One of the better stories, made into one of the better episodes.
Someone brings Holmes and Watson a Christmas goose and a felt hat that were left on the street after a scuffle. Holmes sits contemplating the hat and Watson rags him a little about all the "deductions" he's making from the ordinary hat. Watson himself, though prompted to use Holmes' methods, can get nothing from it. Holmes then casually lists all sorts of remarkable hypothetical properties of the hat's owner -- he once had foresight and was prosperous but then weakened morally (probably drink) and his wife no longer loves him and furthermore he hasn't had gas laid on in his home. When the owner, Mr. Henry Baker, shows up to claim the goose and the hat, Holmes' deductions prove correct. Naturally. Is he ever wrong? However, the goose's innards contain an extremely valuable precious stone -- the fabulous Blue Carbuncle, recently stolen.
The dynamic duo track down the amateur thief and get his story of how the stone came to be in the craw. Then Holmes dismisses the miscreant, figuring that although he is committing a felony (in the story, it was "compounding" a felony) he may be saving a soul. Besides, it's Christmas Eve and the spirit of forgiveness is in the air.
I've always enjoyed this story -- used to read it every Christmas -- because although it's about the holidays in a way, the holidays are in no way sentimentalized. Christmas crops up now and again, edging sideways into the dialog, but nothing much is made of it.
Besides, apart from his letting the thief go, Holmes is as snooty as ever. And Jeremy Brett takes that aloofness and runs with it. Eg., when Henry Baker is leaving 221B with his goose and his hat, he wishes Holmes a Merry Christmas. Holmes is in his chair, looking at the floor, and without replying he dismisses Baker and his felicitations with an icy wave of the hand. It's in a episode like this, too, that a viewer notices the differences between David Burke, as a more animated Dr. Watson, and Edward Hardwicke, who followed him in the role and brought to it a greater distance from events.
It's mentioned when the name Henry Baker first appears that there's no point trying to contact all the people with that name because the name itself is so common. London had a population of three million at the time. In 1978, in the San Francisco directory, I could find no Henry Bakers at all in a city of 700,000. There was some slight comfort in finding two people who were named Serene Jew.
Someone brings Holmes and Watson a Christmas goose and a felt hat that were left on the street after a scuffle. Holmes sits contemplating the hat and Watson rags him a little about all the "deductions" he's making from the ordinary hat. Watson himself, though prompted to use Holmes' methods, can get nothing from it. Holmes then casually lists all sorts of remarkable hypothetical properties of the hat's owner -- he once had foresight and was prosperous but then weakened morally (probably drink) and his wife no longer loves him and furthermore he hasn't had gas laid on in his home. When the owner, Mr. Henry Baker, shows up to claim the goose and the hat, Holmes' deductions prove correct. Naturally. Is he ever wrong? However, the goose's innards contain an extremely valuable precious stone -- the fabulous Blue Carbuncle, recently stolen.
The dynamic duo track down the amateur thief and get his story of how the stone came to be in the craw. Then Holmes dismisses the miscreant, figuring that although he is committing a felony (in the story, it was "compounding" a felony) he may be saving a soul. Besides, it's Christmas Eve and the spirit of forgiveness is in the air.
I've always enjoyed this story -- used to read it every Christmas -- because although it's about the holidays in a way, the holidays are in no way sentimentalized. Christmas crops up now and again, edging sideways into the dialog, but nothing much is made of it.
Besides, apart from his letting the thief go, Holmes is as snooty as ever. And Jeremy Brett takes that aloofness and runs with it. Eg., when Henry Baker is leaving 221B with his goose and his hat, he wishes Holmes a Merry Christmas. Holmes is in his chair, looking at the floor, and without replying he dismisses Baker and his felicitations with an icy wave of the hand. It's in a episode like this, too, that a viewer notices the differences between David Burke, as a more animated Dr. Watson, and Edward Hardwicke, who followed him in the role and brought to it a greater distance from events.
It's mentioned when the name Henry Baker first appears that there's no point trying to contact all the people with that name because the name itself is so common. London had a population of three million at the time. In 1978, in the San Francisco directory, I could find no Henry Bakers at all in a city of 700,000. There was some slight comfort in finding two people who were named Serene Jew.