Search - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle Collector Set on DVD

Buyer beware

wisdomstar | Michigan | 11/16/2008

(3 out of 5 stars)

"Although this product is advertised as a 'collection', it contains only two of the four Sherlock Holmes dramatizations filmed in Canada starring Matt Frewer as Holmes. Included here are 'The Hound of the Baskervilles' and 'The Whitechapel Vampire'. The product description mentions 3 discs which is misleading, since the third 'disc' is actually a CD done by the London Symphony Orchestra of 'Classic Horror' such as Hitchcock's signature TV music.

On the positive side, my HD player upgrades 'Hound' (which is the only one of this set that I've watched so far) to a sharp, clear image much better than the 'remastered' Brett collection (which I found very disappointing). The sets and the costumes are very nicely done. The music is suitably creepy and fits well with the action. The box is sturdy, houses the DVDs and CD in their own plastic cases, and will look like a small attractive book on the shelf.

On a more general note, this rendition of Holmes includes a very good cast, especially Kenneth Walsh as Watson. Walsh plays Watson as an honorable man with some humor, who is impressed with Holmes' mind and puts up with his friend's eccentricities as friends do. He is my favorite Watson and the reason why I looked for copies of this set to own.

Matt Frewer, on the other hand, cannot handle the sublteties of Holmes, a man who is brilliant but flawed. Jeremy Brett is the master there, and it's amazing that anyone even attempts another interpretation. When Frewer plays Holmes straight rather than as a caricature, which thankfully he does most of the time, he does well enough.

'Whitechapel Vampire' is an episode that I have not run across in any other collection, including the one in my library. It was interesting to watch a Holmes where I did not know the ending and I enjoyed the complications of the plot. It also had that element of horror in it which Arthur Conan Doyle liked to inject into his stories, but it is my least favorite of the four.

The two episodes that are missing from this set are 'A Scandal in Bohemia', which you can get on DVD here on Amazon, and 'The Sign of the Four', which does not seem to be available on DVD except in a set that is out of print and copies of that set seem to be inordinately expensive at the moment. Unfortunately, my favorite of the series is 'The Sign of the Four'. But that episode can still be found cheaply on VHS here on Amazon.

All in all, this is a set that you may find entertaining and attractive enough to keep, especially if you only paid ten dollars for it as I did."