Inspector Lastrade reveals to Holmes that someone has been inexplicably breaking into homes for the senseless purpose of breaking small busts of Napoleon.Inspector Lastrade reveals to Holmes that someone has been inexplicably breaking into homes for the senseless purpose of breaking small busts of Napoleon.Inspector Lastrade reveals to Holmes that someone has been inexplicably breaking into homes for the senseless purpose of breaking small busts of Napoleon.
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaWhen Venucci is crying over his son's body, there are coins on the dead man's eyes. The tradition of placing pennies on the eyes of the corpse - to pay Charon the ferryman to carry the person's soul across the River Styx - dates back to Ancient Rome and Greece.
- GoofsAfter examining the shards of the fourth shattered Napoleon bust outside the empty house, Sherlock, Watson and Lestrade head out to the street where modern automobiles are visible in the background.
- Quotes
Inspector Lestrade: [Lestrade speaks slowly, deliberately, and sincerely without his usual arrogance] I've seen you handle a good many cases in my time, but I don't know that I ever knew a more workmanlike one than this.
[Holmes beams with pride]
Inspector Lestrade: We're not jealous of you, you know, at Scotland Yard. No, sir, we're proud of you.
[Holmes seems startled by this revelation]
Inspector Lestrade: And if you come down tomorrow, there's not a man from the oldest inspector to the youngest constable... who wouldn't be glad to shake you by the hand.
Sherlock Holmes: Thank you!
[Then quietly and softly with uncharacteristic humility]
Sherlock Holmes: Thank you.
- ConnectionsVersion of The Six Napoleons (1922)
In this dramatization of one of my favorite ACD stories, Jeremy Brett is the consummate Holmes, before his untimely decline. I'd rather have seen the Burke/Watson in this whimsical tale but the Hardwicke/Watson is as solid as usual. I particularly like Watson's pally relationship with Lestrade.
We forget, in the shadows of Brett and Burke/Hardwicke, Colin Jeavons also redefined Lestrade with his precision of speech and the fact that he's not the buffoon usually portrayed. It's just that he's not Holmes' intellectual equal (nor even Watson's).
Bit the light-hearted pursuit of the destroyer of busts, with its marvelously funny conclusion, is ruined by the addition of superfluous material included to make the adaptation darker.
Part of this is ACD's fault. His original story produces a rabbit from a hat at the end with no foreshadowing. This is hardly fair play for a mystery. I suppose the writer(s) who produced this drek also supposed murder should have its down side.
Those parts of this episode that depict the ACD story as written are superb, with a good part for Eric Sykes. The rest, I fear, is only worth fast forwarding through. I invariably go through this episode in about half its running time by skipping the garbage.
The episode does contain one of my favorite scenes in the second series, with Holmes, Watson and Lestrade sitting around of an evening. Without the extraneous background material it would have been my favorite episode.
Holmes' conclusion to the case is still a pure delight. They should have stopped the show with Lestrade's speech. Instead, they went on. Too bad. What a waste.
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- Jul 10, 2023