Sherlock Holmes: Incident at Victoria Falls (1992)

SHERLOCK HOLMES: INCIDENT AT VICTORIA FALLS is the sequel to the previous 3-hour TV series SHERLOCK HOLMES AND THE LEADING LADY, bringing Christopher Lee and Patrick Macnee back as Holmes and Watson and pairing Frank Agrama and Harry Alan Towers as producers. Despite being shot on location in Africa, this is slightly stodgy stuff, weighed down by a slow paced and occasionally uninteresting script.The main problem I have with these productions lies with the American scriptwriter, Bob Shayne. His characterisation of Holmes and Watson never rise above the level of a pastiche; Holmes does virtually no deductive reasoning here, and could have been replaced by any other fictional history (Marple or Poirot, for instance). Lee is wonderful, and Macnee is great comedy value, but that's all you get.The plot of this miniseries is complicated beyond belief and mired down with irrelevant, extraneous characters. Shayne's unwelcome obsession with mixing real-life people into his story continues with Theodore Roosevelt (!) playing an important role. Despite the presence of such luminaries as Richard Todd, Joss Ackland, Jenny Seagrove, and Claude Akins, this is a disappointment. I can't help but imagine what INCIDENT AT VICTORIA FALLS would have been like had it been written by somebody who really knew their stuff.

On the eve of his retirement to bee keeping heaven, Sherlock Holmes is summoned to the palace, where King Edward requests one last mission for the super sleuth, to travel to Sth Africa and protect the Star of Africa diamond from those who would claim it as their own. The film is hardly of Doyle quality but what it lacks in authenticity it makes up for in a Sunday afternoon mystery kind of way. At 3 hours long every situation is used to the max and the film has some good set pieces. Christopher Lee is not the ideal Holmes, he's a little too nice, he even has tome to flirt with women…..Bah Partick Macnee as Watson is out of the bumbling Nigel Bruce school of Watson's and is quite likable. The film doesn't take itself too seriously however and is played for laughs on many occasions.

This is the 2nd of 2 very long TV movies/miniseries featuring two wonderful actors: Christopher Lee as Holmes and Patrick Macnee as Watson. (The following year a 3rd, "Sherlock Holmes in New York", promoted Macnee to Holmes.) Like the first, it has faults and virtues, although ultimately weighted on the side of the latter. As a side note, when shown on TV in this country, this film and its companion were each cut by about a quarter-hour.However loosely – and it's very, very loosely – this film is related to an old Basil Rathbone film, "Terror by Night". This involves transporting a fabulous diamond, the "Star of Rhodesia", with Holmes overseeing security. "Incident at Victoria Falls" also involves a fabulous diamond, the "Star of Africa". This latter is an actual diamond, although much larger than the gem displayed in the film. That was the Cullinan Diamond, over 300 carats (well over a pound!) in the rough. The Cullinan was eventually cut in to 9 large gems and a goodly number of smaller items. These are all now part of the Crown Jewels.The film's "Star of Africa", already cut and polished, is – like the Cullinan – going to be transported from South Africa to Britain, where it will be presented to Edward VIII. Mycroft Holmes sends his brother Sherlock to provide security with a plan involving a glass duplicate of the "Star". Yeah. You all know how this turns out: we get to play "diamond, diamond, who's got the diamond?" for the next couple of hours. But it's all in good fun, only slightly spoiled by the banality of the script – I found myself on a number of occasions saying the next highly predictable line before the character who had it. On the bright side, we only get a glimpse of Holmes wearing a deerstalker instead of being constantly treated to that particular wardrobe malfunction.As for the rest of the cast, there are few that would be much recognized on this side of the Pond. As to characters, it will turn out that one of them is a ringer – not really a fair cop, since we're given no clue that there's anything suspicious about him or her. In the cast, several well-known historical names appear … such as King Edward (played by the estimable Joss Ackland), Lillie Langtree (played by a fine actor, Jenny Seagrove), Theodore Roosevelt (played by the well-known Claude Akins), and Gugliamo Marconi (played by an unknown, Steven Gurney).The settings for the film are scenic, and the action usually brisk. The train trip from Capetown to Victoria Falls is a lot of fun, enlivened particularly by Claude Akins, who plays Teddy Roosevelt with appropriate and effective swagger and bluster.The script writers may have assumed the viewer would already know of the relationship between Langtree and Edward VIII – but in any event, this fact never appears in plot or dialogue – not to mention the fact that Ms. Langtree's participation in the story contains elements entirely antithetical to her actual character.The story takes a number of twists and turns, although Holmes's vade mecum, detection by deduction, sometimes falls by the side of the road. In this respect, the film falls short of the standard set by the great Basil Rathbone … not to mention the even greater Jeremy Brett.Well, no film is perfect. This one is a good evening's entertainment, over 3 hours long. While the cast is generally average, Lee and Macnee give the entire film centrality and impetus. The trick here is not to mind the various little problems and go along for the ride. It's a pretty good one, especially the railroad.

At the brink of retirement, Sherlock Holmes (Christopher Lee) and Dr. Watson (Patrick Macnee) are sent by the King to deliver a precious jewel safely to England. This job is complicated when the jewel is stolen and an unknown man is found murdered at the site of the heist. The ensuing mystery inexplicably involves many famous people (and at least one other famous literary character) including former president Theodore Roosevelt.The casting is superb. Lee, a well-read actor, who was acquainted with Arthur Conan Doyle's son Adrian, is a fine older Holmes, while Macnee seems born to play Watson -- the fumbling old codger who proves invaluable because of his iron nerve, courage under fire, and quick thinking (the fact that we know him as John Steed makes us know that under the bumbling exterior he'll show grit when it comes to a fight).Where the movie fails is in the story. The longer versions entwines implausible story lines about Lily Langtree and her (absurd) lover, about the niece of the former president, about a wealthy Indian widow, and the precious stone. Even in the longer version, the story lines don't seem to make sense. On one viewing I'm not certain why they were at Victoria Falls at all. And it all leads up to a curious conclusion in the most inappropriate of places. POSSIBLE SPOILER: why is the thief even there? Why didn't he jump ship long before the conclusion, drop his identity, and abscond with the jewel?I'm not a fan of stories where Sherlock Holmes hobnobs with famous people of "his day" (remember, he never lived). Plots about the famous with Sherlock Holmes always come off as contrived. And Sherlock Holmes doesn't do much deducting. He stumbles accidentally into clues. He gives his adage of not making deductions ahead of the facts, then gives Watson an alternative version of an accepted story that's based on no facts at all, but solely on speculation. He seems to make what deductions he makes not so much on fact but on leaps of faith. ANOTHER POSSIBLE SPOILER: Theodore Roosevelt must've had a film projector whose quality of detail was a century ahead of its time. The cast, setting, design, costumes, and look of the show are superb. Where it fails is in the writing. It's an entertaining and even enjoyable romp, but it relies on cliches, unbelievable situations, unexplained happenings .. . and at the end of the day it doesn't make a whole lot of sense. Still, it's a fine Holmes and Watson combination and any Holmes lover will want to see it -- but never the short version.