Hands of a Murderer
Sherlockian completists will be interested in this ambitious pastiche that neglects innumerable conventions from Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Holmes canon but offers an original showdown between the Great Detective and his nemesis, Professor Moriarty. Holmes (Edward Woodward), vexed by Moriarty's daring escape from the gallows, rebuffs a request by his brother Mycroft (Peter Jeffrey) to assist on a government matter but ends up seeking his older sibling after Moriarty (Anthony Andrews) kidnaps him. The villainous professor--a mathematical genius--can't break a secret code of Mycroft's design, putting the latter at risk and upping the ante in Holmes's longtime battle with his foe. John Hillerman makes a low-key Watson who calmly stands up to Holmes' condescension, and Terence Lodge's bumbling Lestrade actually elicits sympathy. The story by Charles Edward Pogue isn't as good as his earlier television adaptations of Doyle'sThe Hound of the BaskervillesandThe Sign of Four, but it is memorable.--Tom Keogh