A Study in Scarlet (1933)

I have admit I am with others on Reginald Owen's Sherlock Holmes... his acting is fine but he does not "fit" Holmes at all. He does not look or act like the Sherlock Holmes we have all come to know. It's not a horrible portrayal of Sherlock but it's not all that great either. This is simply not Reginald's style of character - he cannot capture Sherlock's personality.The story of A Study in Scarlet is a good one! I realize it's not like the book but viewing the film as simply Hollywood entertainment then it's a pretty good story. I like this movie just not as well as other Sherlock Holmes films and it's mainly because of Reginald Owen is Sherlock - that might be shallow but it's just my personal taste in Sherlock Holmes.7/10

Unremarkable and Barely Holmesian this is Best Viewed as a Mystery Movie. It will have Purist Screaming Foul and Rightfully so. There are a Few Interesting Scenes and although it does Creak and Shows its Low Budget Frequently, the Movie Manages to Draw Enough of the Slightly Bizarre to make it Watchable.There is an Oriental Touch brought along by Anna May Wong who has a Seedy, Smokey Knife Wielding Accomplice but the Portrayals of Holmes and Watson are Pedestrian at Best. The Film also has a Familiarity about it with the Story of a Secret Society and Checklist Deaths of its Members.Worth a Watch with Low Expectations, but if You are Seeking Sherlock Holmes be Prepared for Disappointment. The Misidentified Baker Street Address is a Glaring Attention Grabber.

Sherlock Holmes became such a quick fixture in motion pictures that it is possible to write studies on the various movies and actors centered on that character.This particular film was an early Hollywood take on Holmes in the sound period. It is interesting to note that it came out only three years after Sir Arthur Conan Doyle died in 1930. By the time this had come out Hollywood had done silent and sound films about Holmes with William Gillette, John Barrymore, and (more recently) Clive Brooks. But the three best Holmes' of the sound period were still to come along: Arthur Wontner in Great Britain, Basil Rathbone in Hollywood, and Jeremy Brett (on television). Holmes in this version was Reginald Owen, best remembered for his "Ebenezer Scrooge" in the 1938 version of "A Christmas Carol". Owen was a very good character actor (villainous in films like "The Call Of The Wild", but funny as anything in "The Good Fairy"). He had played Watson already, so he was one of the few actors to essay both friends parts. But he seemed too laid back to be a good Holmes."A Study In Scarlet" appeared in December 1887 in "Beeton's Christmas Annual", a long forgotten magazine in Great Britain, which is only now recalled because of Conan Doyle's novella. If you are lucky enough to stumble onto the Beeton's of that month and year (and it is the original) than hold onto it - it's worth many thousands of dollars.It's in two parts. The first half is "The Lauriston Gardens Mystery", wherein Dr. John H. Watson (our narrator) introduces us to his friend and roommate Sherlock Holmes, and then to the adventure (set in April 1881) where he first became aware that Holmes was a consulting detective, and was consulted by Scotland Yard's Detectives Tobias Gregson and "G." (no further name ever given) Lestrade (not "Lastrade" as the movie's cast of characters named him). Lestrade would be the best known of the detectives in the saga who would consult Holmes (and would be most memorably played by Dennis Hoey in the Rathbone films). Here he's played by Alan Mowbray - not badly but with little electricity.The plot of the first portion of the novella is about the murder of two men, one by poison and one by a knife wound in the heart. Holmes traces the story back to the old west, where in the second half (entitled "The Country of the Saints") it is linked to the Mormons in Utah.Most (if not all) was jettisoned, into a story about murder for insurance, centering around Anna May Wong and Alan Dinehart. Dinehart's character Thaddeus Merrydew, is based on a single line of writing in the four novels and fifty six short stories that were written by Conan Doyle. In "The Adventure of the Empty House", when reading a list of people with "M" in their name (he is searching for the biography of Colonel Sebastian Moran), he finds a reference to "Merrydew of abominable memory." That's it! No "Thaddeus Merrydew", just "Merrydew". Somebody concocting the script remembered that one reference. I may add, this was also the last time in movies there was any villain named Merrydew against Mr. Sherlock Holmes.As an early talkie film about Holmes, it is worth seeing - but it is not among the best Holmes movies.

I first started reading the Holmes saga almost 40 years ago.Since then,my search has included all of the stories in the Canon,a great number of the pastiches,a vast number of the films,plays,and T.V. specials,and other works.So,while not considering myself a TRUE expert,nonetheless,I have a working knowledge of many of the adaptations.There has yet,to my knowledge,to be a dramatisation of the original story of this name.And,it seems,for good reason.The plot involves the murder of 2 American tourists to London,both of whom being members of the Church of Latter Day Saints.The framework story then opens,and shows a fictionalized,and highly derogatory account of a Mormon totalitarian police state.Dissidents are terrrorized,nonconformists are murdered,and travelers are slaughtered so that new additions can be obtained for the harems of the Elders.Understandably,given these details,one can understand as to why NO adaptation has yet,and probably never will be completed.Not only would it never play in Salt Lake City,but it would also alienate a major religious body.