Young Sherlock Holmes
Tags: murder, cult, violence, good versus evil, action, romantic, sci-fi

Plot synopsis:
The film opens in late 19th century London one evening. A hooded figure raises a blowpipe and shoots a dart into an older businessman named Bentley Bobster (Patrick Newell) outside a restaurant. He shakes the sting off thinking it an insect. After ordering dinner, however, he suffers a terrifying hallucination in which his dinner, a roasted bird, attacks him. He shakes this off, and returns to his third-floor flat. Another hallucination appears, however, leading him to believe that his apartment is on fire. He throws himself out the window and is killed when he hits the ground in an apparent suicide. The credits roll.The scene switches to a boy's school in London were the teenage John Watson (Alan Cox) is a new student at the Brompton Academy. As he moves into the dorm he finds the next bunk over is occupied by the teenage Sherlock Holmes (Nicholas Rowe). The two become friends and Holmes introduces Watson to Professor Waxflatter (Nigel Stock), a retired teacher with rooms and a laboratory in the school's attic. Waxflatter is bit of a mad inventor who is constantly testing a human-powered flying machine. Holmes also introduces Watson to Elizabeth (Sophie Ward), Waxflatter's teenage niece who shares his rooms and has a budding romantic relationship with Holmes.As we follow Holmes and Watson we see them attend a fencing class. The teacher, Professor Rathe (Anthony Higgins), chooses Holmes as his opponent in a demonstration match. Though Holmes does well, Rathe eventually defeats him. Rathe complements Holmes on the match, but warns him that he lets his emotions get the best of him and it leads him to make rash moves and ultimately lose.We see a second attack take place: The hooded figure enters a church and shoots a dart into the sole occupant, the Reverend Duncan Nesbitt (Donald Eccles). The reverend hallucinates that the stained glass figure of a knight jumps from its window and chases him down the aisle. He runs through the front doors and out into the street where he is run over by a horse-drawn carriage and dies.One evening a suspicious character comes to visit Waxflatter and the professor asks the teenagers to leave the room. Holmes has noticed that Waxflatter has circled articles in the paper dealing with the mysterious deaths of the businessman and the reverend. He begins to suspect that the three things are connected. His suspicions are confirmed when Waxflatter, a few days later, seems to go crazy in a curiosity shop, grabs a knife and kills himself. Watson, who is outside of the shop immediately afterwards, is bumped by a hooded figure that drops a blowpipe. Watson picks it up and shows it to Holmes.Holmes wants to investigate, but unfortunately a fellow student has framed him for cheating and he is expelled from the school. With Elizabeth's permission, however, he hides in Waxflatter's old rooms and enlists Watson as his ears and eyes in the investigation as he must be careful about being seen in the area.Elizabeth connects Watson's story of a hooded figure with that of an incident earlier on where her dog chased a hooded figure through the school courtyard tearing a piece of cloth off its cloak. Holmes takes the cloth and analyzes it. He finds wax on it is made only by the firm "Froggit and Froggit" located in a less than reputable part of London. He and Watson also find out that the blowpipe seems to be Egyptian and related to a cult.The three travel to the firm and get inside the building. There they find a stockroom housing a pyramid several stories tall. Inside the pyramid is the reproduction of an Egyptian temple. A ceremony run by the secret Egyptian cult is beginning. While Elizabeth and Watson watch from the safety of a small hidden room that overlooks the temple, Holmes climbs down to gather evidence. The ceremony reaches a climax when a drugged teenage girl is wrapped up like a mummy, placed in coffin and covered with hot wax released by a priest wearing a headpiece that looks like the Egyptian god Anubis.Realizing the girl will be killed, Holmes tries to intervene, but he is outnumbered and he, Watson and Elizabeth are forced to flee from the building. They are chased by the members of the cult who manage to shoot darts into all three of them.The three try to hide in a cemetery, but are overcome by hallucinations. Holmes ties Elizabeth up so she cannot hurt herself, but finds himself overcome with illusions concerning his parents. Watson finds himself contending with an illusion of dessert pastries that attack him and stuff themselves down his throat. Holmes manages to shake off the hallucination, but then sees an Egyptian with a sword about to attack him. At first he thinks this is an illusion too, but suddenly finds it is real and he is forced to defend himself. Fortunately the cemetery watchman, armed with a shotgun, intervenes and saves him.The three are taken before police Sergeant Lestrade (Roger Ashton-Griffiths). Holmes earlier tried to convince the detective that the three deaths were connected, but Lestrade dismissed his observations. Holmes tries again, giving Lestrade the three darts to be tested, but the detective throws the teenagers out. He is about to throw the darts out too, when he pricks himself on one of the points.The three teenagers head back to Waxflatter's attic. There Watson finds a drawing of a group of men in their 20s. Holmes recognizes three of them as the young Waxflatter, the Reverend, and Bobster. A fourth figure, a wealthy man named Cragwitch (Freddie Jones), is the mysterious stranger who visited Waxflatter. Holmes decides they need to talk to him.Before he can act on this Professor Rathe enters the room, followed by Mrs. Dribb (Susan Fleetwood), the school nurse. Rathe is angry at Holmes for disobeying the order to go home, and Watson and Elizabeth for hiding him. The boys are locked in a room until they can be sent away. Elizabeth is put in the care of Mrs. Dribb.
