The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes

Plot synopsis:
A dusty box is opened at a lawyers offices, fifty years after being sealed. The box contains Sherlock Holmes memorabilia, such as his cap, his pipe, his magnifying glass, a plaque with the number 221B, a hypodermic needle. Also in the box is a manuscript written by Dr. Watson. It records cases to be suppressed for fifty years because of their controversial [e.g. sexual] content or circumstances. The screen transitions back in time...Sherlock Holmes (Robert Stephens) and Dr. Watson (Colin Blakely) are in their rooms at 221B Baker Street. Holmes complains he is bored, as he has no cases to work on, saying he needs a shot of 5% cocaine. Watson says, "Seven per cent", Holmes says he knows Watson disapproves and has been covertly diluting the solution.Holmes, in a bad mood, complains that Watson's case histories, published in The Strand Magazine, exaggerate and embellish and are more lurid than reality. For example, he is barely six foot one, and Watson wrote that he is six foot four. Watson replies "Poetic license, Holmes!".Still in a foul mood, Holmes yells at landlady Mrs. Hudson (Irene Handl) for dusting stuff on his desk. Later he has the rooms thick with smoke from using a machine to artificially smoke various cigarettes, as part of his research on cigarette ashes.Watson suggests that he might consider investigating why six acrobatic midgets disappeared from their circus act, as a recent newspaper reports, but he is rebuffed. The next suggestion is that they go to a performance of a Russian ballet, since someone anonymously has sent them two expensive tickets.At the end of the ballet, the impresario (Clive Revill) invites Holmes, and reluctantly, Watson, to a staff party. Watson parties with the dancers, while Holmes is led to the dressing room of star ballerina Madame Petrova (Tamara Toumanova). Petrova, speaking Russian, offers Holmes a Stradivarius violin in exchange for sex leading to her conceiving a child that might inherit her beauty and his intellect. Petrova says she has read The Hound of the Baskervilles, and also that he was not her first choice, but Tolstoy was too old to function, and Tchaikowski turned out to be not interested in women.Holmes turns her down as delicately as he can, claiming that he and Watson are lovers who are not interested in women either. Petrova angrily throws him out.Meanwhile Watson has been drinking, dancing a riotous storm arm in arm in a circle of beautiful ballerinas. The impresario whispers to one girl that Watson is homosexual, the news is spread from ear to ear, and the girls in the dancing circle are replaced by male dancers one by one. Watson, drunk, wearing a flower behind his ear, finally asks, "What happened to the girls?" and is led off to Baker Street by Holmes.Watson berates Holmes for what he said, surmising that the rumour would never die off, particularly because Holmes is not known to have had any relations with women, whereas Watson has been married. Holmes says he wanted to spare Madame Petrova's feelings, doesn't care to have a reputation with women. Watson asked if he would be presumptious to presume Holmes had had affairs with women. Holmes says "You are being presumptuous" as he goes into his room.Soon after, a cabbie rings at the door and wants to be paid. He fished a nearly drowned woman (Geneviève Page) out of the river, in shock, clutching a card with the Baker street address on it. As the cabbie leaves, a mysterious looking older man has been watching from a carriage in the street.Watson convinces Holmes to take a look at her. She has received a blow on the head and is barely conscious. Holmes inspects her shoes and labels on her dress that indicate she is from Brussels. The card she was clutching is illegible from getting wet, but some ink has rubbed on her palm and Holmes reads the number 130 by looking at the mirror image. She is wearing a wedding ring with the names Gabrielle and Emil, but she appears too dazed to give information, although she speaks French. Watson volunteers his bed and sleeps on the couch, and Mrs. Hudson helps her to Watson's bedroom.Not long after, Gabrielle gets up from the bed (totally naked, of course, since Mrs. Hudson is drying her clothes) but still confused. She goes to Holmes talking to him as though he were her beloved husband Emil, whom she has found at last, holding onto him with passion. She retreats to Sherlock Holmes' bed where he sees on her beckoning hands the letters he could not read from the cardboard piece he had found in her hand when they first meet. He views the lettering, deduced from her baggage, on her palm, she in apparent alarm, viewed with a mirror.The next morning, Mrs. Hudson arrives with breakfast and is Victorianly horrified to see the naked woman on Holmes' bed. Holmes enters from the street carrying a trunk and a fancy parasol. He recognized the wet card as a possible check stub, and since she was Belgian she