Young Sherlock Holmes **** (1985, Nicholas Rowe, Alan Cox, Sophie Ward, Anthony Higgins, Freddie Jones, Nigel Stock, Susan Fleetwood) – Classic Movie Review 8533

Director Barry Levinson’s 1985 Young Sherlock Holmes is a film that starts with a bright idea and always knows where it’s going.

Screen-writer Chris Columbus, who wrote Gremlins and The Goonies suggests that Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s ace detective Sherlock Holmes (Nicholas Rowe) meets John Watson (Alan Cox) as a teenager at an English boarding school in 1870s London, whence he embarks on his first baffling case – a series of weird murders of British business men by an Egyptian cult.

Director Levinson effectively orchestrates all the required elements for success: eager performances, amusing references to Holmes’s adult life, the splendidly re-created foggy 19th century atmosphere, virtuoso action, top effects, and a slap-up smash, bang, wallop climax.

Young Sherlock Holmes is a lot of fun for youngsters and is highly agreeable for adults too. Steven Spielberg executive produced and it shows in the lovingly meticulous production.

It was nominated for one Oscar for Best Effects, Visual Effects (Dennis Muren, Kit West, John Ellis and David Allen. Bruce Broughton won the Saturn Award for Best Music at the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films, USA, 1986.

Also in the cast are Sophie Ward, Anthony Higgins, Freddie Jones, Nigel Stock, Susan Fleetwood, Roger Ashton-Griffiths, Earl Rhodes, Brian Oulton, Patrick Newell, Donald Eccles, Matthew Ryan, Matthew Blakstad, Jonathan Lacey, Walter Sparrow, Lockwood West, Willoughby Goddard, Roger Brierley and Vivienne Chandler.

© Derek Winnert 2019 Classic Movie Review 8533

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