was made in Britain, hence all the British support players. Albert Finney has a star cameo as an opera customer. The film’s producer Richard Roth has a cameo as a Moriarty assistant.

Also in the cast are George Silver, Nicholas Smith, John Hollis, Aubrey Morris, Tommy Godfrey, Susan Field as Queen Victoria, Joseph Behrmannis, Wolfe Morris, Julian Orchard, Kenneth Benda, Michael Crane, Anita Sharp-Bolster, Ken Parry and Tony Sympson.

Wilder directed four movies – The Adventure of Sherlock Holmes’ Smarter Brother, The World’s Greatest Lover, The Woman in Red and Haunted Honeymoon.

Gene Wilder died on August 29 2016, aged 83.

© Derek Winnert 2019 Classic Movie Review 9229

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