would have come on the boat train from the Continent and checked her things at Victoria Station. They break into her trunk and find her last name is Valladon.When Gabrielle wakes, she is better and tells her story. Her husband was working in London and wrote to her often and regularly until a few weeks ago. He is an engineer by profession and said his employer was Jonah. She wrote to him at an address she remembers. She begs Holmes to find her missing husband. Quick research shows there is no English company with that name, and that the address is an abandoned building. Holmes has her write a letter to the address, planning to go spy there the next day and see who picks up the letter. In between these comings and goings, the mysterious older man on a cab is again on the street, and sees Gabrielle's parasol open and close, whereupon he departs.The next day they break into the abandoned building, where they find a cage full of canaries and mysterious tracks but no footprints. They hide as a postman drops a letter in the slot, see an old lady in a wheelchair come feed the canaries from the alley, and porters who come pick up a load of canaries. The letter is left behind, and when they see it, it is addressed to Sherlock Holmes!The letter is from Mycroft [Sherlock's smarter older brother] who orders him to come to Diogenes Club at once, and Sherlock complies.At the meeting, Mycroft (Christopher Lee) orders Sherlock to drop the case, as he knows all about Valladon. Mycroft's insistence doesn't deter Holmes, as the Diogenes Club might be a front for a covert government operation. While they are arguing, Wiggins (Graham Armitage), the messenger at the Diogenes Club enters with an urgent message that requires a reply, and Sherlock hears it -- that the three boxes should be delivered to one location and the runner to another.Back in Baker Street, Holmes decides to disregard Mycroft's orders [after all, he is enjoying Gabrielle's company]. The three take the overnight train to Scotland, where the locations mentioned by Mycroft are, disguised as Mr. and Mrs. Ashdown and their valet. In the night in the bedroom compartment they share, Gabrielle and Holmes trade confidences. Gabrielle asks whether he was ever in love, and Holmes says that he was all set to be married once, his fiancée died of influenza. The way things turned out he considers women to be unreliable and not to be trusted, which is not the same as not liking them. Meantime, in the second class carriage, Watson sits next to a group of monks who do not talk, apparently Trappists. The leader, whom we recognize as the mysterious watcher in Baker Street, is reading a Bible open to the Book of Jonah.They check into a hotel at the shore of Loch Ness. The first location mentioned by Mycroft turns out to be a cemetery. The gravedigger (Sterling Holloway) mentions that one father and two children recently drowned in Loch Ness. He blames the monster.In the next sequences, the clues pile up. Three coffins, one large, two small, arrive, and are buried. Soon four children show up to put flowers on the graves, but as we see their faces, they are not children, but midgets. When Holmes and Watson later dig up the large coffin and open it, Gabrielle shrieks, as we see a youngish man there and two dead canaries that have turned white. The dead man has a copper wedding ring that has turned green, matching Gabrielle's. Watson thinks he saw the Monster on the misty lake. Two suspicious porters deliver large demijohns labeled "Sulfuric Acid " to Urquhart Castle. Watson sees the squad of mysterious monks walking around. The trio gets on a rowboat to try to chase the Monster, which is also seen through the mist by Holmes and Gabrielle. Holmes borrows Watson's stethoscope, which is always hidden inside his hat, and listens to the sound of a motor running under water. They gain on it but their boat is pushed from below so they all fall into the loch. At the hotel that evening, Holmes receives a magnum of champagne and the coachman insists he must get into the carriage with him. He is driven to Urquhart Castle and told to go up some exterior stairs that have been covered with a red velvet runner leading up to some tents.At the top of the stairs, Sherlock is met by his brother Mycroft, who first scolds him and then reveals the mystery. A submarine was being developed for the British Navy, with Mr. Valladon on the team. The project was called Jonah because the submarine was to be underwater for three days and three nights. Midgets were recruited as crewmen because they took up less space and needed less air. Sulfuric acid of the batteries accidentally got mixed with sea water, and the mixture released chlorine gas, which killed Valladon, two midgets and two canaries. It turned the canaries white and the copper ring green.However, Gabrielle is not Mrs. Valladon but rather a top German spy named Ilse Hoffmanstal, sent to England with a crew of German sailors, disguised as monks, whose mission