The room does not hold Holmes for long and he and Watson are off to see Cragwitch. The man is at first suspicious and greets them with a shotgun. However, Holmes is able to convince them they are there to help and Cragwitch invites them in and spills the story.The men in the picture were part of a group that decided to build a hotel in Egypt. The project failed, but not before it had desecrated the cult's underground temple and destroyed the mummies of five young princesses held sacred by the cult. Husband and wife leaders of the cult were also killed and their small children ( a girl and a boy) vowed that when they grew up they would seek revenge on the men, rebuild the cult and replace the mummies of the princesses. All the men, except Cragwitch are now dead.As Cragwitch is explaining this a hooded figure hits him with a dart from the window. Holmes and Watson try to subdue Cragwitch, but he is about to kill Holmes when he is knocked cold by Lestrade who has arrived just in time. The detective decided there was something to Holmes's story after all when the pinprick of the dart gave him a hallucination and he nearly killed himself.With Cragwitch under police protection, Holmes and Watson head back to the school and are almost there when Holmes comes to the revelation that the cult boy must be the grown up Rathe and his sister is most likely Mrs. Dribb. He also realizes they intend to make Elizabeth into the final replacement princess mummy.As they approach the school they see a carriage containing, Rathe, Dribb and Elizabeth leave. They are unable to catch it and Holmes decides the only way to get to the warehouse in time is to use Waxflatter's untested flying machine. It works and the boys set down on the river near the warehouse.Observing the temple they see a drugged Elizabeth being wrapped. The boys are outnumbered, but Holmes decides that if he can attach a line from the chandelier at the top the temple to one of the support beams, he can bring much of the structure down by releasing the winch that keeps the chandelier in place. They do this and it leaves the temple in ruins as well as diverting the wax away from Elizabeth at the last moment. In the confusion Watson and Holmes race to Elizabeth's rescue. Holmes is caught in a sword dual with Mrs. Dribb that ends when her ceremonial robe catches on fire and she is killed. Holmes is knocked out, however, and left lying on the chandler as the temple burns around him.Watson gets Elizabeth out of the temple, but loses her to Rathe (who was the priest with the Anubis mask). Watson finds himself torn between rescuing Elizabeth or Holmes. Suddenly he gets an idea that will do both. Using a rope with a grappling hook he attaches one end to the chandler chain and catches the other on the rear of the carriage Rathe is using to take Elizabeth away. As the carriage leaves it pulls up the chandler and brings Holmes to safety. When the chandler can go no further, however, the carriage is torn in two stopping Rathe.By then Holmes is up again. He and Watson rescue Elizabeth and pursue Rathe back into the dock area. Rathe produces a pistol and tries to shoot Holmes, but Elizabeth takes the shot instead. As Watson attends to her Rathe and Holmes duel with swords, first on the dock, then on the ice. Rathe seems to be winning until the ice cracks beneath their feet. Rathe disappears into the water and Holmes escapes.On the dock Elizabeth is dying. She and Holmes exchange their love before she passes on.Back at the school Watson says goodbye to Holmes as the boy detective finally leaves for good. Watson notes that he expects this is not the last time he and Holmes paths will cross. The credits roll.As the credits roll we watch a sleigh traverse a snowy countryside. At the end of the credits a mysterious figure exits the sleigh and enters an inn. On the register he writes the name "Moriarty." The camera reverses angle and we see it is the smiling figure of Rathe.

