Without a Clue (1988)

Without a ClueWithout the hat, pipe, and magnifying glass Sherlock Holmes looked an awful lot like Jack the Ripper.However, this comedy about the super snoop doesn't speak to such speculation.Unbeknownst to the public, the character of Sherlock Holmes was a figure of Dr. Watson's (Ben Kingsley) imagination that never existed until this very moment.When a 5-pound banknote-printing machine goes missing, the Bank of England and the British government want Holmes on the case, and no one else.But since he isn't real, Watson must hire an inane actor (Michael Caine) to portray the savvy sleuth as depicted in his short stories.A second-rate send up of the astute literary figure, this spoof shows a darker side to Watson, while adding more slapstick to Sherlock's repertoire than fans may be comfortable with.Furthermore, if Watson wrote the Sherlock Holmes stories than that makes Sir Arthur Conan Doyle a talentless hack.Yelllow Lightvidiotreviews.blogspot.ca

Searching round for a Comedy film DVD which I could pick up for a friend's upcoming birthday,I suddenly remembered seeing a fun film on the BBC a few years ago,which involved Michael Caine in a Sherlock Holmes movie.Tracking down a wonderful review of the movie from a fellow IMDber,I got ready to find out if Sherlock Holmes is really without a clue.The plot:Preparing to enter medical college,John Watson decides that the school would look down on his amateur detective skills.Being keen to continue his investigations, (and to start selling them as Mystery stories to a magazine for cash) Watson hires a washed up actor called Reginald Kincaid to act as a fellow detective.Feeling that Reginald Kincaid is not a catchy name,Watson decides to re-name him:Sherlock Holmes.9 Years later:Sickened by his creation getting all the credit,despite his only job being to stand in front of the cameras once all the work is done,Dr.John Watson decides that it's finally time he sends Holmes back to the gutter from which he came from.Excited about being able to do his own detective work without a drunk actor taking all of the glory,Watson soon discovers that everyone is unwilling to give him any clues to a current investigation,which leads to Watson taking the decision,that he must once again team up with Sherlock Holmes.View on the film:For the screenplay of the film,writer's Gary Murphy and Larry Strawther brilliantly combined sight-gags with a real sense of adventure which is threaded by a charming wraparound Mystery.Showing the Holmes/Watson relationship to be at the breaking point from the start,the writers use the character's off-the-cuff lines to deliver some cheerful in jokes to Sherlock Holmes past (from the opening being based on the Sir Arthur Conan Doyle Holmes story The Red-Headed League,to the movie taking a bite out of The Hound of the Baskervilles.)Smartly taking the mystery side of things serious,Murphy and Stawther reveal Holmes and Watson to slowly start re- building their friendship,as they pick up the clues one by one.Backed by a whimsical score from Henry Mancini,and terrific,fog covered directing from Thom Eberhardt,Michael Caine and Ben Kingsley each give excellent performances,with Kingsley showing a real stiff upper lip relish as Dr.John Watson,whilst Caine shows Holmes to be more keen on grabbing some quick booze,rather than grabbing the baddie.Joining Caine and Kingsley's extremely charismatic double-team,Peter Cook (who edited the UK's satirical investigating journalism magazine Private Eye) gives a fun,tough performance as Watson's magazine owner,whilst a very good Jeffrey Jones shows,that when it comes to Holmes & Watson, Inspector Lestrade will always be without a clue.

Third-rate actor Reginald Kincaid is hired by Dr John Watson to impersonate Watson's fictional detective Sherlock Holmes and thus take some of the spotlight off the author whose place at a Teaching Hospital could be jeopardised by the publicity surrounding his most famous cases. He has tried to discard his creation but the public will not hear of it nor are they interested in his proposed new series "John Watson-Crime Doctor",so he is obliged to endure Kincaid's drunken incompetence and cover up for all his faux pas. Hired to recover printing plates stolen from the Treasury,Watson and his fumbling assistant embark on a dark and dangerous adventure. "Without a clue" is a quite brilliantly witty take on Victorian values and morals and an anachronistic delight at the same time.The music by Henry Mancini is full of Gilbert and Sullivan parodies as well as perfectly in - period melodies.Possibly his most fitting since "The Great Race". Mr Michael Caine is in inspired form as Kincaid/Holmes,gifted with maniacal energy and completely unjustified pride in his thespic abilities.However,just once,in a splendidly choreographed swordfight,his theatrical experience helps win the day as he fences with Rathbonian skill and elegance,"I almost killed 6 men a week - 8 if you count matinees",he quips nonchalantly,backing his opponent into a corner. Mr Ben Kingsley,only slightly more restrained,obviously enjoys this rare foray into comedy. Only the most po - faced of Sherlockians could object to this affectionate and knowledgeable unofficial addition to the canon.

The Sherlock Holmes stories of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle have been adapted countless times into film and television, but never have they been so skillfully turned on their heads. When I first heard the brilliant concept behind 'Without a Clue (1988) – that Holmes was merely a cover for the real genius, Dr. Watson – I knew that it was a film I'd adore. Just as 'Murder by Death (1976)' brought absurdity to the classic "country-house murder mysteries" of Agatha Christie, this hilarious comedy shatters the immortal notion of Sherlock Holmes as the sharpest and most discerning criminal mind in nineteenth century London. Ben Kingsley, displaying a sense of humour I didn't realise he had, plays the city's greatest detective – Dr. John Watson – who is constantly exasperated by the incompetence of his hired stooge. In an inspired piece of casting, Michael Caine plays the bumbling and frequently-drunken hero, who first attempts to track down the evil Professor Moriarty by jumbling the letters of his name into "Arty Morty." This is the real private life of Sherlock Holmes, and it isn't flattering.The British empire is in chaos. After two £5 banknote printing plates are stolen from the Bank of England, the Treasury fears that they will soon be flooded by a massive influx of counterfeit notes, crippling the economy. Dr. Watson tries to take the case himself, having just dismissed Sherlock Holmes from his service for his latest act of incompetence, but the idea is laughed away by the incredulous Inspector Lestrade (Jeffrey Jones), who knows nothing of Watson's little literary conspiracy. Reluctantly, the drunken Holmes is invited back to 221B Baker Street to carry out their usual act, with Watson whispering his conclusions and Holmes reciting them to his clueless admirers with all the understanding of a trained parrot. The prime suspect in the case is bank employee Peter Giles, whose beautiful daughter (Lysette Anthony) may know more than she's letting on (though Holmes has something else on his mind as far as Lesley Giles is concerned).Though spoof comedies typically take shortcuts when recreating a different time and place, director Thom Eberhardt here constructs a classy and believable 1800s London, a setting that (with one exception, concerning Lesley Giles) remains entirely faithful to the setting of Doyle's stories. All he does from here is to reverse the roles, a hilarious device that opens up dozens of exciting new questions concerning a character who has been endlessly debated by Holmesians for over a century. I enjoyed the more subtle subtext concerning the nature of history, and how Watson's (and, by implication, Doyle's) writing has had the effect of revising history and inventing reality, to such an extent that most characters in the film – and, indeed, many people in real life – never realised that Sherlock Holmes was a fictional creation. Also note how Watson tries unsuccessfully to "kill off" Holmes by proposing a new series about "Watson, the Crime Doctor." Doyle tried to do the same thing is his 1893 story, "The Adventure of the Final Problem."