is to learn the whereabouts of the submarine and try to steal it. She sent them messages in Morse Code by opening and shutting her pink parasol. They have tricked Sherlock into locating the submarine project, and he fell for it because he became enamored of Gabrielle and could not think properly. When taken out for testing, the submarine was disguised as a sea monster.Queen Victoria (Mollie Maureen) arrives for the christening of the craft with the champagne, but is "not amused" when she learns the details because it would kill people without warning from a concealed location, something unworthy of England, and she orders the project scrapped forthwith. Despite Mycroft's pleas that the Germans are developing their own terrible weapons, Zeppelins that could bomb London from the air, she repeats her orders and departs.Before arresting Ilse, it is arranged that the submarine be left unguarded. The squad of monks steals the submarine and sails it off underwater, but it has been rigged to explode.Meantime, Sherlock has returned to the hotel room, where Gabrielle is most fetchingly nude in bed, and we see her from the back as the Rokeby Venus. He is dejected, not only because he has been tricked and another woman and Mycroft have got the better of him, but because he had developed real affection for Gabrielle.Ilse von Hoffmanstal is arrested, but will not go to prison, as she will be exchanged for a British spy at the German-Swiss border. As she is driven off the hotel, she Morse Codes Sherlock back with her parasol, "Auf Wiedersehen".Some months later, Sherlock receives a letter from Mycroft, telling him that Ilse was arrested as a spy in Japan, tried and shot. She had been using the alias Mrs. Ashdown.Saddened, the detective retreats to his room to seek solace in cocaine and his violin.

Tags: psychedelic, humor, atmospheric, sci-fi

Review:
This is disappointing to many fans, but in fact is more than most of us have had for a long time, as the somewhat choppy film was often mercilessly cut for television broadcast.Holmes in this case is played by Robert Stephens, an unlikely Holmes in comparison to standards such as Rathbone, Brett, or Gillette, but still an interesting choice - quintessentially British, reserved but daring, brilliant yet flawed and faltering.
Christopher Lee, who himself plays Holmes in other productions, plays Holmes' smarter brother Mycroft here, to good effect.The story line does have some inspiration from the canonical stories (the Bruce-Partington Plans, for one), and from Gillette's play (the strange case of Miss Faulkner, introducing an ending that allowed for a love interest for Holmes in the end), but for the most part takes the characters from Conan Doyle and runs far afield.
Elsewhere, in the film, the music is taken from Rozsa's 1956 violin concerto which, unusually, was not written as film music but which partly inspired Wilder to produce the film.The acting is excellent, particularly by Stephens, slightly less so by Blakely although Watson is probably the most difficult Doylesian character to play.
As the title suggests, the film is rather more concerned with characterisation than plot, which although entertaining and original, is hardly an adequate stage to show off Holmes' exceptional talents.Instead, Wilder and Diamond start with the premise that "Watson's" stories for Strand Magazine were a little more lurid than the "reality" and use it to develop a more subtle characterisation than the "thinking machine" of the literary Holmes.
Stephens' performance leaves us with a slightly melancholy Holmes', a man who perhaps regrets that, unlike Watson, he has dedicated his life to pure reason and while the screenplay hints at Holmes' sexuality, Stephens deflects it masterfully, remaining ambivalent and gentile where a less accomplished actor would have been simply camp, and so uses the suggestion to wrap another layer of ambiguity about the character.All in all, Wilder and Stephens combine to make a refreshingly accessible Holmes and the entertainment comes from the interplay of characters rather than pace of plot..
When a bored Holmes (Robert Stephens who also played Holmes on the stage and in TV series 'The Rivals of Sherlock Holmes') eagerly takes the case of Gabrielle Valladon (Genevieve Page) after an attempt on her life , the search for her missing husband leads to Sherlock and Watson (Colin Blakely) towards Loch Ness and the legendary monster.
In the flick appears the usual of the Arthur Conan Doyle's novels : Mycroft (Sherlock's brother , well played by Christopher Lee) , Mistress Hudson (Irene Handl) , and as always Doctor Watson (Colin Blakely).
Production design by the expert Alexandre Trauner is of first rate , the movie is very atmospheric , 221 Baker Street home , the streets of London , castles are very well designed .Robert Stephens's interpretation is magnificent, he's one of the best Sherlock Holmes in the cinema , likeness to Peter Cushing and Jeremy Brett in television.