Review: What if...well, he did not, but screenwriter Chris Columbus, director Barry Levinson, and producer Steven Spielberg do bring us a fine film that does these things called Young Sherlock Holmes.
Young Sherlock Holmes was one of the best movies I saw when I was a kid and it amazes me up to this day.London was pictured perfectly by Barry Levinson with the help of course of Stephen Goldblatt (the cinematographer).
Intriguing story, not based on a Doyle idea, about the meeting of Sherlock Holmes and his good friend Watson.
Young Sherlock Holmes and the Pyramid of Fear is an unusual hybrid, because it takes the period trappings of a Holmes mystery and dresses them up with Indy-style action and mysticism.The story has young student doctor John Watson arriving at a boarding school in Victorian London.
He was human, respectful, humble, polite, wise and treated Watson like a brother not like the combative relationship in Sherlock Holmes 2009 and 2010.This story took place at a school for boys called Brompton Academy.A dart with hallucinogenic drug made victims see scary things when hit by this dart.Things come alive that attack the victim.
Later he realizes there is a cult operating in this city which is causing the deaths of men that knew each other.Sherlock was in love in this movie which at the end it said the writers did not know what young Sherlock would have been like and that they just respectably put some things in.This film was very violent and tense.
This amusing movie set in a perfect Victorian atmosphere (1870, England) speculates about what might have happened if Sherlock Holmes (Nicholas Rowe) and Doctor Watson (Alex Cox) had met during their student times in London .
When he attempts to get Sergeant Lestrade (Ashton-Griffiths) involved in solving the murders of several men, Lestrade calls them suicides and angrily orders Holmes out of his office.That is only the beginning of an adventure that takes the boys to the notorious Wapping district where a nefarious cult of murderous religious nuts, led by the cruel and mysterious Eh Tar (Higgins), is doing heinous things to young ladies, including - to his horror, Elizabeth Hardy (Ward) Sherlock's first love!
So, he installs himself in Elizabeth's attic flat (though we're all led to believe its in the interests of solving the murder -sneaky little devil that Holmes) and so the dynamic young Holmes and his bloated sidekick embark on their adventure, armed only with the power to look at things through a magnifying glass and saying "hmmn" and otherwise severely limited powers of deduction.Before long, we're led into a web of intrigue, involving an ancient Egyptian cult that largely busies itself with doing unspeakable things to people and dressing up in silly clothing.At the heart of this mystery is the evil Aytah, the leader of the cult, who came to England as a boy with his grandfather.
When prominent Londoners are murdered by a mysterious hallucinogenic drug, Holmes and Watson investigate, uncovering an Egyptian cult operating under the guidance of a shadowy boss.This was an attempt to bring the cult of Holmes to a young audience, not to the pleasure of the Holmes estate judging by the number of disclaimers at the start and end of the film.
"Young Sherlock Holmes" could have been the first installment in a very entertaining series of films for young people, if not for one particularly crippling weakness in the screenplay.The basic story is fine, for a kid-oriented, Spielburg-influenced adventure.
And of course, there's a bit of romance (no, not between Holmes and Watson).Sounds pretty good for a kid's adventure, huh?Well, as I mentioned earlier, the screenplay by Chris Columbus (director of the new Harry Potter movie)is seriously flawed.
In other words, the great Sherlock Holmes doesn't really figure much out.If a second screenwriter had been hired to create an actual mystery to lay over Columbus' adolecent adventure--perhaps puzzlemaster Anthony Peter Shaffer ("Sleuth")--the movie would have been much more involving.
