The Game Is Afoot! Favorite 'Sherlock Holmes' Adaptations To Solve Your Streaming Dilemmas
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle would probably be astonished and embarrassed at the manifestations of Sherlock Holmes on stage, the big and small screens, radio, comics, board games, and computer games. All over the world, audiences love Sherlock Holmes and Dr. John Watson, and the ink was barely dry on Sir Arthur’s page before adaptations were underway. Famously ambivalent about his creation, Sir Arthur’s detective was a literary equivalent of nuclear warfare in Oppenheimer, a monster that kept growing. Some believe the writer undermined his work with deliberate mistakes (ask any Holmes fans which leg Dr. Watson injured, and a debate will ensue). When Sir Arthur “killed” Holmes in the short story “The Final Problem,” the public outcry was so great he was forced to resurrect him.
It seems extraordinary that the adventures of a pair of staid, white, middle-class Victorian gentlemen should conjure up wild fantasies and desires. Speaking of which, John Watson married at least twice, although as soon as he was widowed, he moved back into the bachelor pad at 221B Baker Street. For Holmes, of course, Irene Adler was always “the woman.”
Going further back, British-born American actor Louis Hector (1883–1986) made his TV debut in 1937 as the legendary detective, the first of a staggering 254 movie and TV portrayals. In 1905, Gilbert M. Anderson starred in the silent movie Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, aka Held For Ransom. Eille Norwood (1861–1924) was a British actor who starred as Holmes in forty-seven silent films (45 shorts and two features) between 1921 and 1923. Norwood taught himself to play the violin for authenticity’s sake.
