Product: Seven Per Cent Solution [VHS] (1976)
Rating: 5.0
A Bonny Holmes Adventure in Freud's Vienna
This film has haunted me since I first saw it in the 70's, to some extent because prior to that, my viewing experience of Holmes was our standard---yet deeply appreciated---Basil Rathbone interpretation. This fulsome breathing of life into Doyle's Holmes and Watson was a complete delight---Nichol Williamson and Robert Duvall more than do the stories justice.Since Williamson's Holmes is lost in the throes of cocaine addiction as the story begins, the journey to free him of it carries us forward to Vienna and Dr. Sigmund Freud to aid Holmes in rehab.Duvall's Watson has since then been my favourite interpretation due to his capturing the essence of Watson's upright, un-bumbling, and throughly splendid character. Then to add Alan Arkin as Sigmund Freud is a master stroke. Only Arkin and David Suchet have been able to interpret the much maligned doctor to my satisfaction. Vannessa Redgrave also does a lovely turn as a fellow sufferer to drug addiction---her absolute trust in Freud is quite poignant. And last, but not least, Nicol Williamson's Holmes certainly does justice to Holmes' extreme nature, his theatricality, and his extraordinary mind. (Williamson's HAMLET, directed by Tony Richardson, ought not to be missed, either.)Others have been less than generous about the film's flaws, but it's casting, photography, intriguing storyline far outweigh the nigglers. It's a beautiful step back into pre-Edwardian Europe (the Queen is still living), and even has an amusing little Stephen Sondheim ditty thrown in when we venture into an upscale Vienese house of ill-repute.I am utterly appalled that THE SEVEN PERCENT SOLUTION is not available on DVD, but hope in the near future that it may be.