What we do get are seemingly expensive special effects that are quite out of keeping with the world of Holmes and Watson in a film that reminded me in places of the Indiana Jones movies, The Goonies and even Back to the Future.
Throw in a semi-bumbling sidekick and you have what I like to call "High Adventure." "Young Sherlock Holmes" follows that outline and if you are the kind of individual that is still young enough at heart to love adventure films...you will inevitably like this movie.If you are the kind of man or woman that takes everything extremely seriously and refuses to play at all, not matter what it is.
The Temple of Doom-flavoured UK title for this Steven Spielberg-produced adventure—Young Sherlock Holmes and the Pyramid of Fear—gives a pretty good idea of what can be expected: Sherlock Holmes hasn't got a whip to crack, and a deerstalker replaces the Fedora, but underneath all of the film's Conan Doyle trappings, this is essentially another in a long line of Indiana Jones-inspired movies, complete with a Thuggee-style Egyptian cult murdering people with hallucinogenic blow-darts and performing human sacrifices in their underground pyramid.As such, Holmes' sleuthing abilities are more than matched by his derring-do, the young detective (ably played by Nicholas Rowe) swashbuckling his way through the film, accompanied by trusty sidekick Watson (Alan Cox) and love interest Elizabeth (Sophie Ward).
This being a Spielberg production, Young Sherlock Holmes benefits from great production design (snowy Victorian London looks wonderful) and is heavy on the special effects, with impressive hallucinatory set-pieces involving stop-motion animation, animatronics, and even an early example of CGI (albeit very brief).If you're a fan of both Sherlock Homes and Indiana Jones, this 'Indiana Holmes' adventure should provide more than enough escapist fun for the duration.
This is a great fun, adventurous, mystery movie, with also supernatural elements in it, which focuses on a very young Sherlock Holmes, solving his very first crime.It never has been a big secret that director Barry Levison is a Steven Spielberg admirer.
So, the movie is perhaps focusing a bit too much on just the main character, which is also understandable, considering the icon that Sherlock Holmes is.It's a great fun, simplistic little movie to watch, as long as your expectations for it aren't too big.7/10http://bobafett1138.blogspot.com/.
What they discover is an ancient blood oath and a huge conspiracy brewing in the spooky alleyways.In the 80s, Chris Columbus penned a string of imaginative movies from Gremlins to The Goonies and later he directed the Home Alone films as well as Bicentennial Man (yes, I like it) and the first two Harry Potters.
He's one of those writers who can hide a surprising amount of darkness in a kid's film and Young Sherlock is a fine example of his most sophisticated writing.With strong direction from Barry Levinson and enchanting production values from Steven Spielberg there's no denying that this movie looks absolutely great.
Watch the film and you'll know what I mean.Originally the critics dismissed Young Sherlock Holmes as another effects-filled Spielberg fantasy, but that's an unfair judgement.
This film takes its roots from the stories of the legendary detective Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.It shows Holmes and Watson as young boys.
As Holmes leaves, Watson expresses per voice-over (by his older, adult self reminiscing) that he would long for yet more adventures at Holmes' side.After the closing credits, Rathe is revealed to be alive; he checks himself in an inn as "Moriarty", making him Holmes' arch-nemesis.Written by Chris Columbus (Gremlins, Goonies, Home Alone, Mrs. Doubtfire) and directed by Barry Levinson (Sphere, Rain Man, Sleepers, Disclosure).
The cast includes Nicholas Rowe (as young Sherlock Holmes), Alan Cox (as Watson), Sophie Ward (as Elizabeth Hardy) and Anthony Higgins (as Professor Rathe/Eh-Tar).10/10 points.
It may not be Conan Doyle, and how Holmes and Watson meet here is contradictory to 'A Study in Scarlet', but as a standalone it delivers on the entertainment value.'Young Sherlock Holmes' can get pretty silly at times, with the last act being over-the-top nonsense and in a way that is not in keeping with the rest of the story, which took a fun and light-hearted approach often but never to extremes.
There are even some wonderfully strange moments, Watson's hallucination is one of the most bizarre on film but it's great fun to watch and imaginatively handled.Nicholas Rowe displays much charisma as Holmes, with even in youth shades of the detective's iconic character traits.