Originally, the scenes featuring the Loch Ness Monster were intended to be filmed in the actual Loch , a life-size prop was built which had several Nessie-like humps used to disguise flotation devices , the humps were removed, however, at Billy Wilder's request.
Presented as a case that loyal companion John Watson duly recorded but requested remain secret until long after his death, in which Holmes aids a Belgian woman find her missing husband, a mining engineer hired by an apparently non-existant English company, it makes clever use of the rulebook Conan Doyle set down while at the same time undermining it from within.
The title and the plot may seem misleading at first - the first half hour especially seems at odds with what comes afterwards - but in fact if you're a Holmes fan you'll quickly realise that this is as close to romance as the detective would ever allow, and Wilder tells it through a masterful accumulation of small touches that only someone as meticulous as the man himself would notice.
Sherlock Holmes (Robert Stephens) and Dr. Watson (Colin Blakely) get involved in a very weird case involving a mysterious French woman (Geneuieve Page), Sherlock's brother Mycroft (Christopher Lee), midgets, Scotland, the Queen and the Loch Ness Monster!
He's a very good actor--I'm surprised to see him so bad.The movie is very lavish (probably because Billy Wilder was involved)...a lot of money and attention was given to sets and costumes, and they actually went on location to shoot the end in Scotland.
The story, as we now find it, is comprised of two unequal portions: the first concerns Holmes' interactions with a glamorous ballet dancer (Tamara Toumanova), casting doubt on the famous detective's sexuality, while the second mystery demonstrates the efforts of Holmes and Watson to locate the husband of an beautiful woman (Geneviève Page) suffering from amnesia.When little-known British actor Robert Stephens first appeared on screen as Det. Sherlock Holmes, I wasn't certain that he was the suitable man for the job {Wilder had initially considered Peter O'Toole as Holmes, and Peter Sellers as Watson, before deciding to cast unknowns}.
One of fiction literature's most fascinating pairs of characters, Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson are depicted well here in this gem from Billy Wilder, which has a biting, clever and witty script, as well as superb production values.
But Dr. Watson made journals, and as Watson's private deposit box is opened some 50 years later, one such journal now sheds light on one particular tricky case, and one that also delved deep into the private life of the greatest of sleuths.Billy Wilder film's rarely need an introduction, with a CV that contains Stalag 17, The Apartment, Sunset Boulevard and Some Like It Hot, his output, it's safe to say, is mostly remembered and quite rightly is often praised.
Billy Wilder wasn't interested in making any old Sherlock Holmes movie, and this film, The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes, reflect that if only in the sum of the parts that were finally kept in.
And yet, for the concessions Wilder had to make- he intended it as a 'four-part suite' with a prologue and two segments not kept in the film (one or two of these is mostly complete on the deleted segments section of the DVD)- what remains, like Welles with The Magnificent Ambersons, shows more than enough artistic merit and invention of film-making and entertainment to suffice.In what remains of The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes are two stories, pretty much complimentary to one another and almost making Holmes into a 'Pulp Fiction' kind of story arc.
Wilder also has the good mind to cast supporting players well, such as a near unrecognizable Christopher Lee (unlike his Hammer film "Big Dog" of the Baskervilles) as Mycroft, and Genevieve Page as the confused and sad and mysterious woman that leads Holmes and Watson on their story.If there are any bones to pick they're minor: the look of the picture has a kind of odd fog or shade to it, as if the director of photography was coming up with a technique that would suit Zigmond on McCabe & Mrs. Miller much better (either that or my DVD had a bad print).
It's an adult movie for Sherlock fans.It's also very funny thanks to Colin Blakely's Dr Watson and supporting characters - the Russian ballet scene for example - superb mock-Russian voices and misinterpretations such as "Ees not your glass of tea?" Watson's energetic womanising character contrasts nicely with Robert Steven's sombre Holmes.
They are all here in Wilder's most underrated movie.On the site,people complain about the editing,but you cannot put the blame on the director:his three-hour work was boiled down to a two-hour digest.What remains is splendid indeed:magnificence of the film sets -Trauner's work,he who elaborated those of Carné's "les enfants du paradis "(children of paradise)-,intelligence of the screenplay (not adapted from Conan Doyle,achieving the feat of paying a tribute to the great writer while kindly laughing at his hero:Sherlock is manipulated,cheated,sometimes it seems that he's no more in control of what's happening .His deductions are elephantine:at the opera,they use paper swans ,therefore (sic) the lake monster is a fake.It could be a fake lake too,mind you.Genevieve Page provides the love interest and her sunshade is a good stroke of inspiration.Sherlock certainly did love her,because ,when he reads about her tragic demise,he solaces himself with music and fairly disreputable methods.Let's hope ,that some day,we will be allowed to see the whole movie as Wilder had originally conceived it:a great director like him more than deserves it!.
