A clip from a production of William Gillette's play Sherlock Holmes which starred Frank Langella. He had had success on stage with another pale creature of the night in Edward Gorey's production of Dracula. Now he appeared as another as Sherlock Holmes. The play was filmed for HBO sometime in the early 1980's with the title Sherlock Holmes and the Strange Case of Alice Faulkner. Which is one of the reasons I chose an alternate title for my own adaptation of the Gillette play. I wasn't sure if the people who did this particular adaptation still owned the rights to use that particular title.
If I were ever given the chance to do an film adaptation, my choice for Holmes would be Richard E. Grant.
I am notoriously picky when it comes to the look of a Sherlock Holmes production and immediately I don't like the costuming. As for Frank Langella's acting. I'm not the fence because there are some very good bits from what I have seen of his performance.
Nevertheless, I find him more convincing than Matt Frewer. That's for sure.
But since I have not seen a film of the entire play, I really can't give too much of a critique. And as a matter of fact one of the clips they posted online of the play a while back was actually very helpful in making my graphic novel. Unfortunately, it was pulled from Youtube.
2 comments:
I have that broadcast on DVD somewhere. It kills me that the performance was right here in Massachusetts out in Williamstown. I could have gone to that performance! Ah, well. Langella is a solid Holmes. He's not explosive, like Brett or Rathbone, but he holds his own.
I agree. I like the part of the clip where he pauses and slams the book shut before he explains his deductions to Watson.
It's subtle things like that in a performance I like :-)
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