A combination of writer Chris Columbus, director Barry Levinson and Executive Producer Steven Spielberg gives us Young Sherlock Holmes.
A re-imagining of when Holmes and Watson met at boarding school.Columbus who went on to direct the first Harry Potter film very much had in his mind an almost prototype Harry Potter feel years before JK Rowling wrote the books!In dastardly Victorian London a young Watson arrives at boarding school and meets a brilliant student named Sherlock Holmes.
The plot does feel like an American take on a Sherlock Holmes story complete with a young but still bumbling and slightly chubby Watson.
Its a light plot mixed with story lines from previous Spielberg films such as Indiana Jones The filmmakers want to have reverence to Conan Doyle but as the BBC series of the modern Sherlock has shown, it would had been possible to have a radical take of Young Sherlock Holmes if they had pushed the envelope a bit further and had gone for a slightly different and zippy characterisation of the two main characters..
Still, what works easily wins over what doesn't, and makes for not one one of the better Holmes' pastiches, but one of the better Indiana Jones wannabes.The early section of the film is a fanciful, briskly entertaining imaganing of the meeting of a young Holmes and Watson in a British prep school.
Cox adds nice support.The second half of the film leads in something of an odd direction, becoming an intense action thriller that is at times jaw-droppingly similar to Spielberg's own "Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom." Those that complain the mystery itself is unlinke Doyle's work must only be familiar with the later short stories.
It is jarring for what begins as a light story of two schoolboys to become so dark and violent, however.The real misstep in "Young Sherlock Holmes" is in the two cult temple human sacrfice sequences, which are so blatantly reminiscent of "Temple of Doom" as to make a viewer feel he has gotten lost and wandered into the wrong film.
YOUNG SHERLOCK HOLMES Aspect ratio: 1.85:1Sound format: 6-track Dolby Stereo(35mm and 70mm release prints)In Victorian London, the teenage Sherlock Holmes (Nicholas Rowe) and John Watson (Alan Cox) are intrigued by a series of apparently unrelated 'suicides' which lead them to a murderous Egyptian cult operating in the bowels of the city...Enjoyable - though inconsequential - reimagining of Holmes' teenage years, which blends old-fashioned British melodrama with the demands of a US summer blockbuster.
Some critics complained the action sequences and special effects were not appropriate for a Sherlock Holmes story but I thought the whole film in general worked well, and the characters were very well portrayed.
Columbus: A harsh British school, everyone loves the main character, has a rival, both bumbling male and a smart female as his best friends, and a mystery concerning the main characters.Sherlock Holmes (Nicholas Rowe) and Dr. Watson (Alan Cox) meet as teenage boys in an English Boarding school.
It doesn't get much better.Yes, there were some adventurous special effects that fell a bit flat (early days for ILM).Yes, Holmes is a less than sympathetic character, but I thought, very much in keeping with a teenage version of the well known, adult Holmes (who had a few weaknesses himself, as I recall).Yes, there's some Harry Potter here, but I think Harry was a couple of years after and Cinderella (for that matter) was a couple of years before, if you're going to get into who ripped off whom.However, the characters are delicious, the mystery excellent and the spectacle completely over the top - frankly, if you like your adventure films with more brains than brawn, this is the one for you!.
(Fans can catch him in "Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels," oddly enough.) Still, Rowe is the center of the film, plausible as a person who, because of the experiences seen here, would have grown up to be a loveless, coke-addled supersleuth.In strange retrospect, "Young Sherlock Holmes" would actually be a good double feature with "Shakespeare in Love."  Both are alternate history films that pay attention to what is known (or was created) and so are much richer for it.BTW -- it's interesting that this film was a Barry Levinson/Chris Columbus project, because elements of later works of both pop up herein.
(it even looks like Indiana Jones in parts, with the Egyptian temple!) The two leads, Nicholas Rowe and Alan Cox as Holmes and Watson are superb, and the foggy atmosphere of Victorian London is excellently captured.
I have thought of "Young Sherlock Holmes" as being a very good and fun movie.
