I have never seen Stewart Granger's The Hound of the Baskervilles, which I had heard is probably the worst adaptation of the story to date. But Matt Frewer's (Jim Carrey lite) series of Sherlock Holmes movies for the Hallmark Channel is probably the worst and I say capital, and bold print THE WORST production of Sherlock Holmes to date. Those people out there who have ridiculed Richard Roxburgh's portrayal of Holmes in BBC and Tiger Aspect's adaptation of the Hound of the Baskervilles have obviously not seen the train wreck which is Matt Frewer. This movie manages to make A Case of Evil (yet another revisionist attempt at a Young Sherlock Holmes style adventure) look Murder By Decree. Which was a terrific Sherlock Holmes film!!
I could only get past Hound of the Baskervilles and the Sign of Four. I have not seen either The Royal Scandal and the Whitechapel Vampire because Matt Frewer's overly-exaggerated trying to sound like Jeremy Brett accent makes me want to tear my hear out. And of course they have to add their little anti-smoking message with Watson constantly disapproving of Holmes smoking a pipe. One of those loverly little annoyances of the P.C. age we live in.
Smoking a pipe was the least of Holmes's bad habits.
And the revisions of to the story, not to mention trying to make Canada look like Devonshire, is just plain awful. I suppose Hallmark is trying to make things family friendly. But all they managed to do was make a really crappy series of television movies.
But worst of all was Matt Frewer's accent. It's honestly like Ace Ventura: Consulting Pet Detective!!
If you're looking for a couple of decent post-Jeremy Brett Sherlock Holmes movies, then I recommend Checking out The Hound of the Baskervilles with Richard Roxburgh and The Case of the Silk Stocking with Rupert Everett. I thought Rupert Everett did a decent job as Holmes and actually wouldn't mind seeing more with him in the part. It was kind of like Jarvis Cocker as Sherlock Holmes.
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