Holmes (Robert Stephens) and Watson (Colin Blakely) take on the case of finding a Belgium woman's husband, against brother Mycroft's (Christopher Lee) wishes.
Despite the fact that Billy Wilders track record was far from shabby, a foolish "suit" decided that the only way to salvage this movie from total disaster was to cut out various key sequences and ruin the 'concerto' like structure of this, probably Wilders most personal film.Intended as a 'Roadshow' movie ,with intermission, the two hours we are left with not only hint at greatness, the picture often, in it's own arch way, achieves the level of masterpiece thru some great dialogue eg:"I'm English, you know what that means,the only thing worse than our food is our lovemaking".Some of the best widescreen photography ever seen ,and most importantly 2 fantastic performances by 2 criminally underused(at least by Hollywood)actors.Blakely was often to have said to possess the art of concealing art and his bumbling, outraged, but ultimately worthy Watson are a terrific foil for Stephens Definitive, sexy, Holmes.This is up there with O'toole's Lawrence or Connery's Bond as an Iconic performance.It often mentioned that this movie is a failure but to me this is, even truncated, Wilders most personal film and therefore , a masterpiece..
This really is a fun, well told story from the lost files of Dr John Watson, who, while narrating the movie from beyond the grave, (ahh a Billy Wilder touch after all!) tries to give the audience and himself some clue as to the real Sherlock Holmes.
In the 19th century Arthur Conan Doyle created detective Sherlock Holmes.After many movies made in the next century director Billy Wilder came up with his own version in 1970.That was a movie called The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes.A beautiful woman is taken to the place of Sherlock Holmes and she says her husband has vanished.Soon Sherlock Holmes and Dr.Watson find themselves from Scotland trying to solve the mystery.Robert Stephens makes a fine Sherlock.And what a fine team he makes with Colin Blakely in the role of Watson.Geneviéve Page does excellent work as the woman seeking for help.The legendary Christopher Lee plays Mycroft Holmes and he's great as always.This is a less known movie of Billy Wilder's production and it's not my favorite.But don't get me wrong, I did like it.I had a few laughs watching it.And the mystery part works pretty good.I know this was something Wilder wanted to do being a Sherlock Holmes fan and I'm glad he did fulfill his dream.This movie is weird to say the least.It involves midgets and Loch Ness monster.But weird can be good.And that's what this is.Good weird..
The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes (1970)Billy Wilder is one of Hollywood's greats, and I love his best movies with a kind of awe.
Beautifully shot (particularly the parts in Scotland), magnificently acted (especially by the two leads, but also kudos for Ms. Page and Holmes-veteran Christopher Lee) and a pretty nifty mystery make for a movie that qualifies as far more than just 'good', but I certainly wouldn't call it great.
In The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes, Billy Wilder gets access to a case that Doctor Watson did not want revealed.
In modern terms, the Star Trek phenomenon is the closest thing we have to it.Of course Arthur Conan Doyle created a man whose private life was only hinted at and he concentrated on the cases with which Holmes always solved with matchless deductive reasoning and an eye for detail that Adrian Monk would envy.Billy Wilder had a Holmes film in mind over a dozen years before this one came to fruition.
The prologue is an unnecessary intrusion (with references to another movie character that should have been veiled);  "The Upside Down Room" is an interesting vignette that adds to Watson's character, but doesn't progress the story and should have been cut;  the flashback of Holmes to his college days probably should have been included in the film;  "The Naked Honeymooners", a fine vignette that is shown on film in subtitles, goes on too long, and good though it looks it's at right angles to the film because it makes Watson to be utterly stupid (he's a doctor who can't even tell if someone is dead!).