A young Harry Potter-lookalike pre-teen named "Watson" has just enrolled in a special boarding school where he meets a young adult named " Sherlock Holmes" whom definitely wants to become a detective yet Sherlock is baffled by these murders and wants to investigate with the help of his new friend Watson.A very entertaining yet underrated adventure from Steven Spielburg ( whom was the executive producer) and Chris Columbus ( Writer of "Harry Potter" and "Gremlins")with tons of great ideas, good special effects on the hallucination scenes including the scene where Watson is attacked by pasteries, the first ever computer animated character on film designed by Pixar and ILM, great acting, nice music score and stick around after the credits for a surprise.
It says that it means no disrespect to the man and this is simply how the people who worked on this movie personally interpreted what it would be like if Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson met at an early age.
The young lads playing Holmes and Watson are great to watch (where are they now?) and the rest of the cast is equally as good.
His name carried great premises of adventures, special effects, and kids trapped in extraordinary situations adventures of a lifetime indeed.But it was the French version I saw and the tile was "The Secret of the Pyramid", so it's not until John Watson (Alan Cox) and Sherlock Holmes (Nicholas Rowe) met that I realized the film would also feature a duo I was very familiar with.
The memorable introduction of Holmes and Watson in the college, the great dialogues involving riddles, and the magic art of deduction and a mentor-master relationship made of fascination and admiration, matched the original books' spirit, and making Watson a chubby teenager admiring the slender, intuitive prodigy is the stuff gutsy screenplays are made of, but then with all the special effects and the supernatural elements, the film ventures into familiar territories, with thrilling sequences tailor-made for the 80's, and sometimes ahead of their time.The film is pretty creative when it comes to the murders sequences and the hallucinations make an efficient precocious use of computer imagery, especially with that knight coming out the stained glass, and these scary and nightmarish gargoyles or pheasants, and we also have investigation leading to a mysterious sect whose setting and penetrating chants remind of the Temple of Doom just like a flight sequence near Big Ben is an obvious homage to "E.T".
Young Sherlock Holmes is a great looking movie.
Woeful, childish supposition of the early years of Arthur Conan Doyle's celebrated sleuth Sherlock Holmes, which finds the school boy detective and his new fond chum Watson hot on the heels of a sadistic Egyptian cult who have been kidnapping young girls for sacrifice, and killing off a group of elderly gentlemen against whom they hold a terrible grudge.Chris Columbus' story (writer of "A Night on the Town" and "Home Alone" - which were both much more fun) is naive, silly and borrows far too much from other Spielberg productions, "Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom" being one of them.
From a loving and clever imagining of Holmes and Watson meeting at school and solving a vicious, exotic series of killings, we're up to our necks in the calculated hokum of a boy's own adventure, courtesy of executive producer Steven Spielberg, assisted by George Lucas' special effects studio.
But back in the mid 1980's, Columbus wrote 3 very entertaining (if unbelievable) movies, all for Steven Spielberg's Amblin company: "Gremlins" (1984), "The Goonies" (1985) and this film, "Young Sherlock Holmes" (1985).
It's a great shame (even tragedy) "Young Sherlock Holmes" was a complete box-office bomb and that the DVD has no special features whatsoever!Final rating: 7/10 "An enjoyable, entertaining movie.
Not a bad film per se, YOUNG SHERLOCK HOLMES has absolutely nothing to do with the writings of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.
It's instead an American fantasy adventure film that imagines Holmes and Watson in their youthful days at boarding school, where they encounter a sinister Egyptian death cult and must battle to save their loved ones.
He only produced "Young Sherlock Holmes" - Barry Levinson directed it - but it's a pretty cool movie.
This is a non-Walter Conan Doyle story about school-aged John Watson meeting Sherlock Holmes at Brompton Academy.
However, "Young Sherlock Holmes" is definitely not as good as the other film.
My other complaint: While watching the human sacrifice temple scenes, it seems more like an Indiana Jones action movie than a Sherlock Holmes film.
The acting is alright with Rowe & Cox both quite well cast.Young Sherlock Holmes is a fun 80's action adventure with a touch of mystery but not that much, it entertains & the central character's are well loved & they are done justice here.