All of these segments might've made an interesting short feature added to the movie (like "The Crimson Permanent Insurance" in Monty Python's "Meaning of Life") but only the college flashback would have fit in the movie, or even been of importance to it.Colin Blakely makes a fine attempt at changing Watson's persona (the mold would not really be broken until the arrival of David Burke and Edward Hardwicke in the Jeremy Brett series), and Robert Stephens, a worthy actor, portrays Holmes both poignant and with a sense of humor.
However, this particular set of adventures play out much differently than Holmes feels Dr. Watson has famously recounted in the past.As one may expect, legendary auteur director Billy Wilder ('Double Indemnity' (1944), 'The Apartment' (1960)) crafts a marvelous film in 'The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes.' Wilder had originally envisioned - and even shot - this film as a three-hour epic with intermissions, more story lines, etc.
Still, even in its lasting taught form, the viewer experiences beautiful photography, a brilliant Miklós Rózsa score and wonderful performances from Colin Blakely as Dr. Watson & Christopher Lee as Mycroft Holmes throughout.Robert Stephens, who had some practice playing the character on the stage before portraying the character in 'The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes,' is particularly fantastic in the lead role as Sherlock Holmes.
though i haven't seen every Sherlock Holmes movie ever made,i have seen a few,and this one is much different.i found it darker in tone,and with a very compelling story.it also delves deeper into the character of Holmes,in a personal light.i liked the story and i also liked the acting.i had not seen a Billy Wilder film before,and probably never would have,if it weren't for this being a Sherlock Holmes movie.but i thought his was a well done movie.there's a definite sadness to it that isn't in any of the other Holmes movies i have seen.there a few comic bits.actually more like dark humour.it's around 2 hours in length,but doesn't feel long at all.for me,The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes is an 8/10.
This Sherlock Holmes (Robert Stephens, who along with Colin Blakely as Watson, does a good job under the circumstances) shows very little of the astounding deductive powers which have delighted readers for a hundred years.
Besides, I'm a fan of the Sherlock Holmes stories, so I figured it would be enjoyable.When the opening credits came on, I realized why the title sounded familiar: the film was directed by the great Billy Wilder!
The performances are spot-on as well, particularly Robert Stephens as Sherlock Holmes, Colin Blakely as Watson, and Christopher Lee.I won't go into the plot, as this one is better enjoyed going in blind.
Also had the thought that a film directed by the legendary Billy Wilder (responsible for a fair share of masterpieces and even his lesser output is worth watching) and starring Robert Stephens and Christopher Lee has got to be at least worthwhile.Worthwhile 'The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes' certainly is.
By all means, 'The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes' would have been an even better film if it were released and available as Wilder intended, but it more than makes do.
The Humor, the Experimental Exploration of Holmes "Private" Life, and the overall Theme of the Enterprise is Charming, Witty, and Entertaining.The Films most Annoying, Over the Top, Fingers on the Blackboard Scenes are with Watson (Colin Blakely) Screeching at Holmes (Robert Stephens) and Running Amok at the Hint of a Homosexual Scandal and a Stiff Wooden Loch Ness Monster that a Child could Render a Fake (shades of Nigel Bruce).Wilder called this His most "elegant production" and it is Sumptuous.
There are pretty good performance from Stephens, Blakely, Page and Lee. The script by long-time collaborators Wilder and Diamond gets off to an intriguing start but kind of loses steam at the half-way point, with the plot becoming convoluted and somewhat silly as the action moves to Scotland.
Christopher Lee as Mycroft is inspired casting, and the portrayal of Sherlock Holmes is way more touching and sympathetic than one would expect from a movie that features the Loch Ness monster as a main storyline.Much has been made about the fact that the studio made Billy Wilder cut the movie down from its original version.
Billy Wilder's 'The Private Life Of Sherlock Holmes' ( 1970 ) is without doubt my favourite film about Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Baker Street sleuth.
Actually, if you think about it, it was Mycroft pulling the strings for a good part of this story.Surprisingly, Robert Stephens makes for an acceptable Holmes, looking the part better than his assistant Watson, portrayed by Colin Blakely.
THE PRIVATE LIFE OF SHERLOCK HOLMES is a broad comic spoof of the famous detective's canon, directed by none other than Billy Wilder.
"Some Like It Hot" director Billy Wilder and long-time collaborator I.A.L. Diamond made the most outrageous, if not expensive, movie about Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes in 1970 when United Artists released "The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes," with Robert Stephens and Colin Blakely portraying respectively Holmes and Dr. Watson.